Hawaiian Concert Guide Show 710 - Hormonal Bananas

🌺🎙️ HAWAIIAN CONCERT GUIDE — SHOW 710 🎙️🌺
🍌 “HORMONAL BANANAS” 🍌

This week’s Hawaiian Concert Guide takes a musical journey through Hawaiʻi as home, memory, place, identity, imagination — and occasionally something wonderfully unexpected.

Show 710 moves from some of today’s most compelling Hawaiian recording artists into classic exotica and vintage Hollywood Hawaiʻi, with plenty of musical and cultural connections along the way.

🎶 PLAYLIST

1. Kimié Miner — “Kuʻu Hawaiʻi” — 3:55
Album: Kuʻu Hawaiʻi

We open with Kimié Miner and the title track from her five-song Kuʻu Hawaiʻi EP.

Kimié has built a career that moves naturally between contemporary Hawaiian music, acoustic singer-songwriter material, reggae, island pop and modern production. She is also the founder of Haku Collective and has become an important advocate for Hawaiʻi-based artists and music.

Her earlier work earned major Nā Hōkū Hanohano recognition, including Female Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year for “Bamboo.”

The title Kuʻu Hawaiʻi can be understood as “My Hawaiʻi” or, with the emotional weight carried by kuʻu, something closer to “My beloved Hawaiʻi.”

That makes this a particularly appropriate way to open Show 710 because much of tonight’s program explores how different musicians experience, remember and interpret Hawaiʻi.

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2. Kimié Miner feat. Kalaʻe — “Sippin’ Somethin’” — 3:56
Album: Kuʻu Hawaiʻi

We stay with Kimié’s EP but shift into a lighter collaboration featuring Kalaʻe Camarillo.

The track sits comfortably between island music, acoustic pop and country. That country influence is not as unusual in Hawaiian music as someone unfamiliar with the islands might think.

Hawaiʻi has a long musical relationship with American country traditions through paniolo culture, steel guitar, acoustic instrumentation and vocal harmony.

Kalaʻe himself comes from a musical family and is a third-generation music teacher. Earlier in his career, he performed with his brother Kamaka as the Camarillo Brothers before establishing his solo career.

This track also gives us the perfect bridge into more of Kalaʻe’s music later in the show.

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3. Baba Tavares — “Keʻei” — 1:40
Album: Hanohano Hōnaunau

Next we travel to Hawaiʻi Island with Baba Tavares.

Baba Tavares is Joshua Tavares, and Hanohano Hōnaunau is an unusually place-centered project.

The songs originated in connection with his play Glitter in the Paʻakai, produced through the Hawaiian Theatre program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in February 2024.

Tavares describes the EP as a huakaʻi — a journey through Kona Hema and through the places that raised and nourished his family.

That context matters.

“Keʻei” is not simply a song borrowing the name of a picturesque Hawaiian location. The place itself is connected to genealogy, home, ʻohana and lived experience.

At only 1:40, the song almost functions like a musical vignette — one brief stop on that journey through Kona Hema.

Pronunciation note:

Keʻei — approximately keh-EH-ee, with the ʻokina creating a distinct break between the sounds.

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4. Baba Tavares — “Hanohano Hōnaunau” — 2:04
Album: Hanohano Hōnaunau

The journey continues with the title track.

Hanohano carries meanings associated with honor, dignity, distinction and glory, making the title an expression of respect and admiration for Hōnaunau.

Hōnaunau is one of the most culturally significant areas on Hawaiʻi Island.

Nearby Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau preserves an ancient Hawaiian royal center and place of refuge associated with the traditional kapu system.

Baba Tavares also had an exceptional year at the 2026 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, receiving:

🏆 Most Promising Artist
🏆 Hawaiian EP of the Year — Hanohano Hōnaunau

So if Baba Tavares is a new name to you, Hawaiʻi’s recording community has already provided two very good reasons to remember it.

One important way to hear these songs is not simply as descriptions of beautiful places.

Tavares describes them as songs tied to home and ʻohana.

In Hawaiian music, geography frequently functions as far more than scenery.

Place can carry family history, ancestry, memory and identity.

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5. Kalaʻe Camarillo — “Born Again” — 3:44
Album: Drifting On Island Time

Kalaʻe Camarillo returns, this time with music from his own album Drifting On Island Time, released in August 2025.

Kalaʻe’s career has steadily gained recognition.

His earlier album Feel at Home won Contemporary Acoustic Album of the Year, while later work including “Sands of Old Lahaina” brought additional recognition.

