KILAUEA — He’s played with the best, and it’s easy to hear. Slack-key talent Pancho Graham, a self-proclaimed surfer and bassist at heart, has a sound that encapsulates the airy vibrations classical of this genre, coupled with a surfer folk-tale quality that reminisces wistfully to waiting for perfect swells at the water’s edge, in the shade of the pine trees.
Regardless of the lyrics, however, Graham’s anecdotes continue even during the instrumental portions of his music, as he hums and plucks: placid, sea-inspired images are continuously evoked during his performance without words.
It’s fitting, therefore, that Graham’s soon-to-be released album is called “Pine Tree Slack Key.” Though he’s a North Shore-ian, the term refers less to Pine Trees the beach and more to the pine trees that abound in that area.
“It refers to the pine trees that are the shelter when you wait for waves,” Graham said.
It’s among those trees that Graham and his daughter, Maxine, an artist, searched for images that would epitomize this concept.
“(Maxine) is a photographer,” Graham said. “We were taking pictures of all these locations and we ended up with a lot of images. …Then she offered to do an original painting for the (album) cover.”
The album, and cover artwork of which Graham is especially proud, will debut this week, he said.
Much like pointing to the contributions of his daughter, Graham would rather demonstrate the accolades of others than his own, which perhaps explains why he is so pleasant to talk with and listen to.
He doesn’t need to drop names because his music tells you right away of his informed talent. However, it can’t hurt that he has played with such names as slack-key icon Gabby Pahinui, guitar greats Taj Majal and the Hula Blues Band, locally-grown artist Carlos Andrade of the band Na Pali and the band Kuapaianaha with Manulele Dudoit and Pat Cockett.
Originally from O‘ahu, Graham had been inspired by slack-key guitar ever since he could remember, he said.
“After that, I moved here,” he said. “My influences include the Na Pali band, Lady Ipo Kahaunaele,” he said. “Ipo is a superb ‘ukulele player and vocalist, and just a great model of aloha. I’ve known her a long time. …Her daughter (Kainani, who has won four Na Hoku Hanohano awards) became a haku mele… so I started playing with her, too, and we recorded an album in 2004.”
Graham also plays bass on Kainani’s most recent album, along with some slack-key guitar.
“I’m really proud of that,” he said. “That’s one of the first times I’ve played slack-key on someone else’s album.” The album will be available through Mountain Apple Records, he said, entitled “Ohai Ula.”
Getting his start in music was a bit of a dream, Graham said, one that started early on in life.
“I kind of dabbled around mostly as a bass player,” he said, noting he met both Andrade and Pahinui when he first moved to Kaua‘i in the ‘70s.
“By the late ‘70s we were playing together,” Graham said. “They’re folk musicians — the real thing.”
Graham said inspirations for the band included the sounds that typified those of Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawai‘i, incorporating a classic combo of steel guitar, bass, ‘ukulele and slack key.
Graham said that through the years he emulated their style, however, it wasn’t until a surfing accident in 2001 left him with a broken leg that he had the time to put down the bass and pick up a slack-key guitar.
“I was laid up for six weeks, and that’s when I had my breakthrough,” he said. “I had to get moving around. That was my opportunity.”
Graham likened the experience to a child teaching oneself through practicing relentlessly.
“I would play for four hours a day,” he said.
It also seems an apt way to spend the day for the lifestyle of this laid-back surfer musician. Playing slack-key guitar at his regular Thursday-night gig at The Lighthouse Bistro, he fills the restaurant with that same laid-back atmosphere. Not to say Graham can’t pick the string with the speed or proficiency that is one of the slack-key tests, but his playing seems like a summer day at Pine Trees — breezy and relaxing. The connection is also quite literal as Graham announced during his most recent first set that he will be trying to “play as many Hanalei songs as he can.”
Besides pine trees, other inspirational muses for Graham include his wife of 29 years, captured in his original song, “Rose of Ko‘olau.” Graham’s wife’s passion is horses, he said, but he and his daughter try and “drag her to the beach” every now and then.
For those who don’t want to catch him on a Thursday night, Graham has a self-released album coming out this week (June 15), available at the Hawaiian music store at the North Shore kiosk, or on his website: www.ponchograham.com.
