George's Valentines Day Concert, February 14, 2003
a review by Jesse Tinsley

(originally posted to TaroPatch.net)

We just saw George Kahumoku perform Valentines Day in Spokane, Washington, and it was wonderful. He was completely at ease with the Spokane crowd, a mix of islanders, haole island expatriates and curious Spokane locals. On stage it was just George with his Rainsong 12-string and a music stand. He played a wide range of songs from the Hawaiian repertoire, including standards like "Kaimana Hila", "Kaneohe", "Leinani", "Ulupalakua" and "Papalina Lahilahi".

He opened the show with a simple chant and closed by teaching everyone "Hawai`i Aloha".

He also threw in a few flying fingers numbers that would get all the guitarists in the audience on the edge of their seats, like his bluesy Moani Ke`ala and a few others. The dynamics he achieves are amazing, going from quiet pizzicato thumps to twinkling highs, ringing harmonics and back to lightning bass runs. All in taropatch tuning, as far as I could tell, except when someone requested a song that started too high, whereupon he quickly tuned down the top two strings and sang "Ku`u Ipo I Ka He`e Pu`e One."

He did a medley of Amazing Grace, Iesu No Ke Kahuhipa and Kanaka Waiwai while telling the story of his grandmother, who wanted him to do an album of hymns.

I had never seen him perform, so I didn't know what to expect. His stories, knee deep in pidgin, were always funny, and always emphasized what makes his Hawaiian heritage special. He sang on most songs, and his voice, a little craggy and sometimes short of breath, took a back seat to his playing, at least until he broke out some falsetto on "Sweet Lei Ka Lehua."

He did a few numbers with a local halau (didn't know there was one!) dancing which was nice, too.

But he really shines as a storyteller. Nearly every song had a family story attached to it, and added something to the song.
He signed autographs and hung out before the show, during intermission and after the show, too.

For those of us in the frozen inland Mainland, it was a nice evening that made everyone want to walk out of the theater and get on a plane for the islands. We hope he comes back!

Jesse Tinsley

Jesse Tinsley works as staff photographer for The Spokesman-Review. In that position, Tinsley shoots photographs and oversees photo operations for the North Idaho bureau. He has an interesting virtual light table of his work at http://www.nidlink.com/~jessehj/