Island Born

CD Details

For over thirty years, Keola Bemer’s artistry has helped breath new life into slack key guitar music while remaining true to the soul of it’s deeply Hawaiian roots. Keola Beamer is one of Hawai’i’s premier singer/songwriters, arrangers, composers, and slack key guitarists. His well of talent springs from five generations of the Island’s most illustrious musical lineages. The Beamer family traces their roots to the 15th century descendants of King Kamehemeha and Queen Ahiakumai. Keola established himself early as a leader of the wave of contemporary Hawaiian music when he wrote the classic Honolulu City Lights – which is one of the absolute all-time best selling recordings in the history of Hawaiian Music. He is the recipient of several Na Hoku Awards (the Hawaiian Grammys) as well as awards for theater (‘Ulalena, You Somebody) and other creative collaborations. He has performed internationally, including Japan and Germany and recently with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. His first literary venture, Ka ‘Olili – The Shimmering, a collection of island short stories, was third on Hawai’i’s best seller list. Island Born was his first release on ‘Ohe Records.