Music Legends on Maui: Conversations with Icons of Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, Hawaiian, Soul & Reggae in Paradise, by Jon Woodhouse (Maui: Arkadia Maui, 2022)
Here is the Amazon.com blurb:
Compiling more than 80 interviews conducted over four decades, Music Legends on Maui presents intriguing profiles of many icons, from Willie Nelson, Prince, and Paul Simon, to B.B. King, Herbie Hancock, and Joan Baez, with unique insights into their creative and spiritual paths.
Here are innovative trailblazers, prophets, revolutionaries, and influential artists who have shaped the course of music into the 21st century, many referencing how the Hawaiian islands impacted them.
Arranged in genre chapters, it opens with a “Maui No Ka Oi” section devoted to acclaimed artists who live or lived on Maui. Other sections include “Troubadours,” “California Dreaming,” “Take Me to the River,” “Mele o Hawai‘i,” “Sundown in Nashville,” “Rock & Roll Music,” “Round Midnight,” “Why I Sing the Blues,” and “Reggae Got Soul,” plus an extensive bibliography and photos.
Offering a unique social/cultural history, it covers civil rights, segregation, environmental movements, Hawaiian sovereignty, and the power of music to inspire and raise consciousness. Harry Belafonte confronting the KKK, Carl Perkins defending the “Devil’s rock” music, Joan Baez at the March on Washington, John Lennon protesting censorship, Hugh Masekela and apartheid, Willie Nelson championing small farmers, Bonnie Raitt at Standing Rock, and the impact of TM on the Beatles, the Beach Boys and The Doors.
Jon Woodhouse has covered entertainment for The Maui News since 1983.
For Hawaiian music fans, Ch. 6 “Mele o Hawaiʻi” includes the following musicians:
- Eddie Kamae
- Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwoʻole
- Henry Kapono
- Keola Beamer
- Kealiʻi Reichel
- Willie K
- Amy Hanaialiʻi
- Kalani Peʻa
- Radiate Helm
- Jake Shimabukuro
- Paula Fuga
Hawaiian Music for Listening Pleasure 