HSGA QUARTERLY Published four times a year in Honolulu, Hawai‘i by the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association Volume 35, Issue 138 Spring 2020 Inside this Issue… “Live-Streamed Steel Guitar 2 Showcases” from HIMELE “Introducing Ethan Goore” 3 by Teri Gorman Coco Wire – News and 3 Member Gossip “Lani Kai” – Steel 8 Arrangement by John Ely “Board News” by Teri An encore photo of a very young Lorene Ruymar playing her brand new National New 10 Gorman Yorker with her first group, the Regina-based Mauna Kea Hawaiians circa 1947. “HSGA Scholarship 10 Update” by Alan Akaka Aloha A Hui Hou E Lorene Ruymar! Hawaiian Steel Guitar By John Ely to her credit. Her major publication, The 10 Events Calendar Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great It is with great sadness that we Hawaiian Musicians, is a landmark 11 Vintage Photos – Lani report the passing of our HSGA club book about the history of the Hawaiian McIntire circa 1930 founder, Lorene Lillian Ruymar, at age steel guitar. The cover photo shows leg- Closing Notes – Ron 89 this past June 9. There would surely endary steel guitarist Sol Ho‘opi‘i hold- 14 Simpson, Paul Weaver be no HSGA were it not for Lorene’s ing a National Tri-cone Hawaiian steel lifetime of devotion and dedication to guitar. It is full of history, photos of “A Tale of Two Marines” by our instrument and the countless hours instruments and musicians. (This book 14 Frank Della-Penna she put in, organizing and promoting is still available online.) 15 Member Donation the club, producing it’s newsletter, “The second publication is an Acknowledgements maintaining the club database and all instruction manual using the A major Treasurer’s Report from that goes along with keeping an asso- tuning. Lorene told me she felt that the 16 Roberto Alaniz ciation like ours afloat. A tuning was an easy way to teach This from HSGA President Frank chord structure because the first three 16 HSGA New Member Della-Penna: “The passing of Lorene strings reflect the first, third, and fifth Acknowledgement Ruymar is a tremendous loss to the tones of the scale. Lorene always world of Hawaiian music. In addition to enjoyed writing in a folksy style and founding HSGA, Lorene has two books Continued on Page 4 HSGA QUARTERLY Volume 35, Issue 138 Live-Streamed Steel Guitar Showcases! In response to the rash of cancella- HST (Hawaiian Standard Time) featur- tions of steel guitar festivals this spring ing Steve Cheney and Kapono Lopes. and summer, the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Also appearing will be Ke Kula Mele Show case, a production of HIMELE, NextGen performers. OFFICERS has been presenting live-streamed per- Jeff Au Hoy and Bobby Ingano will Frank Della-Penna (DC), President formances of your favorite steel guitar be featured on the October 31 showcase Margie Mays (AZ), Vice-President Roberto Alaniz (CA), Secretary-Treasurer masters. Be advised, however, that the along with NextGen performers, also at original schedule has been changed due 3 PM HST. DIRECTORS Jack Aldrich, Seattle to newly enacted social distancing The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Show- Teri Gorman, California restrictions for Hono lulu County. Also, cases are presented free to the public. John Limbach, Montana Chris Ruppenthal, Wisconsin be alert to further changes, as the new You can access the streams from either Mike Wittmer, Fort Collins schedule shown here is contingent on of the following websites: FORMER DIRECTOR EMERITUS the lifting of those restrictions. Jerry Byrd The next live-streamed showcase is • The Showcase Facebook Page: JAPAN COORDINATORS scheduled for September 26 at 3 PM https://www.facebook.com/ Masakatsu Suzuki, Shinichi Kakiuchi HawaiianSteelShowcase QUARTERLY EDITOR • The Showcase Events Page: John Ely <[email protected]> Mahalo, Members! WEBMASTER https://www.hawaiiansteelguitarfes- Mike Wittmer <[email protected]> Keep those great emails, letters and pho- tival.com/showcase/hfscevents.html SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR tos coming! If possible, send original John Mumford photographs or digital camera output. If you would like to support the ORIGINAL CLUB FOUNDER We cannot use grainy or washed out showcase, you can make a contribution Lorene Ruymar (1985) photos. Please send news, comments, or to HIMELE or through the virtual tip STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association is a photos to: HSGA Quarterly, 2145 jar links posted on the Events page. tax-exempt, nonprofit educational corpora- Tiffany Walk, Manteca, CA 95336- Again, stay tuned for possible further tion in the State of Hawai‘i under Section 9555. Email us at [email protected]. schedule changes due to coronavirus 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Our