Brother Noland is acclaimed for his innovative, contemporary island music. Courtesy photo

Forty-five years after his epic protest song, “Look What They’ve Done,” Brother Noland has released another song with a potent message, “Las Vegas.”

Wrapped around jubilant tropical music performed by a super group of local talent called the Island Incredibles, Noland depicts the economic struggle facing many in Hawaii being priced out of paradise.

“I got to move to Las Vegas,” he sings. “I just can’t pay the rent, born and raised in the island ways, got zero in my balance.”

“I have had to explain it a couple of times, even to my daughter,” Noland says. “She was saying, the song has so much beat and it jumps out at you, yet it’s sad, the story is sad.’ But that’s what art is, when you can somehow put all the ingredients in and come up with the message. I produced it with Pena Bu (Kapena “Pena Bu” De Lima). He’s such a genius, Kelly Boy’s boy. He told me he grew up with my music. I was a big part of his life. He does all the reggae stuff with the young kinds, and he said he’s very proud of this music that we did together because it’s not reggae. It’s that edgy sound.”

Noland was inspired to compose the song “first and foremost, because my kids live on the Mainland,” he says. “Then it was Iam Tongi, when he was on ‘American Idol,’ where he said, ‘We got priced out of Hawaii.’ People from Hawaii love to go to Vegas. They’re going to go to Vegas and try and make money or lose money. Either way, they got to come back to Hawaii and still pay the rent. So whether they win or lose, they still lose. I was trying to get all that stuff into the song.”

Acclaimed for his innovative, contemporary island music, Noland’s local hits include “Coconut Girl,” “Big Ship,” “Are You Native,” “Jaime Lee,” “Sweet Asian Honey,” “Juju Rock” and “Pua Lane.” Noland will join Henry Kapono for an Artist 2 Artist concert April 26 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

“It’s very intimate,” he says. “That’s my forte. I like to story-tell. I’m just grateful that I’m still able to play music and play music when I want and how I want.”

Back in 1980 on his debut album, “Speaking Brown,” Noland sang, “see what they’ve done to Waikiki … no more Hawaiian style.” It was like a Hawaii fusion of Bob Marley’s rebel music and a Boy Dylan folk protest anthem. While it later became a local hit, radio stations initially deemed it too radical and wouldn’t play it.

“It was banned from radio,” he recalls. “It was too much for people.”

Noland’s “Look What They’ve Done” was recently used by director Christopher Kahunahana for the soundtrack of his provocative movie, “Waikiki,” about the hardships faced by many struggling to survive in the islands.

“He told me I grew up listening to this song,” Noland says. “I’m the music at the end credits. It’s about a single parent mom struggling in Hawai’i. At the end, she is Waikiki. Look what it’s done to her. It was pretty sad.”

Acclaimed as the “Father of Jawaiian Music,” Noland was featured in the first episode of the new PBS Hawaii series, “In Hawaiian Hands: The Story of Reggae in Hawai’i.” In the documentary, Oahu radio DJ Kamasami Kong talked about playing Noland’s influential, signature song, “Coconut Girl,” and how it was “going to start a trend.”

“I wasn’t just playing reggae music,” Noland explains. “I always tell people Butch Helemano was playing reggae music before me.” In the early days he remembers, “I opened for so many people, Yellow Man, Third World, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and Jesse Colin Young.”

He updated his classic “Coconut Girl,” with a memorable revamped version, “Coconut Girl 2023,” featuring additional lyrics and male and female voices and produced by Kapena De Lima. “He told me, ‘I don’t want to touch that song, that’s like a classic. I might ruin it.’ That was fun.”

Making a rare trip to play on Maui, he’s looking forward to performing with Kapono.

“He’s kind of like a Don Ho, with these On the Rise kids usually joining us,” he says. “Don Ho’s show would always feature young guys. He would bring on all these young guys who later on had careers. That’s like how Henry is with On the Rise. Last year it was Pat Simmons Jr. This year it’s Ninamarie Bell. They rotate them in the clubs and at least eight or nine were my students in high school or middle school or elementary, when I had that long stint of teaching. I love doing these shows with Henry.”

Noland and Kapono with Hawaii Island musician Bell perform at 7 p.m. April 26 at the MACC’s McCoy Studio Theater. Tickets are $45, $55, and $75, plus applicable fees.