I have proof that the “coconut wireless” works statewide....not only on Kaua’i. Due to my recent office moves, I did not have a chance to touch bases with the artists until the day of their EKK gig. I was on the phone all day trying to get hold of Napua Greig, wondering if they were actually going to show up. As it got later in the afternoon, I called Auntie Maria to see if she had any contact info or cell numbers. “Let me call some Maui folks,” but she said no one answered so she just left messages. Finally, at 5:00 pm, I connected with Napua at the hotel and she assured me that she and Kamakoa had landed and that Sean would be late but he would be there. Later she told me, “No wonder I got call from Puna, Keali’i Reichel’s partner, asking, ‘ Wea you stay...they looking for you on Kaua’i!’ “ Good ol’ Hawaiian coconut wireless....!

Pull Out the Stops - Here Comes Napua!

Petite and attractive, Napua Greig held the audience spell-bound with her unique and refreshing view of the world, sharing her stories in her Maui “tita” pidgin-English, gales of laughter falling as easily from her lips as the songs she chose to sing -- from very traditional nahenahe favorites, swinging into tongue-twisting Hawaiian meles, soaring into the rafters with her flawless falsetto, switching into a bluesy hapa-haole song, then charming the audience with her sensual hula moves - she covered it all. There is no stopping that wahine!

No hesitation...Napua, Kamakoa and Sean just jumped right into the music with a song honoring the island of Kauai - “Nani Kaua’i”. Sabra Kauka and Po’ai Galindo, added their hula to the opening song. It promised to be a very special evening ahead.

From her CD entitled “Pihana” Napua sang “Ku’u Home Alokele” which describes her home as “attractive and beautiful”. A Japanese film crew came to film “A Day in the Life of a Kumu Hula” and wanted to go to the places that inspired her....she assured them that she did not have to go anywhere else for inspiration because Alokele Place where she lives is just so beautiful. She told them, “Look at where I live...it’s beautiful!”

While in the 7th and 8th grades on Maui, Napua used to sing songs like “Crystal Chandeliers” and “Chalangalang Blues”, but when she went to Kamehameha Schools on Oahu, it was popular and “in” to be Hawaiian. On visits home to Maui, she begged her falsetto-singing Mom Hulu Lindsey to teach her the Hawaiian songs that she earlier neglected to learn. With that she launched into “None Hula”.

To introduce her musicians - her cousin Kamakoa Lindsey-Asing and Sean Naleimaile, both from the Big Island - she says, “If I ever get married again, I have to dress these two guys in black holoku action (typical Maui pidgin). I don’t want them in the groom’s party, I want them in my party.” Between gales of laughter, she describes a Molokai wedding with the whole island in attendance; the bride had 15 bridesmaids, all dressed in black, and there were more in the wedding party than in the guests. Throughout the evening she kept referring to them as my two “bridesmen”.

Kamakoa - tall, young, handsome, wonderful guitarist - sang his favorite song “Pu’uana hulu”, a place on the mauka side of Kona. In a recent talk story session at an old folks home, he met Tutu Caroline who would just automatically, just like a machine, start singing the song at the mere mention of the words “Pu’uanahulu.”

Sean Naleimaile, a professor at the Hawai’i Community College, just arrived from the Big Island after giving protocol workshops for his upcoming cultural trip to Aotearoa. Quite a showman he’s able to take a lot of teasing from Napua about his “moves”. As Sean puts it: His wife once asked him, “How come you dance so much on stage?” Sean replied, “No I don’t!” “Sure you do!” When Sean watched the video, all he could say was, “Ai!”. Several folks were curious enough about this to ask them to stand and play in the second half....they did. He definitely has his moves.

Because EKK is about stories as well as singing, Sean decided to share a family song instead of another favorite song. “Ku’u Lei Awapuhi”, a wonderful melody sung by many musicians, was written by his great grandmother Emily Taylor of Kau. She was supposed to be one of the stars in the Hollywood film “Bird of Paradise” but one day she was hungry so she went out between shoots to pick opihi. She did not watch the waves and got wiped out, fell on the rocks, punctured a puka in her head so she could not be in the film. While recovering, she wrote the song “Ku’u Lei Awapuhi” and the translation for the song “Kalua”. Napua did not know how to play the song so got up on the catwalk to dance. Being a kumu hula who participates regularly in The Merrie Monarch, she was the visual embodiment of the song.

