Bishop Museum Features Ki ho’alu (Slack Key Guitar) with Cyril Pahinui

Bishop Museum is pleased to announce that Ki ho’alu Master, Cyril Pahinui will be the featured instructor of an on-going class in slack key guitar. Public educational programs incorporating the expertise of one of Hawai’i’s preeminent cultural practitioners, and artists is in keeping with the Bishop Museum’s mission of sharing and preserving the cultural history of Hawai’i.
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Ray Sowders – Beautiful Music

Ray Sowders is an O`ahu based slack key musician with a sweet and lilting guitar style and a rich baritone voice. His recent album, Ho`omalie just won a first place “Just Plain Folks” Music Award among 2400 album entries. Check out his music. You’ll be glad you did. www.raysowders.com

SoundExchange

To all you slack key (ki ho`alu), independent, fingerstyle, Hawaiian, singer-songwriter folks:

ASCAP and BMI have traditionally collected public performance royalties on behalf of publishing companies and songwriters. With the emergence of a relatively new copyright revenue stream from digital music service providers (e.g. Sirius and XM), an additional performing rights organization called SoundExchange was born. However, unlike ASCAP and BMI, SoundExchange still remains relatively unnoticed.

Here’s the short story, if you are a featured performer or sound recording owner of a recording that has been bouncing around the airwaves, there may be royalty money waiting for you at SoundExchange. Here’s a link to the list of artists who are owed royalties:

http://63.236.111.137/jsp/unpaidArtistList.jsp

SoundExchange’s website:
www.soundexchange.com

About the Album

The main theme of this album was the contrast between New York and Hawaii. They are such starkly different places, both in terms of climate and attitude, yet they are both a part of who I am. The photo on the cover of the album is a the view from my parents’ home in Manoa, the place I grew up. I held the guitar out, capturing the reflection of the clouds in the guitar. Diamond Head is in the distance. The back cover of the album is the same guitar reflection concept, captured from my apartment window in New York City. The idea of the guitar reflection photos is that I captured all of my experiences, from Hawaii to New York in my guitar. So, hopefully my guitar tells my story, from Hawaii, to California, to New York, spanning time, seasons and experiences.

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