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We were talking last week before the opening of the Merrie Monarch Festival and Paula Fuga was excited. The popular Na Hoku-winning musician had decided to attend the annual hula celebration for the first time as a spectator, before she got the news she would actually perform at the prestigious event, which wrapped up Saturday.
“This is my first time attending as someone who is a fan of music and dance and art and culture,” Fuga explains. “I’ve watched it my whole life on TV, but I never had a reason to go, and this time I said I’ve just got to go. I booked my flight in January, then about a month ago, I got a call to ask if I would sing for a halau. Now I’m singing at Merrie Monarch. All my dreams come true.”
A spellbinding singer, loved for crafting emotionally stirring, soulful music, Fuga released her last recording, the EP “Misery’s End,” in 2010. She has been slowly working toward completing a new album, supported by Kickstarter funding.
She hopes the album, titled “Rain on Sunday,” will be out by September.
“It’s coming along good,” she says. “I’m really excited about it. I have a song called ‘Just a Little Bit,’ which I hope to release as a single in the next couple of months as an appetizer before the album comes out. ‘Just a Little Bit’ and ‘Rain on Sunday’ are my favorite songs right now that I play.”
In the meantime, she can be heard singing with Jack Johnson on a new song by Chucky Boy Chock, “Na Ho’okele Opiopio” (“The Young Navigators”), which has been released to help raise funds for Hawaii’s ocean voyaging canoes.
“Chucky Boy Chock wrote this song in preparation for the worldwide voyage that the Hokule’a has embarked on to encourage and inspire young navigators,” she explains. “He asked Jack to be part of the recording so they could raise money for the voyage. He thought about the female navigators and thought my voice would be perfect to represent the female navigators on the crew.”
Since Johnson first discovered Fuga when he heard her playing at a park near his home, he has been a major supporter of her career.
“It’s a blessing to have him believe in me and support me,” she says. “Jack is so creative and responsible and truly humble. I admire that. It inspires me. He surrounds himself with positive, like-minded people, and I try and be like that as well.”
Born in Louisiana in 1978, Paula moved at an early age to Oahu. Shaped early on by gospel and classic soul, the infectious rhythms of reggae and sweet Hawaiian music, Fuga began playing ukulele in high school, studying under master teacher Roy Sakuma. By her junior year, she was writing songs and poems, and felt the calling to immerse herself in Hawaiiana.
“Music was my first love,” she says. “I remember singing in the car along to the radio. I didn’t really know it was a gift, I just knew that I could sing and that it was special. At the age of 9, I knew that one day I would travel all over the world sharing my music with people, and that music would be the vehicle.”
Besides entrancing people with her music, Fuga enjoys inspiring young people with her story about how she overcame adversity. As a child, she spent time homeless living on the beach and saw how drugs can destroy families.
“Since my career began, I haven’t stopped being an inspirational speaker for various foster youth groups throughout the state,” she says. “It’s something I’m very passionate about. When you go through a traumatic experience and you come out victorious, it’s your kuleana, your responsibility to help those who are in that same situation. I don’t feel obliged to speak to these kids, I feel it’s my responsibility, it’s my calling in life, what I’m meant to do. To show them that they can have a big dream, no matter where you start off, you can achieve your dream.”
Playing the McCoy Studio Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Saturday, Fuga will be accompanied by a bass ukulele player.
“It’s really neat, I love the sound of it,” she enthuses. “I’ll use him for most of the set, and I will play a few songs that are really broken down, just with my ukulele. I’m really looking forward to playing these new songs. There’s going to be a lot more ukulele on the new album. The past couple of years, I’ve been falling in love all over again with my ukulele.”
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Diana Ross has been packing crowds in at her nine-show engagement at Las Vegas’ Venetian Hotel and drawing rave reviews.
“To the younger acts headed to Vegas, take note: This is how it’s done,” praised the Los Angeles Times. “At 71, Ross is the rare veteran voice who hasn’t lost any of her luster.”
* Ross will play the MACC on June 14 and 15. Tickets are $250, $150, $100 and $75, plus applicable fees, and are available through the MACC. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Never Surrender Foundation for at-risk LGBT youth.
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Tickets for John Fogerty’s June 6 concert at the MACC go on sale to the public Saturday. On the Mainland, he’s been playing a “1969” show that highlights the three classic albums – “Bayou County,” “Green River” and “Willy and the Poor Boys” – that Creedence Clearwater Revival released in 1969. But for his Maui show, he’ll perform a spectrum of favorites from throughout his career. His Facebook page notes: “The last time John was in Hawaii was back in 1971!”
* Tickets are $129, $89, $69 and $59, plus applicable fees and are available through the MACC.
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They’re four classically trained women and they rock. Called Bella Electric Strings, the quartet will play the Maui Theatre in Lahaina at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Using Yamaha electric string instruments and a range of effects pedals, their repertoire ranges from classics by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to AC/DC and Nirvana.
“My heroes were all guitar players when I was young, like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Terry Kath of Chicago,” says Bella’s founder, Nina DiGregorio, who has a masters in classical music. “I would take my violin I was learning classical music on and try and pick out their guitar solos. As I got older, I got an electric violin and I thought it would be cool to put together a group with string quartet rock arrangements I had been writing.”
In terms of Hendrix, the ladies rock out to “Purple Haze” “Voodoo Child” and “Red House, “and we have a surprise tip of the hat to Hendrix at Woodstock,” DiGregorio explains. “My favorite band is the Beatles, but my favorite true rock back is Led Zeppelin, so we do a medley of ‘The Rain Song,’ ‘Kashmir’ and a clip of ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ “
As to the Who, “I wrote an entire medley, with ‘Who Are You, ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again,’ ” she says.
Audiences seem to especially love what she terms their guitar hits medley.
“I wrote down every recognizable guitar solo I could think of and transcribed them for violin. Each one of the girls takes turns playing a solo like ‘Crazy Train or ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ It’s real high-energy and it culminates in a crazy way at the end of our show.”
* Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the one-night only show start at $50 and can be purchased by calling Maui Theatre at (808) 856-7900.
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The Institute of Hawaiian Music presents an inaugural “Aloha Maui Music Festival” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens in Kahului. Entertainers include Mailani, Ken Makuakane, George Kahumoku Jr., Na Wai ‘Eha, and halau Pa’u O Hi’iaka under the direction of kumu hula Hokulani Holt.
Proceeds will provide scholarships to students and support educational activities of the institute.
* Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door (with keiki younger than 10 admitted for free) and are available at Bailey House Museum in Wailuku, Bounty Music in Kahului, Mandala in Paia, Lahaina Music, Awakening in Paradise in Kihei and Native Intelligence in Wailuku.
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The Beatles’ cover group the Lonely Heart Shakers Band, featuring Steve Craig, will perform at 6 p.m. Friday at Mulligans on the Blue in Wailea. They play a variety of fab hits from their albums “Meet the Beatles” to “Abbey Road.”
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Entertainment will be presented on two stages at the 18th annual Maui Earth Day Festival on Sunday at the Ke’opuolani Park Amphitheater, behind the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens.
Performers will include Crazy Fingers, Eric Gilliom, Elijah & the Band of Light, Sacred Earth Troupe and Spirit Tribe.
The fest will feature a silent auction with proceeds to benefit the SHAKA Movement’s Maui GMO Crop Moratorium Citizens’ Ballot Initiative.
* Admission is $7, with children admitted for free.