“LOVE DOLL”
Joe Kingston (Flying Mongoose)
If the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts has a Na Hoku Hanohano Award category for comedy albums in 2019, Joe Kingston’s “Love Doll” will certainly be a front-runner. The title song is the unapologetic statement of a lonely man whose girlfriend is “made of rubber.” Kingston’s clever lyrics put the situation in proper perspective and the arrangement rocks from start to finish. The songs that follow aren’t bad either.
For instance, there’s “Bonging Along,” Kingston’s rueful tale of a relationship with a marijuana-smoking woman named Trixie Fong whose first priority is her bong. Marijuana is the through-line of two other originals, “Drug Test Man” and “Red Eyed Reindeer,” and his remake of Don Ho’s 1977 island hit, “Who Is The Lolo (Who Stole The Pakalolo).” Kingston’s writing skills also shine on “Kaki‘olani,” a detailed description of a bizarre woman with a “double-bubble booty,” and “Break Song,” which speaks for entertainers who labor in local bars and cocktail lounges.
Kingston remakes three other songs, showing off his musical horizons. “Carol Brown” comes from a 2009 HBO comedy series, “Sometimes I Wish I Had A Gun,” which was recorded as an album track by Abby Travis in 2000. “(I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead) You Rascal You” dates from 1929.
Taking a page out of multi-Hoku Award-winner Frank De Lima’s playbook, Kingston uses the melody of an old pop hit as the foundation for a “new” song with “The Candy Man,” a 1972 hit for Sammy Davis Jr. Here, it becomes “Manapua Man,” celebrating the local urban legend that Chinese manapua vendors make their wares from cat meat.
Contact Joe Kingston at joekingstontown@yahoo.com.
“PARADISE BLUES”
John Akapo (Mensch House)
Blues guitarist Albert King famously said in concert 40 years ago “Everybody understands the blues. Everybody from one day to another has the blues.” Samoan-American John Akapo — he plays acoustic guitar and sings — shows his understanding of the blues with this economically packaged debut CD. Production credits aren’t included in the liner notes but seven of the songs are originals.
A song titled “Little Lani” reveals King’s ethnicity and his island roots. “Maui Drive” also contains oblique island references. A third, “Hindsight (Missionary Blues),” is a mournful warning about Christian missionaries 200 years ago — and perhaps about the fast-talking developers running rampant in Hawaii today. “Don’t Believe Her” sounds like it could an old-time blues song, but it’s also an original.
Akapo also puts his stamp on classics by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Tommy Johnson, and gets effective instrumental support on a couple of songs as well.
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