Henry Kapono - Merry Christmas To You (1998)
When I vacationed in Hawaii in 2009 I discovered that the islands' music was one way the formerly independent kingdom celebrated their unique heritage. When scanning the car radio dial it was easy to find stations that programmed nothing but Hawaiian music, and some of them were broadcasting entirely in the fiftieth state's native language. While in Honolulu I discovered Grammy winner Henry Kapono who's been one of Hawaii's most loved musical icons for decades. Known almost exclusively in the 50th state, Kapono is a versatile musician and singer-songwriter who helps to keep his beloved culture alive while exploring mainstream pop-rock and many other genres over his long career. In 2006 Kapono recorded a rock album while singing all of the songs in the island's indigenous tongue on The Wild Hawaiian . On other occasions he's played acoustic folk-rock and straight-ahead pop music, almost all of it in English. For many yea...