And at the 2026 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards:

🏆 Drifting On Island Time won Contemporary Album of the Year.

“Born Again” gives us a chance to hear something beyond simply the album’s obvious headline tracks.

Kalaʻe’s music often has a very conversational quality.

Rather than sounding overly produced or formal, his songs often feel like someone sitting nearby, instrument in hand, telling you a story.

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6. Kalaʻe Camarillo — “Down In Makena” — 3:31
Album: Drifting On Island Time

We stay with Kalaʻe and travel musically to Mākena on Maui’s south shore.

“Down In Makena” gives us another example of something that appears repeatedly throughout Hawaiian music:

The location is not simply where the story happens.

Very often, the place is part of the story itself.

That idea connects the work of Kalaʻe Camarillo with Baba Tavares, Kimié Miner and generations of Hawaiian composers before them.

Place names in Hawaiian music can contain stories about family, love, historical events, landscapes, people and personal memories that are invisible to someone simply looking at a map.

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7. Ei Nei — “Hawaiʻi Forever” — 2:56
Album: Ei Nei, Look At Us
Bonus Track

Next we hear the beautiful three-part harmony of Ei Nei.

Ei Nei consists of:

🎤 Dane Fujiwara
🎤 Grant Kono
🎤 ʻEkolu Chang

The trio formed in 2016 and has built its sound around close vocal harmony, mele Hawaiʻi, original music and contemporary interpretations of Hawaiian songs.

Their album Ei Nei, Look At Us mixes original compositions with reimagined classics.

“Hawaiʻi Forever” is particularly significant because Ei Nei submitted the song for Nā Hōkū consideration in both:

• Single of the Year
• Song of the Year

The group also had a very strong showing at the 2026 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards:

🏆 Ei Nei, Look At Us won Island Music Album of the Year.

By this point in Show 710, we’ve already heard four distinctly different approaches to contemporary Hawaiian music:

Kimié Miner
Baba Tavares
Kalaʻe Camarillo
Ei Nei

Together, they provide an interesting snapshot of what recorded Hawaiian music looks and sounds like in 2025–2026.

🇯🇵🌺

8. Ei Nei — “Yappa Sukiyanen” — 3:52
Album: Ei Nei, Look At Us
Bonus Track

This may be the most unexpected song in Show 710.

“Yappa Sukiyanen” — やっぱ好きやねん — is closely associated with Osaka singer and television personality Takajin Yashiki.

The original single was released on:

📅 September 21, 1986

That means September 2026 marks the song’s 40th anniversary.

The title uses Kansai/Osaka-style speech and roughly expresses:

❤️ “After all, I still love you.”

or

❤️ “I really do love you after all.”

Ei Nei performing the song creates a fascinating musical connection between Hawaiʻi and Japan.

That relationship has deep historical roots through immigration, family connections, tourism, food, language and generations of cultural exchange.

So although the track initially seems like an unexpected diversion, it actually fits the broader story of Hawaiʻi extraordinarily well.

And because the original was released almost exactly forty years before Show 710, the timing could hardly be better.

🎋🌴

9. Martin Denny — “Japanese Farewell Song” — 2:24
Album: Exotica II

Our Japanese connection provides the perfect transition into one of the most influential musicians associated with the mid-century exotica movement:

Martin Denny.

Exotica Volume II was released in 1958 following the extraordinary success of Denny’s earlier Exotica album.

The musicians associated with the project included:

🎹 Martin Denny — piano, celeste and arrangements
🥁 Arthur Lyman — vibes, marimba, xylophone and percussion
🦜 Augie Colón — percussion and the famous bird-call effects
🎸 Bernard Miller — bass
🎷 Jack Shoop — flute and saxophone
🥁 Roy Harte — drums and percussion

“Japanese Farewell Song,” also known as “Sayonara,” appears as track three.

Martin Denny’s music occupies an interesting place in Hawaiian musical history.

Exotica wasn't traditional Hawaiian music.

Instead, it represented a mid-century American fantasy of the Pacific — blending Hawaiian, Japanese, Asian, Latin and imagined tropical elements into a stylized lounge sound.

That distinction makes exotica particularly interesting today.

It tells us something not only about music, but about how mainland America imagined Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific during the 1950s.

🌴🎶

10. Martin Denny — “Singing Bamboos” — 2:10
Album: Exotica II

We continue directly into track four of Exotica Volume II.

