A Little Peace for You: Watch Hui Aloha, Featuring Martin Pahinui, Play ‘Pu’u Anahulu’

Heres a soothing balm for all you stressed out, hunkered down, sheltering in place souls—in other words all of us! Many of you are no doubt familiar with the short-lived Hawaiian traditional group Hui Aloha, who put out just one magnificent, self-titled album on Dancing Cat Records way back in 1999, and toured a little bit (I caught them Berkeley and it remains the greatest Hawaiian music concert I’ve ever seen). What a fabulous quartet: the late Dennis Kamakahi on slack key, his son David Kamakahi on uke George Kuo on double-neck (6- and 12-string) guitar, and the late Martin Pahinui on bass.

I only recently stumbled on this wonderful video of them in action, with Martin Pahinui singing lead vocals on a version of the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) classic “Pu’u Anahulu,” which was first popularized by Martin’s father, the legendary Gabby Pahinui, in the mid-1970s. It features a really nice solo by David Kamakahi, who will be featured in an interview in an upcoming issue of Ukulele magazine! David is a longtime member of the outstanding traditional Hawaiian trio Waipuna. —Blair Jackson