A Record a Week: Living Strings Play the Music of Hawaii

SIDE 1.
SWEET LEILANI
TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA
SONG OF THE ISLANDS
PAGAN LOVE SONG
ON THE BEACH AT WAIKIKI

SIDE 2.
DRIFTING AND DREAMING
LOVELY HULA HANDS
THE HAWAIIAN WEDDING SONG
BLUE HAWAII
ALOHA OE (Farewell to Thee)

This record didn't kick off reminding me of the typical 'Hawaiian' music. Well, not the ukelele strumming, lei wearing, hip swaying type anyhow. In fact, the first thing I thought of is that is sort of sounded like a string arrangement for an episode of Family Guy. However, that slow, swaying style came out on the second half.

I am not sure, but I was sort of expecting to be transported to the swaying palm trees, the large waves or the volcano or something right off the bat. Maybe I should have sprayed some hibiscuspineapplecoconutoceanbreeze spray to make the feeling more authentic or something. Is that even authentic? The island does actually smell like all of those things in different parts, even though when I was there it often smelled like the sulfur that was spewing out of the mouth of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

There were definitely luaus and musical appearances pretty much everywhere, but the place is fairly Americanized, so I don't know if it's any more authentic than say chicken balls are as Chinese food. Perhaps the sound I am looking for is just a piece of a larger puzzle and this record fills a more diverse section of it, or perhaps we'll never know because like everything else in North America, we've beaten the culture to a pulp until it fits nicely into our lives.