Coming Home
An island guitarist with a debut CD
offers lyrics of wanderlust
and flavors of home
It took a move to the East Bay of California for local musician Steve Inglis to allow his muse to go full flow.
"A lot of the songs came during a hot period for writing last summer," he said earlier this week from his Berkeley home. "I went into the studio in October to record them." The former guitarist for popular bands Red Session and Palolo Jones hadn't been in a group situation there for some months, so he was working on his chops, "exploring open tunings and playing more acoustic guitar."
Inglis will premiere his debut CD, "Fringes of the Wayside," with accompaniment by percussionist Petro Bass and local bassist Lono Ka'umeheiwa, and special guests/friends Mary's Meltdown tomorrow night at Hard Rock Cafe. (Inglis is keeping his fingers crossed that the CD will be ready for sale at the gig, but it will be available at his Web site at steveinglis.com, as well as the indie music site cdbaby.com.)
Musical moment
Steve Inglis CD release party with special guest Mary's Meltdown:Where: Hard Rock Cafe, 1837 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow
Admission: Free
Call: 955-7383
Also: 8 p.m. Tuesday, "Songwriters' Night" with James McCarthy at O'Toole's Pub, 902 Nuuanu Ave., 536-4138
"Going to Northern California marked a big change," he said. "Me and my wife moved here at the end of '02. I ended up joining a band for a few months but then left to woodshed on my own, with the intent of exploring something new. ... Some of the songs have matured more; others were literally 2-3 weeks old. I've written a bunch of songs since then, and my playing is more finger-style since I'm no longer in a band."
An advance listen to five of the tracks from Inglis' album reveals a confident musical vision. It's a pleasant selection of songs with a Hawaiian-folk flavor, with lyrics filled with colorful images of wanderlust. Songs like "Blues for Tonight" and "Something About October" even have a sound reminiscent of the first Olomana album from back in the day.
"I've been writing metaphorically, more than straightforward songs. Bob Dylan has a been a big influence, plus Neil Young and Richard Thompson."
Inglis comes from a musical family, the middle of three children. "I liked music as a real little kid, so I started playing piano at age 5. I was taught using the Suzuki method by Kenneth Ishida, who used to have a studio at Kalakaua and King. I actually remember playing with Dr. Suzuki at age 6 at Orvis Auditorium. It was a recital devoted to students of his method, and Dr. Suzuki was visiting, so we played a piano-violin duet.
"I remember being so nervous that I bowed with my back to the audience."
After he stopped playing the piano about three years later, Inglis spent some years as a member of the Honolulu Boy Choir. At 14 he broke away to learn rock guitar. He admits that he's "still into Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd," thanks, in part, to his older drumming brother, Daniel; they shared a time in Palolo Jones.
Before Palolo Jones, Inglis played with reggae ska band Red Session during 1993-95. When he opted not to join the band when they moved to the Golden State, Inglis split his time between Palolo Jones and Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann's House of Spirits, located on Kauai. "But the local scene had gotten a little stale for me, and I wanted to see what else was out there and explore a little more," he said.
The product of that exploration will be heard tomorrow night at Hard Rock.
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