Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 5, 1 ʻApelila 2008 — Kama Hopkins [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kama Hopkins

OHA Board of Trustees staff, Hawaiian music recording artist and entertainer, grand-nephew of Genoa Keawe and distant realtive of Raymond Kane

He loved to talk about his many music students. What he did say about himself is he didn't mind what other people called "simple music" because to him simple was beautiful. And it's true. Sometimes when we musicians try to get too fancy, we lose the fluidity of the song. The feeling is more important than the fancy tricks. The man could sing. He had a big bellowing voice. He kept things at the deep end, and he sounded so authentic like he was straight out of 1901. See KANEen pege 24

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KANE CūūtiūUEd fram page Ū3

Haunani Apoliona And there is another side to her. Out of her 12 children, only three survivors. So nine passed and something like that is so very difficult for the parent. But she always persevered and used self-sufticiency. Her philosophy was go to work, get ahead and do it right with ethics and honesty! Raymond Kane was the same way. Just hard-work-ing. There they would be. just ordinary people in Like Like Drive Inn after a night of work. I got to know Ray Kane as a result of touring with Dancing Cat (recording label) and being with him at the Washington, D.C., Folk Life Festival. He was a man who loved life and had his gems of wisdom: "I rest my case!" "Say no more!" It was your kupuna talking. (Laughter.) Elodia (Kane's wife) brought grace to that burly man. We learned when we traveled with him that he would tune his guitar to his voice. As a result, if you just want to jump in and play, your guitar is out of tune. But he stuck to what he did best. S