Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress
in Washington D.C. Thea Austen: The Homegrown Series is a series
of performances featuring the very best of traditional music
and dance from around the nation.
The Folklife Center works collaboratively
with the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center
to bring you these concerts.   We also work with the many talented

and dedicated state folklorists around the country.
They help identity and help us bring
to D.C. the best artists from around the country.
Today we're presenting a wonderful group of Hawaiian musicians
and dancers, led by guitarist Gary Haleamau, and I wanted to tell you
that his wife, Sheldeen, who's also performing, made this beautiful lei,
and made the leis that everyone is wearing on stage just moments ago.
So to introduce you to the performers
and tell you a little bit more about their tradition,
let me introduce Rebecca Snetselaar, Folklife Program Associate
at the Nevada Arts Council.   Thank you.

[applause]   Rebecca Snetselaar: Thanks, Thea.

Good afternoon and welcome.   I'm here as a representative

of the Nevada Arts Council's Folklife Program,
with support from the State of Nevada and the National Endowment
for the Arts, we encourage artistic excellence
and support the traditional arts in many ways.
These include apprenticeships with master artists, heritage awards
and professional development grants for traditional arts organizations.
We're also developing an online roster of folk artists who live
in Nevada and are available for public programs
and performances throughout the state.
Our featured performer today, Gary Haleamau, learned his art,
slack-key guitar, from friends and family in Hawaii
when he was growing up, and now he's undertaken an apprenticeship project
in Las Vegas to pass what he knows on to his son,
Currents [spelled phonetically], so the next time you see this group,
there may be another family member with them on this stage.
Our traditional arts in Nevada are varied and diverse.
We have Piyu, Shoshoni, and Washoe basket makers; Chinese lion dancers;
Ukrainian egg artists; Basque poets, raw-hide graters,
and that's just a little sampling.
Nevada's landscape encompasses vast reaches of desert and mountains,
rural communities that are very isolated, and it also has one
of the fastest growing and most cultural diverse cities
in the United States: Viva Las Vegas, baby.
[laughter] Visitors often ask me: What's it like to live there?
If you go exploring off the strip, you might find yourself, as I have,
eating spam and rice wrapped in seaweed while watching a succession
of really talented dancers
and musicians celebrating Hawaii's lei day in May
in a huge parking lot behind the California Club.
You might find yourself cheering for the local's team in --
that's competing in the Hawaii outrigger canoe races
that are held now at Lake Las Vegas every year.
Or you may find yourself savoring the flavor of the islands
at an annual festival organized by the Hawaiian Civic Club.
There are many other things to see and do in Las Vegas,
but if you visit, take a look off the strip
and you might be surprised at what you find.
You just might hit the jackpot in Las Vegas and catch a performance
like the group that we're about to enjoy right now.
I'm proud to present Gary Haleamau and his band, Gary,
his lovely wife Sheldeen, Willie Lau,
and Bobby Yevon [spelled phonetically].
Enjoy.   [applause]

[Hawaiin singing]   [music and Hawaiin singing]

[applause]
Gary Haleamau: You know it's an honor for us to be here,
today to share our music with you.
We invite you to sit back and just relax.
Enjoy yourself as we share with you a little bit of Hawaii.
This next song was written by the Reverend Dennis Kamakahi.
And he was -- written this song in honor of the lei-makers,
or those that would enjoy the kui or the haku style of lei-making.
And he compares the beauty of the fern,
the pompai [spelled phonetically], the palama [spelled phonetically],
and he says there is nothing that compares to it in the city,
except a beautiful young lady.   [music and Hawaiian singing]

[applause]
We share this next song with you as a love song.
A love song, [Hawaiian] there is none that compares to you,
for I have gotten so acquainted and acquired to your presence
and to your smell, that nothing in this world can ever compare.
And we send this song out to all of you -- beautiful song [Hawaiian].
[music and Hawaiian singing]
Ladies and gentlemen, a big hand for Ms. Haleamau.
[applause]   [music and Hawaiian singing]

[applause]
Oh, it's so wonderful to see such a --
have a wonderful audience to perform to in the middle of the day --
beautiful day I should mention.
I would like to say aloha to some of our friends, Ohana, Mana,
K'mana [spelled phonetically], Liz.   Hi Liz, long time museum friend.

[Laughs]
We'll take you to the Island of O'ahu.
This song speaks of a traveler who says that,
"I've been to a melolee [spelled phonetically], on an elephant.
And then I've been down to the zoo,
but then I've also ridden an airplane to San Francisco.
We feature the beautiful voice of Sheldeen [Hawaiian] as we share
with you a song entitled "Milo Lee i" [spelled phonetically] .
[music with Hawaiian singing]
Ladies and gentlemen, a big hand for [Hawaiian].
[applause]   [music with Hawaiian singing]

One more time from the top.   Here we go.

