"Lehua Kalima"
Lehua Kalima
(Coco Palm Pictures Productions)

Lehua Kalima’s recent "Island Music, Island Hearts" television special is now her latest DVD album. Kalima is seen performing in an intimate beachfront setting at Lanikuhonua in Ko Olina with Shawn Pimental, "Alika Boy" Kalauli IV and percussionist Jon Porlas. The set includes several of her biggest hits as a member of Na Leo and also the title song of her solo album, "Rising in Love."

Interspersed among the songs — perhaps where commercials would run in a television broadcast — are short biographical segments. In one of them Kalima recalls growing up in a musical family. (Her father and his siblings performed as the Hilo Kalimas in the 1960s.) In another she shares the history of Na Leo — how she met Nalani Jenkins and Angie Fernandez when they were all students at Kamehameha Schools, entered Brown Bags to Stardom and won the opportunity to record their winning song, "Local Boys."

The one oddity is the total absence of crowd or ocean noise in most of the performance segments. It’s like viewers are watching a silent movie to which studio music tracks have been added. Too much background noise would detract, of course, but Kalima’s producers could have added a bit more ambient noise. The moments when Kalima talks to the audience and the response can be heard add life to what was obviously a live performance.

On the other hand, give Kalima’s producers credit for adding English subtitles when she sings in Hawaiian. The subtitles make the general meaning of the Hawaiian songs accessible to the vast majority of the people who enjoy her music.

Visit lehuakalima.com.

"Sweet Pualeinani"
Natalie Ai Kamauu & Hoku Zuttermeister
(Atooi Aloha)

Four-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Natalie Ai Kamauu follows up on the recent release of her fifth album, "La La La La," with this CD single. The song, written and produced by Millicent Andrade, aka Atooi Aloha, expresses the timeless love of a mother for her daughter. It’s a subject that Kamauu, the mother of two adult children, can easily relate to. She sings it beautifully.

Zuttermeister was one of several Hoku Award winners who were in the house for Kamauu’s CD release party for "La La La La" Aug. 13 at the Willows. He sang with Kamauu at the party and shows his range as a pop vocalist as her guest here.

The CD also has a "minus one" version for people who want to add "Sweet Pualeinani" to their karaoke repertoire.

Visit cdbaby.com/cd/millicentandrade.

"Don’t You Know"
PeniDean
(Peni_Dean Musiq)

PeniDean Pua’auli and Kayton "Sly Mongoose" Macariola left Natural Vibrations last year to pursue new opportunities. They enlisted four additional musicians to create a group that goes by the name PeniDean and sits firmly on the musical foundation they built in their years with Natural Vibrations.

Pua’auli was the lead vocalist of Natural Vibrations. That guarantees similarities between the two groups. Natural Vibrations won three Hoku Awards with Pua’auli singing up front, so similarities aren’t a bad thing.

"Don’t You Know," PeniDean’s second single, follows "The Right Time" as an upbeat reggae-pop love song that shows the group building the momentum necessary to do an entire album of original reggae-flavored island pop.

Find their music on iTunes.