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ALBUM REVIEWS

Kimo West: Moku Maluhia - Peaceful Island

Read "Moku Maluhia - Peaceful Island" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

In addition to his regular gig as guitarist with musical parodist Weird Al Yankovic--which requires him to cover a wide variety of guitar styles--Kimo West is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar aficionado. His previous solo recording Guitar Stories (Westernmost Records, 2016) applied the finger-style playing technique with open tunings to an eclectic variety of material, accompanied by several supporting musicians. Here he stays closer to the slack-key tradition, playing solo with occasional support from shakuhachi flute and cello. Kimo's compositions are ...

ALBUM REVIEWS

Jim "Kimo" West: Guitar Stories: Slack Key & Beyond

Read "Guitar Stories: Slack Key & Beyond" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

Guitar Stories presents a lovely, diverse collection of music centered around Kimo West's composing and excellent guitar playing. West is a proponent of the Hawaiian slack key guitar style, a fingerstyle playing technique using various open tunings. He credits the name of the tuning used on each track, as well as including a list spelling out the full guitar tuning for each. So it's appropriate that the album opens with “Na Koa Moku O Keawe," a baritone guitar ...