STEEL GUITAR PERFORMERS TO TAKE CENTER STAGE AT THE
SECOND ANNUAL HAWAIIAN STEEL GUITAR FESTIVAL
DOVER-Steel Guitar performers and groups from around the country will stage the
Second Annual Joseph Kekuku Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival at Dover’s
historic Baker Theater located at 41 W. Blackwell Street on October 8, 2005.
Highlighting this year’s festival will be “The Moonlighters”,
a Hawaiian style band featuring music from the 20s and 30s, harmonizing to the
sounds of the steel guitar, ukulele, guitar and bass. This is a very popular
group on the New York City scene. “The Cokers” are a husband
and wife duo from Texas that plays true Hawaiian guitar music learning from the
master himself, Sol Hoopi. Uke Jackson is a popular steel guitarist who
has performed on television in New York City and has his own radio show on WNTI
in Hackettstown, N.J.. The “Ewa Hawaiian Trio” is a group from
New York City that performs the “hot” style Hawaiian music on the
vintage National Steel Instruments.
Other performers include Mike Scott, a Hawaiian guitar player from the Hawaiian
Steel Guitar Association. Gene Wilson is from Mt. View, Arkansas who plays
the acoustic steel guitar learning from the Oahu School of Music. Lorene
Ruymar and her husband will travel from Vancouver, B. C. Canada. Ms. Ruymar
is the author of “The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians” which
is considered the “bible” of Hawaiian Steel Guitar music. Larry
Catrone is a popular comic and playwright who has appeared on radio and television
including the Joe Franklin Show. He performs a comedy routine with his
ukulele. Dave Giegrich travels from Ellicott, Maryland and plays steel
guitar with the popular “Hula Monsters” a well know group that
keeps the music of the islands alive.
Another performer, Doctor Robert Garth of Sparta and his wife Barbara have great
appreciation for Hawaiian and Country and Western music. That appreciation
is in the form of the steel guitar. Dr. Garth’s love for the steel
guitar is so great that he taught himself to play the Hawaiian Steel Guitar,
became a member of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association and performs regularly
at their annual convention in Joliet, Illinois and locally in Sussex County. Now
Dr. Garth, a Chiropractor from Sparta and Barbara have added to that love by
assisting the Dover Renaissance Organization and the Dover Area Historical
Society in organizing the annual Hawaiian Music Festival.
Mike Esposito, co-founder of the annual Joseph Kekuku Hawaiian Steel Guitar
Festival lives in Chester, New Jersey and plays all styles of the slide guitar. He
has been performing on the “National” steel guitar since the early
1970s and has toured Europe, appeared on national television and performed at
Lincoln Center. Esposito’s talent has gained him national recognition
while performing with such groups as Asleep At The Wheel, The Ventures, Bill
Monroe and John Hartford to name just a few. He has also appeared on
over 15 albums by various artists and has performed in concerts, clubs, festivals,
radio and TV.
Realizing that a truly great man who changed the entire music industry with the
Hawaiian style guitar was buried in Dover, New Jersey, Mr. Esposito reached out
to the Dover Area Historical Society to organize an event to honor Mr. Kekuku’s
memory and raise enough money to erect a new monument at his gravesite. The
historical society together with the Dover Renaissance organization and the
Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association plan the one-day festival each year.
This year’s festival begins at 4:00 pm on October 8th with a memorial service
at the gravesite of Joseph Kekuku in the Orchard Street Cemetery. There
will be two services at the cemetery; one English-style ceremony and the other
Hawaiian-style with the Island’s customs, costumes, dance and chants. At
6:00 pm there will be a social hour and a light buffet dinner at the Baker, with
the stage presentation of steel guitar music and entertainment starting at 8:00
pm. On Sunday after a morning visit to the downtown flea market, there
will be a farewell ceremony at the gravesite of Joseph Kekuku starting at 12
noon.
Joseph Kekuku invented the Hawaiian Steel Guitar at a very young age while living
in Hawaii. During his life, he traveled around the world and appeared before
kings and queens demonstrating this pleasing soft sound. Later in life,
he toured the vaudeville circuit with his Hawaiian String Quintet. In the
late 1920s, he decided to settle down in Dover and gave music lessons as a means
of support. He passed away in 1932 while residing at 88 Prospect Street
and was buried in the nearby Orchard Street Cemetery. Over the years
since his 1885 invention, the Hawaiian Steel Guitar sound has been adopted
by other
forms of music including country, the blues and most recently rock.
Tickets are now on sale at $26 per person for the dinner and show and $10 per
person for the 8 PM show only with balcony seating. Tickets are available
on-line at www.mikeneer.com/kekukufest.htm. For more information call
(973) 366-0996.
Thank you for your support: George
Laurie/Museum Curator (973) 361-6205
For information on performers, please call Mike Esposito at (973) 879-8113