Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar

Market Place cover

Market Place

Cyril Pahinui
Slack Key Circus cover

Slack Key Circus

Barefoot Natives
Out Mo'omomi Way cover

Out Mo'omomi Way

James Keli'ipio Kahea Mawae
Kauai March - 05 cover

Kauai March - 05

Cyril Pahinui, Makoto Kubota, Ohana Niihau, Aunty Nani
Ho'olohe (Listen) cover

Ho'olohe (Listen)

Martin Pahinui
Windward Heart: Live Solo cover

Windward Heart: Live Solo

James "Bla" Pahinui
'Ohana (Family) cover

'Ohana (Family)

Dennis Kamakahi
Waltz Of The Wind cover

Waltz Of The Wind

Ledward Ka'apana
Maika'i No Blues cover

Maika'i No Blues

Yuki Yamauchi, Raymond Kane
Kohala cover

Kohala

Kohala
Slack & Steel cover

Slack & Steel

Ken Emerson
On the Road Live cover

On the Road Live

The Mākaha Sons of Ni'ihau
Ambient Hawai'i cover

Ambient Hawai'i

Ambient Hawai'i
Kalo Man cover

Kalo Man

Ikaika Brown
His Own Man cover

His Own Man

Nedward Ka'apana
Hawai'i Aloha cover

Hawai'i Aloha

Yuki Yamauchi
Ke'ala's Mele cover

Ke'ala's Mele

Leonard Kwan
Punahele cover

Punahele

Raymond Kane
Auhele cover

Auhele

John Keawe
The Pahinui Bros. cover

The Pahinui Bros.

The Pahinui Brothers
Mālie cover

Mālie

The Peter Moon Band
Sounds from Kohala cover

Sounds from Kohala

The Lim Family
The Sandwich Isle Band cover

The Sandwich Isle Band

The Sandwich Isle Band
The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band cover

The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band

The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band
Two Slack Key Guitars cover

Two Slack Key Guitars

Gabby Pahinui, Atta Isaacs
Guava Jam cover

Guava Jam

The Sunday Manoa
Los Hawaiianos cover

Los Hawaiianos

Jesus Vazquez, Sonny Chillingworth
Music of Old Hawaii cover

Music of Old Hawaii

Gabby Pahinui, The Sons of Hawai'i

The indigenous folk tradition of slack key guitar began—most scholars believe—sometime around the 1830s when Mexican cowboys brought acoustic guitars to the Hawai’i. Despite its ever-presence and importance to Hawaiian identity, slack key wouldn’t start finding its way onto commercial recordings until the 1940s, when Gabby Pahinui and the rest of his three-piece band recorded “Hi’ilawe” for Bell Records. Since then, slack key guitar has shifted in and out of the mainstream, sometimes relegated to backyard jams and hole-in-the-wall bars, sometimes intermingling with the mainstream and becoming popular music.

On Pitchfork, I wrote a guide detailing slack key’s rise in popularity and the important players that codified its language into the Hawaiian musical lexicon. Here, I’m providing a roadmap for how it’s evolved over the decades, beginning in the ‘60s when major labels started to take notice. What you’ll find is a mix of the essential and the unconventional—but all of it shows the endless possibilities of a simple style of play where the creativity of the musician is most important.

Shy Thompson

Market Place cover

Market Place

Cyril Pahinui
Slack Key Circus cover

Slack Key Circus

Barefoot Natives
Kauai March - 05 cover

Kauai March - 05

Cyril Pahinui, Makoto Kubota, Ohana Niihau, Aunty Nani
Ho'olohe (Listen) cover

Ho'olohe (Listen)

Martin Pahinui
'Ohana (Family) cover

'Ohana (Family)

Dennis Kamakahi
Waltz Of The Wind cover

Waltz Of The Wind

Ledward Ka'apana
Maika'i No Blues cover

Maika'i No Blues

Yuki Yamauchi, Raymond Kane
Kohala cover

Kohala

Kohala
Slack & Steel cover

Slack & Steel

Ken Emerson
On the Road Live cover

On the Road Live

The Mākaha Sons of Ni'ihau
Ambient Hawai'i cover

Ambient Hawai'i

Ambient Hawai'i
Kalo Man cover

Kalo Man

Ikaika Brown
His Own Man cover

His Own Man

Nedward Ka'apana
Hawai'i Aloha cover

Hawai'i Aloha

Yuki Yamauchi
Punahele cover

Punahele

Raymond Kane
Sounds from Kohala cover

Sounds from Kohala

The Lim Family
The Sandwich Isle Band cover

The Sandwich Isle Band

The Sandwich Isle Band
Guava Jam cover

Guava Jam

The Sunday Manoa
Los Hawaiianos cover

Los Hawaiianos

Jesus Vazquez, Sonny Chillingworth
Music of Old Hawaii cover

Music of Old Hawaii

Gabby Pahinui, The Sons of Hawai'i