In the course of recording the various live performances that make up Punahou Sessions, there have been a number of jaw-dropping moments where my eyes and ears couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. In Season 1, Danny Carvalho ’09 joined a group led by Pal Eldredge ’64, and created one of those moments when he took a masterful slack key guitar solo. We knew we had to feature him again. Carvalho is no stranger to the Hawaiian music scene. The Grammy and Na Hoku Hanohano Awards nominee started his formal slack key training with Ozzie Kotani at age 10, and has emerged as one of the top young stars of a new slack key guitar generation. In his high school days, he was well-known for his musicianship with his participation in Holoku and other activities, and caught the attention of the late Ka’aumoana McKenney ’83, a teacher to whom this piece was dedicated. Nowadays, he can be found performing around town and the country with Kailua Moon, a duo with his fiancée, Nani Edgar.
