#TBT Richard Ho’opi’i sings “‘Ohu’ohu Kahakuloa”

By Greg Olwell

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re dialing the time machine back to June 2010 to visit with Hawaiian falsetto legend Richard Ho’opi’i.

Filmed for Hawai’i Magazine, filmmaker David Croxford captured Ho’opi’i playing his Kamaka Liliu 6-string tenor in the backyard of his  home in the small village of Kahakuloa on Maui’s northernmost tip. (The original article this video accompanied in Hawaii Magazine appears to no longer be available online.)

As one-half of the Ho’opi’i Brothers, with his late brother Sol, he put out seven albums, and now continues to perform and record, often appearing on the Slack-Key Show.