New Opihi Moemoe #3 Slack Key

Описание: Slack key has seen a number of important stylists over the years, artists who conceived a distinctive sound and inspired others, but there are three artists who created the foundation. Gabby Pahinui always gets first mention, of course, with his critical recordings, soulful singing, and multi-instrumental talents. Sonny Chillingworth covered a wide range from frantic up tempo instrumentals to smooth mellow vocals. And Leonard Kwan took the roots of slack key into a new mode with an unmistakable sound and wonderful compositional gifts.
I've been going to school on Uncle Leonard this past year, putting in the time to try and capture some of the details that make his musical inventions so compelling. He was a master of a variety of tunings, provided deep backing for many vocal recordings, but is probably best known for his original songs.
Another distinctive part of Leonard's style was his use of an amplified electric guitar featuring a strong tremolo effect. But his last recordings broke that mold and featured Leonard playing acoustic arrangements. I was particularly taken by the number he called "New Opihi Moemoe #3" which he arranged in the G wahine tuning, sometimes called double slack because it starts from the classic slack key tuning of taropatch open G, then features the G string slackened another half step.
I recorded this clip using a single mic instead of a stereo pair and with a single camera instead of two or more. Part artistic choice and part time-saving because I was packing for our annual trip to O`ahu. I used my Martin OM-18GE in G wahine (D G D F# B D), recorded with a Shure KSM44 mic into the Zoom F6, and shot the video on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. I did all the editing in DaVinci Resolve.