Ken Emerson will perform Sept. 24 as part of ​​George Kahumoku Jr.’s “Slack Key Show” at the Napili Kai Beach Resort. Courtesy photo

Back in the early 1980s you could find Grammy-winning guitarist Ken Emerson playing at Lahaina’s Pioneer Inn with piano legend David Paquette.

A recording of their time there, “From NOLA to Lahaina,” was released a couple of years ago. Instrumental tracks included “Front Street Blues,” “Lahaina Cake Glide” and “Hawaiian Guitar Blues.” When Boz Scaggs stopped by one night, he was so impressed he spent a week jamming with the duo.

“I lived in Lahaina for a couple of years,” Emerson said. “I hooked up with a great stride piano player, David Paquette, and Bozz Scaggs sat in with us for a week straight. We ended up going to the New Orleans Heritage Festival with him, which was great.”

Besides Scaggs, over the years he’s played with a range of artists from Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir to blues legends Charlie Musselwhite and Taj Mahal.

A virtuoso slack key and lap steel guitar player, Emerson will return to Maui to play George Kahumoku Jr.’s Slack Key Show at the Napili Kai Beach Resort on Sept. 24.

For a few years he’s been combining the two guitar techniques into one guitar.

“Currently I’m playing a dobro,” he explained. “You can play it like a guitar and then, during the middle of a song, I’ll just flip it on my lap without missing a beat and play it like a steel guitar. Most steel players have to have an accompanist playing the rhythm and the bass notes, and I figured out how to do everything on one guitar.”

With a father in the Navy, Emerson and his brother moved to Oahu in the late 1960s and became enamored with vintage Hawaiian records including the jazz and blues styles of Sol Ho’opi’i and Sol K. Bright. They began emulating players from the ’20s and ’30s on vintage instruments and by 1978 they were included on the “HomeGrown III” album.

A year later, the brothers released their landmark album, “The Emersons,” recreating styles not heard on the islands for half a century. Then in 1980 they backed Moe Keale on his “South Sea Island Magic” album.

“My dad had a lot of Hawaiian records, so I learned that music early on,” Emerson recalled. “Later on in the early ’70s, that’s when I discovered Sol (Ho’opi’i). I was looking for old blues recordings, and I kept finding these Hawaiian records. I was like, I’ve got to do this.”

During this period, he hung out with Hawaiian legend Gabby Pahinui.

“Gabby loved us,” he said. “We did some radio shows with Harry Soria (on Territorial Airwaves). Gabby and some of the old guys, Andy Cummings. They all came down to the studio with a bottle of whiskey and a brown bag. We’d be playing live on the air and talking story. Gabby loved us, man.

Emmerson recalled that Pahinui invited him to play at some pretty high-profile gigs such as the Bishop Museum Festival and the Waimanalo Quarry, “which was a stronghold of Hawaiians.”

“We were the only haoles around there for miles,” Emerson said. “They loved us and treated us great. Gabby said, ‘Hey, these guys are doing something right here. This is important what these guys are doing.’ He took me under his wing, and he said, ‘Just do what you do, and you’ll be good.’ He goes, ‘One other thing, if you make a mistake in one song, don’t worry, just get to the ending. That’s all they remember.’

“He was incredible. I’m so glad that I got to spend time with him. And I hooked up with Moe Keale, who was in the Sons of Hawaii with him. We did an album with Moe and traveled all over. I’ve been really lucky. I’m still under the radar, but I’ve done a lot of work. I did the Grammy Awards, and we won that award. I played on other albums that won, like one of my favorite musicians, Donald Fagan.”

Emerson was one of the artists featured on the Grammy Award-winning album, “Slack Key Guitar Vol. 2.” He was the only musician to have two tracks on the collection.

Grammy-winning guitarist Ken Emerson has played with a range of artists from Boz Scaggs and Donald Fagen to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Courtesy photo

How did he connect with Steely Dan’s co-founder?

Emerson is friends with musician Todd Rundgren and had dinner one night at his Kauai house, which Fagen attended.

“I had already been playing and recording with Todd Rundgren,” he explained. “Todd made dinner for us, and a week later, Donald called and says, ‘You want to try something on my album?’ I never thought I’d make it on the record (“Morph the Cat”) but I did. He used some of my guitar work.”

Emerson’s albums include “Slack and Steel,” which included a cover of Bob Marley’s “Small Axe”, as well as “Sacred Slack & Steel Guitar” and “Slackers in Paradise” with Jim Kimo West.

For his latest recording project, Emerson has turned to reggae, releasing the album, “Starlight Reggae,” under the name Kenton Emerson. It includes reggae versions of Stones’ songs and Rundgren’s big hit “I Saw the Light,” with the composer joining him on vocals.

“I played everything on the album but drums,” he said. “Everything’s Jamaican style, either ska or reggae. I did an old Stones’ tune, ‘I Am Waiting,’ from the ‘Aftermath’ album, and there’s a dubbed version that’s really cool. And I covered ‘From Me To You,’ which the Beatles did in ’64.”

Next up he will be featured on a new slack key album produced by Grammy winner T Bone Burnett, in conjunction with a documentary by Maui-based filmmaker Susan Kucera.

“I got a call from John Cruz,” he said. “He says, ‘Ken, I heard you’re coming back. I’m working on a documentary and we want you on there because you do that slack steel style. You’re the only guy.’ I’m like, are you kidding me? So after George’s show, I’m going to hang out in Makawao and then I’m going to go to Hana to record. I had literally nothing on the books. The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Emerson will perform at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Napili Kai Beach Resort’s Aloha Pavilion. Tickets range from $40 to $60, and $35 for kama’aina. For more, go to www.kahumoku.com/calendar.