Slacking is a Good Thing in Hawaii

What many don’t know about Kahumoku is that he earned a master degree in sculpture, from University of California, Berkeley. “His class had 284 students,” said Roy Horner, a former Kamehameha School classmate. “He graduated at the top of his class.”

Besides making a profitable living from playing music, Kahumoku also teaches art at a Hawaiian-learning-based school in South Kona, a school that he helped materialize, and has been the principal for many years.

Kahumoku is also an avid farmer. “I like to play with dirt,” he said. On his homestead land in Lahaina, he grows 60 varieties of taro, nine varieties of sweet potato, and six varieties of bananas, among many other things. “And the land is only small,” he said. “Only 6,000 square feet.” This sustainable-living obsessed musician even uses the water dripping from his air-conditioned system to grow water-cress.

Every Wednesday Kahumoku performs at the Napili Kai Beach Resort, on Maui. If you happen to be on Maui, the resort is about 12 miles north of Lahaina, and the shows are at 7:30 p.m.