"Silver Threads" Slack Key at Kailua Beach

Great friends make for great days, our Easter Sunday on Kailua Beach is a perfect example. Our friend Wayne got up way too early and staked out a prime spot at the Lanikai end of Kailua Beach Park, set up a tent, a grill, a cooler, tables and chairs, and had everything waiting for the crowd to arrive. New friend Eric brought an even bigger tent, more tables and chairs, more food, more coolers. The weather was spectacular, sunny and clear with a cool breeze and we had coolers and food and kids and Easter eggs along with the inimitable Mr. Ledward Kaapana, all the ingredients for an amazing day. One of my all time favorite slack key pieces is the vintage classic, "Silver Threads Among the Gold," a sentimental ballad published in 1873. Leonard Kwan arranged the old melody as a slack key piece using his signature drop C tuning and it has become a Hawaiian music standard. Of course Led Kaapana takes a standard, pays his respects, then explores new directions. Led called the song "Silver Strings" on the Hui Ohana album with Jerry Byrd and on his Dancing Cat "Led Live Solo" CD. I've heard him do the song many times in concerts and kanikapila, and he finds new feelings to express every time. For this Easter celebration version I asked him to take the lead on the whole song instead of trading off, I just played what I hope was a quiet accompaniment. Led is playing his 90s era Martin 000-16 with a Baggs Element pickup. I'm using a Martin OM-18V with a Baggs Lyric. Both pickups are plugged into a Zoom H6 recorder. I added a touch of echo to Led's guitar when I edited the video in Edius. I used two Lumix GH4 cameras for the guitar shots and walked around with a Lumix LX100 for the others.