The Real Hawaii: MAUI   (excerpt -full article available here...)
Plenty of authentic island culture for tourists who look

Hawaii is more than just a pretty face. It's more than swaying palm trees and swiveling hips, more than white sand beaches, colourful cocktails and loud aloha shirts.

Every Wednesday night, the hotel [The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua] welcomes the Masters of Slack Key Guitar Concert Series where affable host George Kahumoku Jr. sings and "talks story" with guest artists.

On the night I attend, Kahumoku introduces the duck-tailed Ledward Kaapana -- looking remarkably Elvis-like in his aviator glasses -- as "probably the most inventive slack key guitarist of my lifetime." Listening and laughing with these two masters, I feel like I'm sitting in someone's backyard, enjoying the music Hawaiians might play for their families and friends late at night, after a couple of beers. It's what I expect a real Hawaiian musical experience to be -- sometimes tender, often humorous, always evocative of the life and traditions of the islands. 

Copyright © 2005 — The Vancouver Sun
Copyright © 2005 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

Ann Campbell is a Vancouver, B.C., travel writer.

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