A song about the Hawai’i Island written by her cousin Manai’akalani Kalua for “Ka’iliwai” near Richardson’s Beach in Keokaha, a tongue-twister of Hawaiian words that goes so fast that she had to set her ukulele on the floor to avoid hurting herself.

“When you look for a man, I don’t know what you ladies do, but I did what my kumu told me -- you need to know exactly what you are looking for so if he is not what you are looking for, just pass him by”. So she and her cousin Mehana’okala started a “list” with qualities she was looking for in a man, even the unrealistic but desirable features, but the list became so long. “HE” had to be a hakumele, composer, dancer, chanter and singer, speak Hawaiian....never mind, we going conjure him up.

Napua’s Mom looked at the list and said, “No wonder you two are still single”

Napua’s favorite hula song “Kealoha”, by Collins and Lam, speaks about the sacred “poli” area of a woman’s body which is off limits to anyone. Just because he fits the list does not mean he is invited to the “poli”.

Napua often stopped in the middle of a sentence, looked at the videocams and asked if it was okay for her to share such stories...that her Mom would get mad at her for saying such things on Kaua’i. She once shared at the church bazaar that her Mom and friends sing and play songs in the garage such as “Put the dishes in the sink”, “Happy Hang-overs to You”, “Magic in the Moonlight”. Her Mom scolded her for sharing such things with the public, especially at the church. “Do we have to have cameras? Don’t show this video to my Mom.”

Kamakoa shared “Lei Hina Hina”, a lively song written by Johnny Almeida. He wondered how a blind man could see what he describes in the song. One would never guess just by hearing the song that it was about a woman cheating with a guy and getting busted. In translating the words, Kamakoa gave the mana’o (hidden meaning of the words) - “I am pissed off!” “I love this girl but she is making whoopee with this no good son-of-a-gun” “...got busted because of the brightness of the moon!” “I am raging and going nuts!”

Before the break, in her characteristically charming way, she plugs her CD, “I hear the artist is a single parent who is trying to build her house in Hawaiian homelands.” Napua’s CD “Pihana” translates into “feeling fulfilled”. On the eve of her 34th birthday, this ‘92 grad of Kamehameha School shares her many blessings - teaching at Kamehameha during the day and hula halau at night, her children and family mean everything to her and they are all part of her life.

Napua asked herself what can she give her sister for her birthday to show her how much she means to me; so she wrote a mele for her sister. One of the greatest gifts in Hawaiian culture is to write a mele for someone. She is very picky, has everything and gets everything she wants so it’s difficult to give her anything. “Lawakua” translates into her sister being her backbone or spine; being opposites they make the perfect match. She’s tall and quiet while Napua is short and loud...but they complement each other. Her sister is a nature girl who revels in the beauty that is all around her. She translated the words and shared her feelings for her sister which, even two years after she wrote it, brings tears to her eyes.

As if that wasn’t enough, Bianca Nei, a beautiful young woman in the audience, came up and danced a hula noho (sit-down hula) to Napua’s song. It must mean a lot of have a stranger actually share a hula to a song that you wrote. Bianca’s companion, Kelii Kanei had choreographed the hula. Napua shared with the audience how difficult it was to do a hula noho, a genre of dancing often reserved for high ranking ali’i or akua, dancing with legs folded under you on the hard floor with the bootie held four inches above the heel. “Oweeee!”

This same hula will be performed at the Merrie Monarch exhibition night by the halau of one of her own kumus, the illustrious Johnny Lum Ho. In preparing the hula, Johnny called her often to check on the mana’o of the song; she gave him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted in the choreography -- “cartwheels, summersaults, splits...you the kumu, take it away!” she told him. This will be something to see.

She then sang an intriguing song by her cousin which starts like a chant and soars into a beautiful melody; it’s a song about “young love”. Her description of puppy love sounds all too familiar for everyone.

Hapa-haole songs represent a whole era of songs popular in Hawai’i. A Keiki hula competition in Maui focuses on hapa-haole songs. R. Alec Anderson’s “Blue Lei” delivered in blues style, showed Napua’s versatility.

