Call him the man of steel

Bobby Ingano stretches out with old-fashioned country and folk

For Bobby Ingano, it all comes down to trust. The lap steel guitar player was able to play what he felt during recording sessions for his just-released album, "Stranger Here." That's because Ingano genuinely enjoyed playing with his friends Sean Thibadeaux and Milan Bertosa, two-thirds of the acoustic folk-swing band Eleven Gallon Hat.

The Bobby Ingano Trio Opening for Rick Shea In concert: 7:30 p.m. Friday Place: Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts Tickets: $25 Call: 532-8701

For a man well-regarded for his Hawaiian music -- his sweet steel sounds accompanying such acts as the Brothers Cazimero, the Ka'au Crater Boys, Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom and Willie K, and Kekuhi Kanahele -- his new album is straight-up, old-fashioned folk, country, Western swing with, yes, a bit of Hawaiian.

Ingano and the boys will open for country-roots singer-songwriter Rick Shea at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Friday night, and that well-honed chemistry should be evident on stage. (Thibadeaux and Bertosa will also play behind Shea during his set.)

"We've had the idea of doing the album for a while," Thibadeaux said Saturday, as he and Ingano sat in the courtyard of Kaumakapili Church, next door to Ingano's longtime place of employment, Tamashiro Fish Market. "It took three months in all to do the tracking, most of it done live."

"It was hard work, but fun," Ingano added. "That's because Milan and Sean wanted me to create my own stuff. Since I cannot read or write music, I had to put my songs, as I played them out, on cassette, and Milan would then chart it all out.

"It seems my best ideas come to me as I'm ready to fall asleep, when I'm in a relaxed mode."

Although the album includes a select number of cover songs -- in particular, a lovely sambalike reworking of "Rhythm of the Rain," the early '60s Cascades hit, and "After You've Gone," first done by gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, later made popular by Les Paul and Mary Ford -- the bulk of the material are originals by Ingano and Thibadeaux.

Ingano's instrumentals include two versions of "Kalihi Waltz" in different tempos; the ol' time, nahenahe feel of his birthplace, "Lanai City"; "Missing You," dedicated to a certain hula dancer who caught his eye; and an evocative piece that features his mandolin work, "Primrose."

"That one was inspired by my Ukrainian friends in Ohio," Ingano said. "It's a flower that blooms around sunrise, and is dead by next morning." The romantic mood piece "Kula Stars" had its origins when Ingano was flat on his back at his friends' Maui home, recovering from, of all things, kidney stones.

Thibadeaux sings some on the album, including such self-penned tunes as the charming "Three Fools," a humorous "What's the Big Idea" (with Ingano on resonator guitar), and a lil' flirtatious bit of swing called "I Love You 'Cause You're You."

Ingano cherishes reproducing the spirit of old Hawaiian music, as he learned it from his mentor, the late David "Feet" Rogers of the Sons of Hawaii. Even his instruments are vintage. This particular afternoon, he's cradling a restored 1945 Rickenbacher Electro lap steel guitar, made of cast aluminum.

"The circuitry then was so simple," Ingano said. "That's what gives it its warm sound."

But before Ingano met Rogers in 1978, during an earlier seven-year period, he was a loud, rocking blues guitar player, much like his brother Ralph. But once he heard Rogers on that seminal Sons album on the Panini label, "I quit playing electric guitar for the next three years to learn to play the steel. That's because the sound that Feet created was like it came straight from heaven."

The response to "Stranger Here" has been favorable. "A lot of friends and family have told me that it's really a clean recording. I'm glad to hear that because, before, I used to play the lap steel with a lot of reverb. Now, I don't need or want to hear it."

And if you want to hear Ingano in his natural element, he keeps in practice by occasionally sitting in with Martin Pahinui, George Kuo and Aaron Mahi at their Sunday evening gigs at the Marriott hotel in Waikiki. Ingano also jams with fellow steel players Derrick Mau and Jeff Au Hoy Fridays on Fort Street Mall near Macy's during the noon lunch hour.