Concert at Moana Bakery and Cafe in Pa'ia | Thursday, August 5, 7:30-9:30PM

As part of Kimo's other life as a singer/songwriter, he'll be performing a 2-hour set on Thursday, August 5th, at Moana Cafe in Pa'ia.

Kimo's songs range from eclectic covers on guitar and 'ukulele to his own compositions, many of them rooted in Hawaiian myth and history. For a preview of his songs, visit http://listn.to/jameskimonevius.

Moana Cafe is located at 71 Baldwin Avenue in Pa'ia, just mauka of the public parking lot. They have a great menu, a full bar, and a relaxed atmosphere. You can check them out at http://www.moanacafe.com/.

Hope to see you there!

"Facing Future": Exploring Iz's Landmark Album

Somehow we missed this when it came out in December, but Continuum Books has selected Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Facing Future as the first world music album to be profiled in their highly successful "33-1/3" series.

Continuum launched the "33-1/3" series in 2003 to allow freelance authors and music journalists to explore their favorite albums in depth. (Albums profiled range from Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited to James Brown Live at the Apollo.) For their foray into Hawai'ian music, journalist Dan Kois (a former O'ahu resident) not surprisingly picked Iz's Facing Future, the best-selling Hawai'ian CD of all time.

The book contains a basic biography of Kamakawiwo'ole, tracing his career from the founding of the Mākaha Sons of Ni'ihau* in 1976 to his untimely death in 1997. But the bulk of the writing focuses on the recording of Facing Future in 1993 for the Mountain Apple Company and the subsequent popularity of the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"/"Wonderful World" medley, which -- as of this writing -- has been licensed for over 100 films, television shows, and commercials. Kois takes a critical look at Mountain Apple's president, Jon de Mello, and wonders if his relentless licensing of Iz's image and sound has devalued his music. (De Mello discredits this, noting in a recent Honolulu Advertiser story that he had promised Kamakawiwo'ole that his daughter and wife would be taken care of financially after the singer's death.)

Here on Maui, the book is available both from Borders in Kahului and Barnes & Noble in Lahaina. It also available online at Amazon.com. For more on Kois and the book -- including his perhaps farfetched idea that Barack Obama was at Iz's brother Skippy's funeral in 1982 -- see Kois's own blog at http://www.facing-future.com/.

* Is it us, or is it weird that the Mākaha Sons website doesn't mention Iz except in one buried page?

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