Blues for Hawaiians

I'm on vacation-- and learning how not to blog every day.  But yesterday we stopped at the Hanalei Community Center and saw/heard Doug McMaster play Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar with his wife accompanying him on ukelele.  If you're in Kauai on a Friday or Sunday afternoon, you should plunk down $20 and check it out.  This is a beautiful, homespun version of guitar that shares a lot with fingerpicking by people like Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotton and the open tunings of people like Muddy Waters.  Believe it or not, there's a bit of commonality with our man Chuck Berry, too, with lots of double string picking on the "lead" parts.  Anyway, it's beautiful stuff-- and McMaster is well named, since he's certainly mastered it.  Check out their website here.