For his next project, Peter Rowan has chosen to focus on the music of his adopted home state on My Aloha.
The one time Blue Grass Boy has been spending as much time as he can while not touring in the continental US in Hawaii, where he has become quite fond of the native folk music that has developed there.
So it’s ukuleles and steel guitar on the new album, due May 5 from Omnivore Records. The record will feature 11 new Rowan compositions, recorded with noted Hawaiian musicians Douglas Po’oloa Toletino, Jeff Au Hoy, Kilin Reece, and Uncle Mike Souza.
Peter says that he’s found a number of similarities between Hawaiian music and his bluegrass roots.
“It’s always some old fiddler in the crew who knows the oldest tunes, a slack key guitarist who pulls out the most obscure, haunting, and most beautiful song just when it seems the party is over — around the break of day. From old missionary hymns, ragtime jazz, the blues, and what Jelly Roll Morton called the Spanish ‘tinge,’ bluegrass inherited much from Hawaiians and traditional Hawaiian music.”
Here’s a taste in this video trailer.
Pre-orders for My Aloha are available now online.
