Grammy winning Jim “Kimo” West loves Hawaiian slack key guitar. Courtesy photo

When he’s not playing lead guitar touring and recording with “Weird Al” Yankovic, Grammy winning musician Jim “Kimo” West pursues his love for Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Releasing several acclaimed slack key albums, including “Slack Key West,” “Moku Maluhia – Peaceful Island,” and “Na Lani O Maui – Maui Skies,” West will perform at George Kahumoku, Jr.’s Slack Key Show on April 23 at the Napili Kai Beach Resort.

“I’ve played that show for over 10 years,” West says. “It’s the greatest place for slack key with a lovely attentive audience. Everybody is there to hear that style of music. It’s not like you’re playing in a restaurant where everybody’s talking and eating. I’ve been really fortunate to have been on the roster for so many years.”

West became enamored with the Hawaiian guitar style while spending time in Hana.

“I got into slack key strictly for the love of it,” he explains. “I started living out in Hana back in the ’80s and I heard a lot of slack key mostly on albums. Probably the first album I heard was Gabby Pahinui’s ‘Brown Album.’ Then Sons of Hawaii and Raymond Kane. I just loved the vibe, and I’d always have cassettes in the car when I’d go back and forth from Hana to Kahului. Eventually it became like a second career.”

Recording his first slack key album, “Coconut Hat,” in 1999, which featured delightful tracks like “‘Ulupalakua Sunset,” he held release parties on Maui and Oahu and met guitarist Ozzy Kotani. “He said, ‘Some of your stuff reminds me a bit of Keola Beamer.’ Once I checked out Keola’s solo records, I thought, this is really beautiful.”

Beginning with an acoustic guitar at 12, he soon graduated to rock. “Rock and roll has been in my blood since I was a teenager,” he notes.

Eventually hired by “Weird Al” Yankovic, West has played lead guitar with him for more than 40 years. “Al’s a very sweet guy,” he says. “It’s been really beautiful because Al doesn’t tour every year. When he’s not touring has given me time to have my second career with slack key.”

A prolific musician, he won a Grammy in 2021 for Best New Age album for “More Guitar Stories,” which he described as a “slack key, new age, jazz, funk, Celtic, Americana and Indian classical mashup.”

“A number of years ago, I decided since I have so many other influences, I would do an album that was more like slack key meets other genres,” he explains. “I did my first one called ‘Guitar Stories,’ and then a few years later, I did ‘More Guitar Stories.’ So it’s not really a Hawaiian record, but it does incorporate a lot of slack key techniques and tunings into the material.”

His appreciation for Indian music led to an extraordinary collaboration with Indian producer Siddhant Bhatia, composer Raghav Mehta and pianist Charu Suri. They created a music project called “Sounds of Kumbh” celebrating the Maha Kumbh Mela, a spiritual pilgrimage that happens once every 144 years, and filmed music videos in India in February. The 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela attracted an estimated 660 million people, making it the world’s largest gathering.

“It was kind of overwhelming, to say the least,” he says. “I had never been to India. We did a live performance on the banks of the Ganges at sunset, which was on national television. And then when we got back to Delhi, we went on CNN India. It was an unforgettable experience. I’m very proud of the music. It’s going to be a fantastic project. I think it’s going to be a real contender in the Grammys.”

Back in 2020 he was involved in another unusual project, “Aloha Radio Hawaii.”

“It’s on a Chinese label that does a lot of eclectic world music,” he explains. “They wanted to do a modern version of classic Hawaiian music, from the ’40s and ’50s. We recorded it all live in the studio in L.A. in a circle, old style. My friend Ken Emerson played some great steel guitar, and we had Dean Parks, a famous guitarist, who played with Steely Dan and many people. It wasn’t very successful commercially, but it was really a beautifully done record. It just sounds like music from that era.”

Other unique collaborations he has recently been involved with include “Kimo Vito” with multi-instrumentalist Vito Gregoli. With intriguing covers of “Let It Be,” Sting’s “Fragile” and Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” it featured an array of instruments, including sitar, tabla, tricordia mandolin, charango lute and Irish bouzouki. “We have another album that’s going to come out this summer,” he says.

Then there’s a collaboration with acclaimed harp guitarist Muriel Anderson, who recently played on Maui. “We ended up recording about 10 or 12 songs,” he says. “Basically, it’s a lot of classic country songs, done in a little more of a Hawaiian slack key style. Songs like ‘Always on My Mind,’ beautiful tunes, and we played them pretty much live. She had some ideas of getting some famous people involved. So we’re still waiting to see if that pans out.”

West will perform at George Kahumoku, Jr.’s Slack Key Show at the Napili Kai Beach Resort at 6:30 p.m. April 23. Tickets are $42 and $63. More details are available at Kahumoku.com/calendar .