“LET THE LIGHT SHINE ON ME”
Eric Lee(Lee Enterprises)
Eric Lee has an impressively diverse body of work to his credit, stretching from substantial modern Hawaiian music to light Jawaiian pop. In addition to his solo projects, he’s a past member of The Kanile‘a Connection and Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning trio Na Kama, as well as Palani Vaughan’s band, King’s Own.
Lee’s new-for-December-2018 album establishes him as a significant local Christian music writer and recording artist as well.
Lee’s arrangements of two Christian standards show his familiarity with the canon. The first, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today,” is a song many Christians grow up with, and it establishes the theme here.
Eleven originals show Lee’s range and imagination as a composer and lyricist. Some of them are testaments of faith, others position the listener as a silent witness to Lee’s conversations with the Almighty.
“I am a sinner!” he writes in the liner notes. “I am imperfect! But my sins will never be greater than God’s love!”
David Kauahikaua (keyboards/orchestration) is Lee’s primary studio collaborator. James Ronstadt (harmonica) guests when Lee successfully delves into soul/rock music with “Prayer Train,” and electric guitarist John Ornellas adds a piercing, hard-rock edge to “Alleluia (Gospel Acclamation).” The late Elton “Bruddah E” McKeague is heard sharing his personal message of Christian faith in the instrumental bridge of a third original, “I Am A Vessel.”
Lee documents his work with an eight-page liner notes booklet that provides song lyrics and background information, and which reveals the full significance of the title song.
The lyric are inspirational, and the album includes a pleasing assortment of musical genres and important message of faith shared.
Visit ericleehawaii.com.
“BUSTING ROCK”
Kanekoa (self-produced)
Several years before Butch Helemano emerged as Hawaii’s pioneer of uniquely Christian-based local reggae, he wrote a song about the trials and tribulations of being forced to make exorbitant alimony payments. Helemano’s ex-wife probably didn’t sympathize with his plight, but the song became Hawaii’s equivalent of Jerry Reed’s 1982 Billboard Country Singles chart-topper, “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft).”
Now, more then 30 years later, the self-styled “ukulele powered hawai’ian reggae folk rock” quartet Kanekoa has dusted off Helemano’s classic and reworked it as a download-only preview of the music on their next full-length album. With instrumentation by two ukuleles, an ukulele bass and cajon, Kanekoa’s version sounds like four guys having a great time jamming on someone’s back porch. And, that’s not a bad thing!
Visit kanekoaband.com
