Zydeco Legend to spice up he MACC

February 20, 2014

For his last night hosting "The Late Show," Jimmy Fallon opened with a musical surprise, singing and playing guitar alongside zydeco accordion legend Buckwheat Zydeco and the show's house band, The Roots, with a rousing performance of Bob Dylan's "On a Night Like This.""It was such an honor to be a part of it," says Stanley Dural Jr., more commonly known as Buckwheat Zydeco. " 'On a Night Like This' is quite a meaningful song for us. It's the title track of our first Island Records album in 1987, and it really helped spread the word about Buckwheat Zydeco and zydeco music to many ...

Bob Dylan returning to Maui

February 20, 2014

Great news that Bob Dylan is returning to Maui after many years to perform on April 26. He last played the MACC in 1998, with Ledward Ka'apana opening. Turns out Dylan's a fan of the slack key guitar master and was known to listen to Led's music on the tour bus.The icon's most recent studio album, "Tempest," was widely acclaimed. Rolling Stone raved: "Lyrically, Dylan is at the top of his game, joking around, dropping wordplay and allegories that evade pat readings and quoting other folks' words like a freestyle rapper on fire."Tickets will go on sale to MACC members at 10 a.m. Saturday ...

Grammy-winning artist William Ackerman offers rare show

February 13, 2014

William Ackerman inhabits a rare universe. Besides being an acclaimed, Grammy-winning guitarist, he is the founder of not one, but two record labels, including the massively successful Windham Hill. Also, he's an in-demand producer with more than 70 albums (including many platinum and gold) to his credit.Making his debut on Maui, this celebrated artist will perform Feb. 22 at the Makawao Union Church in a concert also featuring guitarist Todd Boston.These days Ackerman rarely performs live, so his Upcountry appearance will be a treat for all fans of acoustic guitar artistry.In his early ...

Kiss: Behind the band and brand

February 6, 2014

By now, most folks have probably heard that legendary Kiss rockers Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are opening a Rock & Brews restaurant in Paia.The new venture is just another element in a phenomenally successful business empire by an iconic band that has sold more gold records than any other American group in history.Massively popular, they've created probably the best-ever marketed rock 'n' roll brand, with their ubiquitous logo emblazoning more than 5,000 licensed products, including everything from comic books and credit cards to condoms and funeral caskets."We'll get you coming, ...

Hawaii’s Shining Stars

January 30, 2014

Along with pursuing a successful musical career, multi-Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Raiatea Helm is now back in school, studying culinary arts at Kapiolani Community College. It's all part of her new vision to create a supper club on Oahu where fellow musicians can perform in an intimate environment."I want to create a supper club like on the West Coast, bringing music together in a more classy form," Helm explains. "A place where people can fine dine and listen to really great music. It's a tough industry, but my dream is to put music and food together, and have something like Yoshi's ...

Band of Brothers

January 23, 2014

Los Lonely Boys have found fame with an infectious blend of rock, Texas blues, soul, country and Tejano music that they've termed, "Texican rock 'n' roll.""It's what we felt our music was," explains Los Lonely Boys' bassist JoJo Garza. "It was a way for us to create a genre of music. We've always had a very diverse musical pot. We're not just pop or rock or ballads or country, we're all of it. And being from Texas is a really big thing. A lot of great music has come out of Texas."This versatile approach is amply demonstrated by the Grammy-winning trio on their latest album, ...