“Nani Ohala”, the song that she shared with the ukulele gang at the beginning of the evening was written about a place in Japan. She was missing her children so much while in Japan; songs seem to come out when you are either very happy or sad.

“Something big must be happening up there because we are losing all the great cooks and musicians -- Uncle Duke, Aunty Genoa, Uncle Raymond -- they all leaving us at the same time.” Aunty Genoa Keawe who performed at the Punana Leo E Ho’omao a year ago was to perform a few numbers after Napua. As she approached in her wheelchair, she stopped and asked Napua, “Was that you singing?” Napua hesitated, wondering if she was going to get scolded and was afraid she would just break down and cry if Aunty did scold her.

“That big voice came out of your small body? You know... when they was wheeling me in, I heard the voice and thought to myself, that can’t be me because I’m right here!”

“That was a WOW moment for me!” She really wanted to Aloha Aunty Genoa for her willingness to always share with everyone....and then she launched into a falsetto song made famous by Aunty Genoa. What an amazing voice!

“Imi Au I’a ‘Oe”, a song often sang at funerals, was their last song. Napua danced. She said they are trying new things that they never tried before because the Kaua’i audience is so awesome and they would be willing to come back anytime -- graduation parties? birthday parties? baby luau? wedding? dinner?...or even just for food!

“Hawai’i Aloha”, the song that we always sing to end the evening, was given special attention by translating some of the phrases....something that no one else had done.

Napua moved others to do something that they had never done before. From the back of the room, three Hawaiians - Hale Mawae, Wayne Harada, Sabra Kauka - approached the artists with chants and then sang the Mahalo Song; each went up to present their ho’okupu to Napua, Sean and Kamakoa. They showed the appreciation we all felt for a very special evening.

Kainani Kahaunale, who now lives on the Big Island, shares bio about Napua’s musicians:

Sean is actually a relative - he comes from the Na'e'a line of Kalihiwai. His tutu Kapule Na'e'a and my tutu Makaleka Na'e'a Kaluahine Apaka (my beloved great-grandma "Wawa" Rev. Margaret Panui's mom) are sisters. He is my fellow bandmate in Kahikina and enhanced "Na'u 'oe" with his in-the-blood bass and haku mele skills. We have been playing music together for about 10 years now. He is a part of many award winning CD projects including all of Kekuhi Kanahele's, "Na'u 'Oe" & "Cronies". Sean is an awesome haku mele. I wish I could be there to hear the latest and the earliers. We always get gooooooood fun when we jam. Unreal.

"Kamakoa, well..... what can I say.... amazing on the guitar, Hawaiian bass, lovely leo (I hope he sings "Pu'uanahulu"), drums and a total natural in anything musical. Everyone wants Kamakoa in their line-up. Everytime we play together, we have a blast...Ok, pa'ani Kamakoa! He also teaches Hawaiian music at UH Hilo and is featured on the CDs of Napua, Aaron Sala, Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole among many others..."

We just enjoyed a real Kaua’i style kanikapila with the “Kama’ainas” on March 10.

Upcoming in March and April:

March 17 - We will have Stephen Inglis and Makana; March 24 - Ozzie Kotani and Danny Carvalho; March 31 - Paul Togioka, Dolly Kanekuni and Brent Eynon; April 7 - Aaron Sala, known as The New Traditionalist, will be our last Monday EKK presenter.

April 13 - EKK ends with a Finale Concert at KCC PAC featuring Aaron Mahi, Dennis and David Kamakahi, Natalie A’i Kamau’u with Iolani Kamau’u and Chad A’i, and the Ladies of Kapu Kinimaka’s Na Hula O Kaohikukapulani.

(s) Carol Kouchi Yotsuda, www.gardenislandarts.org -- “Celebrating 31 years of bringing ARTS to the people and people to the ARTS”

E Kanikapila Kakou 2008 -- EKK Silver Anniversary -- Hawaiian Music Program is funded in part by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, the County of Kaua’i Office of Economic Development, and Garden Island Arts Council supporters. Space made available by Island School.

Garden Island Arts Council programs are supported in part by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of Hawai’i and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.