Sol K. Bright, Hawaiian musician

February 4, 2011 9:58 PM

Let's head down to the sunny Hawaii of the 1930s and pay Sol K. Bright a visit, shall we? His charming vocal work and masterfully playful guitar wizardry are sure to please! Hawaiian Cowboy - Honolulu How Do You Do? - Tomi Tomi - La Rosita. Aloha!
posted by flapjax at midnite (11 comments total)

that made me smile real hard. and giggle.

because it's a strange juxtaposition of sounds i'm very used to.. country western, harmonic major chord progressions, lap steel solos... coupled with a vocal style i've never heard at all and would NEVER EXPECT
posted by special agent conrad uno at 10:05 PM on February 4, 2011

Hawaiian Cowboy, you say?
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:18 PM on February 4, 2011

Yup, I'd come across that Muppets bit, BOP, and briefly thought I'd include it somehow in this post, but... that's what comments are for, eh? Yee-ha!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:28 PM on February 4, 2011

How did Bright get that guitar sound, flapjax? Is he playing thimble-finger slide so he can mute or pick some strings while leaving one to slide, or what? It's really lovely.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:43 PM on February 4, 2011

I don't know, BOP. Maybe one of the geetar-playing Mefiers round these parts will be able to answer the question.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:54 AM on February 5, 2011

This music is objectively good, according to the MRI scan I did upon myself, which can be extrapolated to all of humanity (although there will be irrelevant outliers).
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:05 AM on February 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sol's 1986 rendition of Hawaiian Cowboy.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:37 AM on February 5, 2011

Fabulous post on one of the great '30s artists (right up there with Atilla the Hun). Thanks! Never in a billion years did I dream there was live latterday footage of the marvelous Sol.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:35 AM on February 5, 2011

I really enjoyed this, and was quickly spamming friends with the 1986 performance. That is some hep jivin' right there. Thank you.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 7:40 AM on February 5, 2011

BOP and FAM:
If you want to see one of the great modern practitioners of this fine art than Bob Brozman is your man [SLYT skip to 2:10]. If the guitar he's using looks familiar, well it should!

Thanks for this informative post~~
posted by damo at 12:37 PM on February 5, 2011

BOP, he's playing a lap steel with fingerpicks and thumbpick I'm pretty sure. Not sure what the tuning is, C6 maybe.
posted by unSane at 8:52 AM on February 6, 2011