[music with Hawaiian singing]   [applause]

Ladies and gentlemen, big hand for [Hawaiian]
[music]
We now travel along to the island of Kauai.
A song written by the late [Hawaiian].
She's written this song
for the Malina family [spelled phonetically], and the song's
of the calmness or the gentleness or the hospitality
that the family has shown her, and she uses the different flowers
of the forest, veleyhua [spelled phonetically]
and the plopolife fern [spelled phonetically], and the mokihana,
and she compares the fragrance of the mokihana
to their expressive beauty that they have.
A beautiful song entitled "Aloha Cowa'ee" [spelled phonetically],
as we feature the beautiful voice of Uncle Willie.
[music with Hawaiian singing]   [applause]

[music]
You know this time we take you to the big island of Hawa'ii.
We'd like to dedicate this song to our ohana,
right here, that came in early.   How are you guys?

[Laughs] Mahalo.   Lunch time, yeah?

Perfect. They're still waiting for lunch, though.
[Laughs] Anyway, we take you
to a beautiful place called Waipi'o Valley.
A love song that speaks of [Hawaiian]
which are the two waterfalls
that make the beautiful falls of Hi'ilawe.
And, you know, as they say in Hawa'ii, if you keep your hands --
or your eyes on the hands, and let the dancer tell the story --
ladies and gentlemen, a big hand for Sheldeen.
[applause]   [music with Hawaiian singing]

Beautiful Hulu stylings of Sheldeen.   Mahalo.

[applause]   [pause]

Sheldeen Haleamau: What an honor and a privilege
to be here this afternoon with you.   You're a great crowd.

[Laughs] I must say, give yourselves a hand, please.
[applause]
You know, I'm so privileged to have the companionship of a man who is
so passionate about his music and his playing.
At a young age Gary grew up amongst not only his father but a lot
of his family that kept the tradition of Hawaiian slack-key.
And we -- you know, he's part Portuguese --
Male Speaker: [unintelligible] Portuguese!
[laughter] Female Speaker: He is part Portuguese, half Portuguese.
And we give tribute to the Portuguese,
who brought over the guitar to the Hawaiian Islands.
And, you know, they came over with the Paniolo and they taught them how
to do a lot of things, but they left in --
and the Hawaiians were left like, "Now, what do we do?
How do we tune this instrument?"
So they fiddled around with it and, you know, slapped the keys
and found their own tunings.
So I present to you -- he's going to do a few numbers
in the slack-key tunings.
One called "Kaveel'ii" [spelled phonetically].
This he wrote himself.   [music]

[applause]   Gary Haleamau: Mahalo.

[music]
You know as I was growing up on the big island of Hawa'ii,
I was inspired by many, many great slack-key artists
such as [Hawaiian names].   Just so many, there is so many --

even there is so many slack-key artists that everyone --
people have not heard of.
Like [Hawaiian names], and they've inspired me to see --
just a little story on the side.
Back in the old days, they would never sit down
and actually teach you, they would hand you a guitar
and they'd say, "watch."   That's it.

Watch. Just like when the Portuguese came to Hawa'ii.
When King Kamehameha back in the 1800s brought the Portuguese
and the Mexican cowboys to help control the overpopulation
of cattle, they brought their guitars
and they're beautiful music with them.
But like Sheldeen said, they forgot to teach the Hawaiians how to tune.
Well, anyway, they picked up the guitar and they played
around with it, and it's actually more known in the western world
as the bluegrass tuning, which is an open G. So my philosophy
of the whole idea is that you take a natural key
and you alternate the tuning of the key
to fit a chord and you got slack-key.
Share with you one more number that I learned growing up as a young boy.
Song entitled "The Finger Exercise."   [music]

[applause]   Sheldeen Haleamau: Smokin'.

[laughter] So blessed, yeah?
Not even my fingers can move that fast.
I'm looking at him like, wow, that's amazing -- so amazing.
Anyway, this next number we'd like to do
for you is called "Green Rose Hula."   They call this the leafy rose.

It's green in color, and it looks like little,
little leaves all clustered together,
but this beautiful mele also speaks of love.
Like the rose, it symbolizes love.
It's so awesome because of our Hawaiian culture --
our Hawaiian people were poetic in how they wrote.
We call it cowana [spelled phonetically].
Cowana is an underlying meaning to the literal meaning.
And we present to you, "The Green Rose Hula."
[music with Hawaiian singing]   [applause]

[music]
This next number we do for you is called "Ahi Wela."
Ahi means fire.   Wela is hot.