primary purpose is to develop a global net- concerns. “See” you there! n work of players and lovers of traditional Hawaiian music and to encourage the study, teaching, and performance of the Hawaiian At the 2016 Windward Mall steel guitar festival in Kāne‘ohe, Jeff Au Hoy (left), Bobby steel guitar. Our primary financial goal is to Ingano, Eddie Palama, Steve Cheney and Alan Akaka. (Photo courtesy of Don Touchi) provide scholarship assistance through donations to steel guitar students who dem- onstrate the ability and intent to become accomplished performers. MEMBERSHIP Membership is open to all steel guitar play- ers and non-players around the world who support the perpetuation of the Hawaiian steel guitar. Annual dues are US$30. The membership year begins July 1. Members receive the HSGA Quarterly and other group benefits. The Quarterly is mailed four times a year First Class to addresses in the United States and by Air Mail to foreign addresses. Members can obtain an Associate Member- ship for a spouse or family member at a cost of $10, added to the annual dues; an Associ- ate Member is entitled to discounts at certain HSGA functions and can vote in HSGA Board elections. SUBMIT ARTICLES & COMMENTS TO: HSGA Quarterly, 2145 Tiffany Walk, Manteca, CA 95336-9555 USA; E-mail: [email protected]. In addition, email submitted items directly to the editor at [email protected]. Let- ters to the president and general club com- ments should be sent to: Frank Della-Penna, P.O. Box 18323, Washington, DC 20036. 2 Introducing Ethan Goore By Teri Gorman Ethan Goore, who hails from the Kona side of the Big Island, is a promising young steel guitar player, currently studying with Alan Akaka via Skype. He is now seventeen, but has played musical instruments since the age of three, and especially took to the trumpet at age four. His father, Nate, plays bass and ‘ukulele and often accompanies him. Ethan became interested in the steel guitar when he attended one of the steel guitar festivals on Kauaʻi in 2019, and went home and made his own steel guitar out of a ʻukulele! He and his dad are regular attendees of Hawaiian Steel Guitar Week in Waikīkī, and it was there that he approached Alan Akaka about taking lessons. He has been doing weekly Skype lessons with Alan ever since, and his Seventeen-year-old Ethan Goore standing proudly by the Fender dad says he practices a lot. He also is invited to play at pri- triple-neck Stringmaster Don and Lynn Keene donated to him. vate parties and informal events on the Big Island. Ethan grew up in San Fransisco, but his family made appears to be a really nice young man and wanted to know frequent trips to the Big Island and moved there perma- how Don got started in steel, and other details of interest to nently before Ethan started high school. Ethan is currently a him. I also sent him two CDs of Don’s so he knows what junior at Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy (HPA). style of steel playing Don had. I will be going back to Hawaiian culture and music are a big part of Ethan’s life, Hawaiʻi as a tribute to Don at some point when I feel up to and his Hawaiian language class is one of his favorite it and travel restrictions are lifted. And I will be meeting up classes at HPA. with the Goores also.” Ethan has also been a great ambassador for the steel gui- The Keenes’ gift of Don’s steel guitar is particularly help- tar. An important mission of the steel guitar festivals around ful as Ethan has been exploring different tunings recently. Hawaiʻi is to educate and “recruit” another generation of With the triple neck he doesn’t have to retune as much, which players. As such, prominent steel performers at the festivals makes practicing and playing much more fun. Enjoy, Ethan, make it a point to visit and demonstrate steel guitar at mid- and we look forward to hearing you play soon! n dle schools wherever they go. When they came to the Big Island, Ethan arranged the first-ever school visit, and now several students have begun playing. Of course, the “older music” isn’t always the best way to Coco Wire attract middle schoolers, but it turns out that kids now rec- HSGA members to the rescue! President Frank ognize the steel guitar from the music for SpongeBob Della-Penna, in his “Coronavirus Listening List” article Squarepants! Who knew? in the last issue, asked if anyone knew the identity of the guitar player shown in the Myra English YouTube clip. Don Keene’s Donation to Ethan Cookie Isaacs, Barney Isaacs’s widow, writes: Ethan was thrilled to learn that he would be the recipient of “Aloha, Frank.” “The trio at the Blue Dolphin Room Don Keene’s triple-neck Fender, seen at many a convention was: Myra English, Sonny Chillingworth on guitar, and over the years.