Celebrating Song: Raiatea Helm

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Nominations: Female Vocalist of the Year, Island Music Album of the Year, Favorite Entertainer of the Year, Graphics Award

Album name: “Sea of Love”

The Molokai Dispatch (TMD): Tell us a little about this album.
Raiatea Helm (RH): This album is my sixth project, and it covers the era of 1950s and 60s Hawaiian music. A lot of people aren’t familiar with this type of music, which consists of jazz guitar and percussion. It’s more of a fun sound that I wanted to feature in this album. Eighty percent of this CD was recorded in a live setting so we could capture the feel they had 50 years ago.…

Celebrating Song: Kanohowailuku Helm

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Nominations: Contemporary Album of the Year

Album name: “Contagious”

The Molokai Dispatch (TMD): Tell us a little about this album.
Kanoho Helm (KH): It’s all original music that I wrote, and I’ve always wanted to put out an album of my own music. This is my first full-length album – there are 12 tracks – so hopefully there is more to come.

TMD: Was being nominated for a Na Hoku Award one of your goals?
KH: I’m actually surprised I made the nomination because I didn’t put much time into promotion because I had so much kuleana come up in my personal life and being a part of I Aloha Molokai [group against commercial wind energy], I just didn’t have time.…

Celebrating Song: Eddie Tanaka

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Nominations: Island Music Album of the Year
Album name: “Mystical Molokai”

The Molokai Dispatch (TMD): Tell us a little about this album.
Eddie Tanaka (ET): There are seven original songs and four covers, and a lot of the songs are written for Molokai or have some relation to Molokai. It is basically easy listening music. It was written more or less to remember a place –for people who came to Molokai and went back home, the music would bring them back, which is what I wanted to do. It is something to remember in the future.

TMD: What does this nomination mean to you?…

Celebrating Song

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Three Molokai musicians get Na Hoku nominations.

The Friendly Island will be well represented at the 35th annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. The Awards Show, hosted by the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts (HARA), is an annual event held to celebrate “the connections between music, our culture, and the spirit of aloha,” according to their website.

This year’s awards span 27 categories, and artists must submit their work to HARA’s Board of Governors in advance to be considered for nominations. Molokai natives Raiatea Helm, Eddie Tanaka and Kanoho Helm have each qualified as finalists in various categories in this year’s nominations, from Island Music Album of the year to Favorite Entertainer.…