“Singing Bamboos” demonstrates one of the qualities that made Martin Denny’s recordings so distinctive:

texture.

Instead of focusing entirely on melody, the arrangement creates atmosphere through:

• percussion
• mallet instruments
• unusual timbres
• spatial effects
• bird calls
• carefully constructed tropical ambience

That sound became closely associated with the tiki and lounge culture boom of the 1950s and early 1960s.

You can almost imagine the record spinning inside a dark Polynesian-themed cocktail lounge with bamboo walls, carved tiki figures and glowing lamps.

And that brings us directly into another major American interpretation of Hawaiʻi from almost exactly the same period.

🎬🌺

11. Elvis Presley — “Ku-U-I-Po” — 2:22
Album: Blue Hawaii

Few Hollywood productions shaped mainland America’s romantic image of Hawaiʻi more strongly than Blue Hawaii.

“Ku-U-I-Po” was recorded on:

📅 March 21, 1961

at Radio Recorders in Hollywood for the film.

The soundtrack was released later that year on:

📅 October 20, 1961

The song was written by:

Hugo Peretti
Luigi Creatore
George David Weiss

The recording session featured an extraordinary group of musicians including:

🎸 Hank Garland
🎸 Scotty Moore
🎹 Floyd Cramer
🎷 Boots Randolph
🎸 Alvino Rey — steel guitar
🪕 Fred Tavares — ʻukulele
🪕 Bernie Lewis — ʻukulele

Vocals were supported by The Jordanaires and The Surfers.

The title uses an older spelling of the Hawaiian phrase:

kuʻu ipo

meaning approximately:

❤️ “my sweetheart”
❤️ “my beloved”

One particularly interesting musician in those sessions is Fred Tavares.

Tavares came from the legendary Hawaiian Tavares musical family and later became closely associated with Fender, contributing significantly to the development of electric and steel guitars.

“Ku-U-I-Po” is one of the gentler and more affectionate pieces from the Blue Hawaii soundtrack.

And then Elvis takes us from sweetheart…

…to supper.

🍽️🌺

12. Elvis Presley — “Ito Eats” — 1:23
Album: Blue Hawaii

“Ito Eats” was recorded one day later:

📅 March 22, 1961

The song was written by the prolific songwriting partnership of:

Sid Tepper
Roy C. Bennett

Much of the same remarkable session team appears on this recording.

But this track represents a very different side of Hollywood Hawaiʻi.

“Ito Eats” is unmistakably a 1961 novelty song.

Its humor revolves around a Hawaiian character who constantly eats, including fish and poi.

Some of its characterization reflects stereotypes that were common in mainland entertainment during that period.

That distinction is worth recognizing.

We opened Show 710 with Hawaiian artists describing and expressing Hawaiʻi from within their own communities.

We end with Hollywood presenting its version of Hawaiʻi more than sixty years ago.

Those are two very different perspectives.

And hearing them side-by-side gives us an interesting way to think about how the musical image of Hawaiʻi has evolved.

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🎙️ SHOW 710 — “HORMONAL BANANAS”

The musical theme running beneath this somewhat suspicious title is:

HAWAIʻI — PLACE, MEMORY & IMAGINATION

Tonight we hear Hawaiʻi as:

🌴 Home
🌊 Geography
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 ʻOhana
🧬 Genealogy
❤️ Love
🇯🇵 Cultural connection
🎶 Musical experimentation
🌺 Nostalgia
🎬 Hollywood fantasy

The contemporary portion of the show also includes an unusually strong concentration of artists recognized at the 2026 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards:

🏆 Baba Tavares — Most Promising Artist
🏆 Hanohano Hōnaunau — Hawaiian EP of the Year

🏆 Kalaʻe Camarillo — Drifting On Island Time — Contemporary Album of the Year

🏆 Ei Nei — Ei Nei, Look At Us — Island Music Album of the Year

And tucked right in the middle is another musical coincidence:

🇯🇵 “Yappa Sukiyanen” celebrated its 40th anniversary this month, having originally been released September 21, 1986.

So Show 710 travels from contemporary Hawaiʻi…

…through Kona Hema…

…to Mākena…

…through Hawaiian-Japanese musical connections…

…into the tiki lounges of the 1950s…

…and finally onto the Hollywood set of Blue Hawaii in 1961.

All in about 34 minutes of music.

Only on Hawaiian Concert Guide.

🌺🎙️🍌

Hawaiian Concert Guide — Show 710
“Hormonal Bananas”
Place, Memory & Imagination

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