I’ve already written a post with tabs and videos for some popular Hawaiian songs, which you can check out here:
But I was recently emailing with the Hohner brand manager Jimmy Zednik, and because I’m a working musician where I’ve lived in Hawaii for 26 years, he asked me about what role the harmonica has played in Hawaiian music, and since my reply became rather extensive, I thought I’d share it here as well:
Yeah Hawaiians do love the harmonica. Lee Oskar has a huge following here - his Before the Rain album was really popular here back in the day, and still is.
I used to play with a group called the Brown Boys, lol, and every time I got off stage someone from the crowd would always ask me, “do you know before the rain?”
George Kahumoku Jr. & Norton Buffalo did several recordings together. You can see vids of them playing together on YT like this one.
Maybe their most famous recording is Hawaiian War Chant.
George Kahumoku also played harmonica himself, nothing virtuosic, like here on Mahalo Ke Akua.
But I think the main reason harmonica is so popular in Hawaii is because of C&K (Cecilio & Kapono.) Cecilio played very tastefully on several of their songs, like here on their hit You and Me,
and here on their hit Goodtimes Together:
(I kinda think they’re a part of the reason Lee Oskar was so popular here as well, as his sound in the late 70’s was very similar to the C&K sound.)
Unfortunately Cecilio isn’t performing any more, whereas his counterpart Henry Kapono has a thriving solo career (and also as part of the Rough Riders with Brother Noland, and John Cruz, another successful Hawaiian artist who plays harmonica.
This is not an exhaustive list of Hawaiian songs with harmonica in them, but hopefully more people will contribute others. I know Hapa and Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii have songs with harmonica. We can keep the conversation going!