“Aloha From Kalakaua Avenue EP” Michael Chock
(Seawind Productions)
Michael Chock has been known since the 1970s as a member of the Top 40 nightclub band Greenwood. In recent years he has also made a name for himself as a solo songwriter and recording artist. His latest solo project is a three-song EP. Chock has set to music the lyrics of Honolulu real estate agent/lyricist Richard W. Daggett and then provided the instrumentation, arrangements, vocals and studio production. Each song is arranged in a different style of contemporary music.
The opening track, “Kalakaua Avenue,” puts Kalakaua and its landmarks alongside those of other iconic destinations — New York, Tokyo, London, Moscow and Shanghai, to name five — and leaves no doubt that Kalakaua tops the list. The refrain “Welcome, welcome to Kalakaua Avenue,” makes the song a perfect pick for a future visitor industry ad campaign.
“Aloha (The Aloha Waltz)” is also a crisp contemporary hapa-haole composition. It narrates the experience of someone who comes to Hawaii, wants to “waltz with aloha” and decides that this is the place they belong.
“Nashville” tells a different story. A visitor’s Hotel Street encounter with a hula dancer who sounds “like a man” convinces him to go back to Tennessee, despite a better outcome with women in Waimanalo.
Count the EP as a two-fer. It introduces Daggett as a lyricist while also spotlighting Chock’s range as an arranger and vocalist. Each song sounds unlike the others, and Chock uses a different singing style for each.
Visit michaelchockkalakaua.hearnow.com.
“Lovah of Mine” Trishnalei
(Revive the Live Publishing)
Hawaii “kanakafarians” have a new tune to put atop their list of favorite local reggae-style pop songs with this appealing collaboration by Rastafari singer/songwriter/ukulele player Trishnalei and multi-Hoku Award-winning Kapena De Lima. She wrote the song, he provides most of the instruments; Stanton Haugen contributes live horns to the brass section.
The good news is that Trishnalei and De Lima not only have those familiar Afro-Caribbean rhythms down solid, but Trishnalei does a fine job affecting an Afro-Caribbean accent as well. “Lovah of Mine” should be getting high rotation airplay on all of Hawaii’s island music radio stations.
The bad news — for some listeners certainly — is that Trishnalei is thanking Jah profusely for giving her the man of her dreams. That means she’s not in the market for any of the males who have fallen in lust with her voice. Remember “Whatta Man” by Salt N Pepa and En Vogue? This is the same type of song, but done in an island-music style.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Go to facebook.com/ikeepontroddin.
“You’ll Be Back” Frank De Lima
(Pocholinga Productions)
The enforced social distancing of the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired “Pocho Prince” Frank De Lima to new heights of productivity. Making use of YouTube and Facebook, De Lima has released almost a full album’s worth of new song parodies as individual download-only singles. “You’ll Be Back” from the Broadway musical, “Hamilton,” is repurposed here as his message of encouragement to Hawaii students as they begin another year of “distance learning.”
“School will be like you never left at all,” De Lima promises. “You’ll catch up on what you missed when you were gone.”
“You’ll be back with all your friends and enjoy the different school events.”
Like De Lima’s other download projects, “You’ll Be Back” is available for free at frankdelima.com, but a payment of any amount supports his nonprofit Frank De Lima Student Enrichment Program. So help a “pocho” out and pay at least the traditional 99-cent download rate.
