Night Moon - Po Mahina

Description

Product Description Four years after his Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning debut album on Dancing Cat, Cyril returns with a second stunning mix of twelve Hawaiian standards-seven played as slack key instrumentals and five with his warm, heartfelt vocals accompanied only by his guitar. On PO MAHINA, Cyril weaves musical magic evocative of a moonlit night in Hawai'i. Once more, he displays why he is considered one of Hawai'i's greatest slack key guitarists in history. Review Cyril Pahinui's second album of the year is also his second for George Winston's magnificent Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters series. Any of these albums is a perfect introduction to slack key. "Night Moon" is a perferct introduction to one of the best of the living slack-key artists. As in his first Dancing Cat album, the Hoku Award-winning "6 & 12 String Slack Key Guitar" Pahinui performs as a vocalist as well as an instrumentalist. The title song is presented once with lyrics and once without; a different tuning is used for each. Pahinui also sings during his 7 1/2 minute rendition of "Mauna Loa." His skill at creating variations on a musical theme make this number asn instrumental highlight as well. "Hi'ilawe" is best known as his father's musical signature, but to the extent that a song can be passed down from one generation to the next it is his musical signature as well. He sings it as a brief spiritual reunion with his father. A 16-page booklet provides biographical and cultural information, explains the significance of each song, and gives the tunings. The cover art alone gives record store browsers a good idea of who Pahinui is and what makes slack key important. --Honolulu Star Bulletin