ALOHA ISLAND GRILLE in The Hawaii Tribune Herald!

Mahalo to Steven Inglis for mentioning "Aloha Island Grille" Santa Cruz in Hilo at the "Hawaii Tribune Herald" Interview on January 18th! We love Steven Inglis and all of his music! I was there for my Birthday with Mom, Sister, Nephew, Steven and Kumu Na'i! What a gift! Here is the Article:



Slack key at EHCC

Friday, January 18, 2008 10:16 AM HST

Stephen Inglis to play concert on the Big Isle

by John Burnett
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Stephen Inglis is the embodiment of the old adage "never judge a book by its cover."

The 31-year-old Inglis was born in Honolulu, raised in Palolo and graduated from Kaimuki High School -- a hotbed of musical talent that has produced, among others, all three original members of the band Kapena and 'ukulele wizard Jake Shimabukuro.


Inglis started his music education at age 5, taking Suzuki method piano lessons. He was also a member of the Honolulu Boy Choir. He started his professional career as an electric guitarist in the reggae-ska band Red Session. He also played in the popular Jam Band Palolo Jones and later hooked up with former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and bass icon Calvin Schaeffer in House of Spirits on Kauai.

He and his wife, Christa, then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he reconnected with his island roots and re-invented himself as a musician.

"I didn't set out to do that," Inglis told the Tribune-Herald. "I grew up here around Hawaiian music. (The late) Uncle Moe Keale (of the Sons of Hawaii) was a friend of our family's. When I was a little kid, we used to go see him all the time. After I moved away, I found myself playing more and more acoustic, and playing solo more and more. ... I ended up really getting back into Hawaiian music and playing slack key."

While there, Inglis discovered the Monterey Peninsula, where George Winston established his Dancing Cat label to record and market top-flight slack key musicians. Hawaiian musicians visited there often, some, such as George Kahumoku Jr., even relocating.

"My real home from home ended up being Santa Cruz," Inglis recalled. "I played there at a place called the Aloha Island Grille. The owner, Tim Hunt, is a good friend of mine and will be with me this weekend in Hilo. He's a Maui boy and one of the homesick Hawaiians out there and has got a killer plate lunch restaurant. ... I ended up playing slack key there once a week."

Inglis will perform at the East Hawaii Cultural Center as part of its Hawaiian Music Series at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $16 general, $15 for EHCC members and $5 for students with ID, available at the door.


In 2004, Inglis put out his first album titled "Fringes of the Wayside," which solidified his musical identity. In 2005, he followed it up with "Driftwood." Both titles hint at a longing for home -- and his music connected with the Hawaiian contingent on the mainland.

"In 2005, I spent about 10 weeks on the road at different times, six weeks in the summer and four weeks in the fall," Inglis said. "Just myself, solo, hitting community radio stations, bars, clubs, Borders. I had an album to promote, my second album. ... When you get the word out, people really come out on the mainland, because it's not every day that they have the chance to see Hawaiian music. That was a great experience."

When Inglis returned to Oahu, he found a slack key mentor in Ozzie Kotani.

"Long before I met him I loved his playing; I had all his CDs," Inglis recalled. "Tim was at Ozzie's (slack key) camp, helping out. He gave Ozzie a copy of my CD and gave me contact information. This was when I was about ready to come home. Ozzie was very gracious about my CD and of course, I love his stuff, so we e-mailed. I knew he taught, so I asked if he was still teaching and he invited me to come over and jam. We hit it off, and I've been fortunate enough to work with him on a regular basis for about a year-and-a-half now. I'm very grateful. He's also a guest artist on my new album. We did some shows together on the West Coast this past November. It was wonderful."

In addition to Kotani, Inglis also plays regularly with slack key notables Makana, Jeff Peterson and Cindy Combs. His new album is titled "Mahina O Wai'alae." It features a number of time-honored Hawaiian classics, as well as a few originals, including the title track, which is a love song to his wife, Christa.

"This album is an evolution of my albums, so far," he said. "How it worked was, the first album, I was just doing the singer-songwriter thing and playing the acoustic guitar more and more, playing solo. I played quite a few electric guitar overdubs on that first CD. ... There's one number on that first album that is moving towards slack key. I wouldn't actually call it slack key, but it's in a taro patch tuning. The second album features a mix of originals. I do three of my favorite songs by the Hawaiian ali'i -- one Kapi'olani song ("Ipo Lei Manu") and two Lili'uokalani songs ("Ahe Lau Makani" and "Sanoe") -- and some songs with English lyrics.

"By the third album, I felt it was time to immerse myself. I was lucky enough to study Hawaiian language in seventh and eighth grade. I had this wonderful teacher from Hana, Maui, Mililani Lau. She, unfortunately, just passed away last summer. I also grew up around Uncle Moe. And when I was growing up, our 'church' was Hale Mohalu (in Pearl City), a care hospital for people with leprosy, that became sort of a magnet for Hawaiian activists and peace activists in the '70s. My parents were peace activists and ended up there. That really got the Hawaiian music and language in my ear."

On the Internet: http://www.steveinglis.com, http://www.ehcc.org.

John Burnett can be reached at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.