Quincy Cortez plucks at a slim black box laid across his legs, his fingers flashing silver. Steel strings twang with each pull from the metal rings — wearable guitar picks — adorning his right thumb, ...

Is Hawaiian steel guitar the most endangered of the instruments associated with contemporary Hawaiian music? You wouldn’t know it from the number of CDs that Hawaii’s major steel guitarists have ...

The Hawaiian steel guitar became a cultural force in America at the turn of the century, popularized by troupes of traveling musicians from Hawaii. It evolved beyond its association with a tropical ...

When Alan Akaka was growing up, a young musician in his teens and 20s in Honolulu, he played steel guitar with some of the top names in Hawaiian music. When they spoke, he listened: ...

They were Mexican workers on foreign soil and, as usual, they brought their music with them. It is believed to have been the 1830s and the workers were cowboys, brought to the Waimea area of Hawaii’s ...

Rev. Dennis Kamakahi performs at the 2012 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia With his quiet dignity and self-assurance, leadership becomes Slack Key guitarist Reverend Dennis ...

The demise of the Hawaiian Grammy was sewn into its birth. The problem began In 2005, when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded the first ever Grammy for Best Hawaiian Music ...

Henry Kapono Kaaihue was already a well-known performer, with decades on stage and dozens of best selling CDs, when he met his wife-to-be, Lezlee. She was a successful, trained-on-the-job stockbroker ...

Steel guitar music started on the island of Oahu — and teachers there are working with the next generation of students to continue the tradition. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Quincy Cortez ...