The Hawaiian steel guitar became a cultural ... “You will not hear a shred of Hawaiian music.” Sitting in front of his computer, Akaka tilts his video camera down onto his lap, to show how ...

As a teenager, he started playing “Spanish guitar” – that’s what everybody called acoustic guitars before electric guitars were invented. One day, while he picked the strings with his right hand as ...

“For decades through the 20th century the steel guitar was in records and movies and TV, and was so much part of the Hawaiian band. It’s the signature sound of Hawaiian music. It’s like ...