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Hawaiian slack key guitar music is one of the great acoustic guitar traditions and George Kahumoku Jr. is one of its masters. In slack key, some of the strings are slacked from the standard tuning, with the thumb playing the bass while the other fingers play the melody and improvisation in a finger-picked style. The roots of slack key can be traced to the 1830s, when Spanish and Mexican cowboys brought the guitar to the Islands. The Hawaiians quickly adopted it, creating many ingenious tunings originally to match the key of the vocals and to suit their music. Slack key or ki ho'alu, literally “loosen the key,” is accompaniment to vocals, instrumental compositions, or instrumental interpretations of vocal pieces. Like blues guitar, the slack key tradition is very flexible and can have great emotional depth; ki ho'alu reflects the aloha (joy) and mana (spirit) of Hawaii.

George was raised on the Big Island of Hawaii where, in his large musical 'ohana (family), he was exposed daily to traditional Hawaiian music and ki ho'alu. His parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents played guitar or ukelele in the ki ho'alu style. He has said that "I learned the traditional way--nana, observe, and when you observe you're not only observing with your eyes, you're observing with your whole being.... We had 26 cousins in the same household growing up together, and one kid would learn one part and they'd teach the others and that's how we learned, from one cousin to the next." At age 13, he began playing music professionally with the legendary singer/songwriter Kui Lee and was soon performing regularly all over the islands. After graduating from a mainland college, he returned to Hawaii where he began playing with his younger brother as the Kahumoku Brothers, together they toured all over the world. In 1991, they were joined by George's son Keoki Kahumoku who occasionally continues to join his father recording, conducting slack key guitar workshops, and performing, including at the 2003 Great Lakes Folk Festival. In 1997 George released his first record with George Winston's Dancing Cat Record label. His "Hawaiian Love Songs" was nominated for a Grammy and voted "Best Traditional Folk Album of the Year" in 2001. George collaborated with Daniel Ho on "Hymns of Hawaii," which won the 2001 Hoku Award as the Best Religious Album of the Year.

George is the recipient of two Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, given by the Hawai'ian music industry. In addition to being highly regarded for his musicianship, George is also acclaimed for his knowledge of traditional cultivation and fishing techniques, for developing Hawaiian-culture based curriculum, and, as a lover of traditional Hawaiian food, for hosting a cooking show in Hawaii.

http://www.dancingcat.com/dancingcat/about-hawaiian.shtml
http://www.slackkey.net/
http://www.kahumoku.com/index.htm