FREE SONG: "A Hui Hou Hawai'i"

When I was a Calvin & Hobbs aged boy, I lived with my father and sisters in Hawaii. Mom was an anthropologist living on the Island of Fiji at the time, studying Fijian Fire Walking, while we kids played on beaches, went to traditional “kill-a-pig-with-spears-and-roast-in-pit-luaus”. We  explored lava tubes, marveled at blow holes - we were at home on the islands. (Thats me and my dad in the picture, in our house on Ka'avakea Road). 

I was a quiet, day dreamy kind of boy. I loved my stuffed dog “Waffy”, and I loved the Kikaider, (a super hero automaton, known mostly to Hawaii children in the 70’s.  He protected two small kids while driving them around in a motorcycle and sidecar). This was before Star Wars blew my mind, before indianan Jones turned my clothing to “all-safari, all the time”. This was before we lived in India, and before we traveled in Thailand, Hong Kong, etc.  

This was my beginging, as much as I can remember. 

We had a small hale (home) under a big Banyan Tree, on the Island of Oahu. The Banyan, by the way, was so big it’s branches covered the whole block, and it held many treehouses. But it was our house, and me and my sisters, and the family dog, lucky, all spent many days in or under this Banyan. 

This is the first family home I remember, and so Hawaii feels like my original home. If you’ve been to my house, you’ve seen this. A oddly functioning blend of steampunk and Hawaiiana (come to think of it, our new album cover is the same oddly functioning blend). I eat a lot of Hawaiian food, listen to a LOT of Hawaiian music (from Gabby Pahinui to Kahulanui), speak a little ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and I think of myself as Kama’ania (meaning: from the islands, though not of native blood). 

We visited the Islands just before the pandemic hit, and as always, even the smell of the air reminded me of my childhood. On the day we were to leave, I sat in melancholy on the side of the hotel bed, and wrote this song, “A Hui Ho, Hawai’i”, which translates roughly to “Until We meet Again, Hawaii”. 

It’s not an Abney Park style song, as I wrote it in the style of traditional Hawaiian music, or at least, the Hawaiian music from my childhood. In it you’ll hearing me play my six string baritone Mele Ukulele, which I bought from it’s maker, in a little white painted building on the west mountains of Maui.

Here are the lyrics, and the chords, incase anyone wants to play along on Ukulele:

"A Hui Hoa Hawaii"

C
A hui hoa Hawaii

G
Until we meet again

C
You were my home, when I was young,

G
Now you’re my long lost friend.

C
I miss you when I’m home sick, 

F.                                             G
And miss you when I’m gone

C
A hui hoa Hawaii,

G.                                   C
I hope I’m not gone long.

Mahalo my Hawaii

For all the happiness 

Mahalo my Ohana

For the childhood that I miss.

This Ka’mainas crying

Home sick through and through

Cause I miss my hale

A hui hoa, I’ll miss you

This Kane’s hart is breaking

To leave his home behind