Eric Gilliom follows sister Amy with a finely crafted album.
MUST Hawaiian-language music be limited to styles of music traditionally defined as "Hawaiian?" Eric Gilliom doesn't think so.
Several songs on his debut album smoothly embroider Hawaiian words and phrases onto soulful pop or light urban-jazz ar- rangements. Others update the definition of "hapa-haole" to include contemporary electronic instruments and African-American influences.
Gilliom draws on an equally eclectic spectrum of composers - Keali'i Reichel, Keli'i Tau'a, Van Morrison, Maurice White and Stevie Wonder. It's to his credit none of the remakes sounds like a clone of the original. Nor does the diversity dilute the underlying sense of pride in his Hawaiian heritage.
Gilliom and producer-arranger Wendell Warrington have also succeeded in creating an album that is as imaginative and finely crafted as that of his sister, Amy Gilliom, but which doesn't repeat the sound of her project, "Native Child," one of the most impressive local albums of 1995.
"Into the Mystic" reaches a similar milestone of creativity in contemporary local music.
Island Fever By Warren Johnson (Moon Surfer Records)
Country artist Warren Johnson offers tales of the tropics.
WARREN Johnson has been Hawaii's most prominent country music recording artist for the past decade.
"You've Never Been Loved," off his obscure 1986 debut album, is as good a country song as anything ever recorded here.
Johnson has also been Hawaii's only active country music recording artist in the past decade. Given the fact that Hawaii may be the only state in the nation that lacks a country-music radio station it's also not surprising that Johnson's third album finds him writing and recording in a softer country-tropical pop style. Think Marty Robbins meets Jimmy Buffett and you have the idea.
Several songs sound autobiographical: Malihini man meets and falls in love with a beautiful island woman. Similar tales are set in other tropical climes.
Catchiest on first listen are a pair of rockers. "Don't You Play Me (Like That)," is hot country rock reminiscent of "You've Never Been Loved."
"Romantic Night (Wish You Were Here)" is similar - and equally appealing.
Also notable is the title song, "Island Fever (Roll With The Flow)" - an easy hang-loose style song sweetened instrumentally by the nimble fingers of keyboardist Billy Bob Jaros. It should be getting play on Hawaii's adult-oriented island radio stations.