This mele talks about a hot, burning, love for someone.
[Laughs] But this mele also is a medley with a song entitled
"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
How it came about is this woman, while a Russian ship was docked
on O'ahu, overheard this melody -- this melody, and the melody sounded
like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in Russian.
It's not your original twinkle, twinkle.
But this is how it goes.   [music with Hawaiian singing]

Twinkle, Twinkle little star How I wonder where you are
Up above the world so high Like a diamond in the sky Twinkle,
twinkle little star How I wonder where you are Up above the world
so high Like a diamond in the sky   [Hawaiian singing]

[applause]
Gary Haleamau: We're going to, again,
feature the beautiful hula styling of Sheldeen
as we take you to the island of O'ahu.
[music with Hawaiian singing]   [applause]

Mohala. Thank you.   [music]

You know, a few years ago I had the privilege of composing a mele
with my Auntie K'ala Lindsay [spelled phonetically].
The song talks about the training area on the big island of Hawa'ii,
a military training camp called [Hawaiian].
It speaks of the beautiful lava flow off the island [unintelligible].
And [unintelligible] with the smooth lava.
Now we compare that -- the hidden meaning to the song is
as you would camp compare it to the smooth, beautiful body
of the earth, beautiful loved one.   Something like this:

[music with Hawaiian singing]   [applause]

You know, before we do our last number we'd
like to give a special mahalo
to Nevada Arts Council, Rebecca Snetselaar.
Did I do it correct?   Okay. Insisto Rebecco.

[Laughs] And of course to the Library of Congress
and the Kennedy Center and mahalo for so much,
for giving us the opportunity to come and share with you the gift
that we were blessed with.
And, you know, when they first asked me to represent Nevada
and I sat there for a moment and I said, "Wait a minute.
Nevada? Hawaiian music?"   Then I thought about it, you know.

Nevada recently -- the census said that there are over 100,000 families
from Hawaii there -- that moved to Nevada.
So now they sort of call it the ninth island.
It's labeled as the ninth island.
And, you know, I remember first moving there, we were like Gary who?
Or Sheldeen who?
And we were actually feeling really homesick, but now you can't even go
into a supermarket without bumping into somebody from Hawaii.
Everywhere you go you'll notice the Hawaiian.
They all got shorts, rubber slippers, tank top.
And when you walk into the store they go like this.
[laughter] You know they're from Hawaii.
So we say, well you know, the good thing about is
that the Hawaiians are versatile.
So we wanted to take the opportunity to share with you something
that is familiar or that would represent Nevada in a way,
because Nevada is a cowboy country.
So we're going to share this song with all of you.
[music]
I went down to Texas to learn how to yodel.
This is the way they [yodeling] This is the way they [yodeling]
[yodeling]   [unintelligible]

[yodeling]   [applause]

Mahalo, thank you.   [Hawaiian]

[applause]   [music]

Whew, let me breathe first.
[laughter]   [music]


Anyway, we're going to do for you one last number.
Again, mahalo, especially to all of you for coming out,
taking time out of your lunch and out
of you busy schedules here, this busy city.
We really, really appreciate.
Ladies and gentlemen, on Ukulele, Mr. Willy Lau.
[applause]   Willy Lau: Mahalo, thank you.

Mahalo
Gary Haleamau: On bass guitar, Mr. Bobby Yevan.
Bobby Yevan: Aloha.   Aloha.

[applause]
Willy Lau: And here's Mr. Gary Haleamau.

[cheers applause]
Gary Haleamau: And of course, ladies and gentlemen, give it up --
a big round of applause for my beautiful wife, Sheldeen Haleamau.
Mahalo.   [applause]

[music]
You know, about a month and a half ago I was privileged
to win a Na Hoku Hanohano Award, which is considered
as the Grammies in Hawa'ii.
And I was honored to capture the religious album category.
But, you know, we are so thankful, and we are so blessed to be able
to do the things that we do.
And, you know, it would not be proper if we wouldn't give glory
to kia'kua [spelled phonetically] for allowing us this opportunity,
especially for blessing us with the gift that he has blessed us with.
I share this song with you written by and composed by Sheldeen.
[music]   Mahalo.

I've been redeemed.   I've been set free.

By the lord, Jesus, bled for me.   He is the way.

He is the truth.   He's the life that leads to liberty.

I've been redeemed.   I've been set free.

By the strife that Jesus bore for me.
He is the way.   He is the truth.

He's the life that leads to liberty.
I will praise you and worship you my lord.
I give you glory.   My heart's [unintelligible].

Your love surrounds me.
With peace and gratitude I've been set free.
I am redeemed and I will praise you.   And worship you my lord.

I give you glory.   My heart's [unintelligible].

Your love surrounds me, with peace and gratitude.
I've been set free.   I am redeemed.

And I will praise you.   And worship you my lord.

I give you glory.   Our heart's [unintelligible].

Your love surrounds me with peace and gratitude I've been set free.
I am redeemed.   I've been set free.

I am redeemed.   I've been set free.

I am redeemed.   Aloha, and everybody god bless.

Mahalo.   [applause]

Mahalo. Thank you.   [applause]

Female Speaker: This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.   [End of Transcript]