Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Melveen Leed, Keali'i Reichel and Henry Kapono
lend their voices to this compilation.

‘Home in the Islands’
aims to lure back
the homesick

---

By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Henry Kapono Kaaihue's classic "Home in the Islands" is heard in a fresh new arrangement as the theme of the Hawai'i Millennium Commission's campaign to bring former island residents back home for a visit this year, which means they'd have to rush over.

Timing aside, "Home in the Islands" is a great song choice. Many of the thousands who have had to leave Hawaii since the Island Band first recorded the song in 1979 no doubt remember it.

Kaaihue spared no expense co-producing a new arrangement with Jim Linkner. Kapono Beamer joined Kaaihue on guitar and also played nose flute. Matt Catingub arranged and conducted the live string section.

The arrangement puts a familiar song in a new context. Island Band and the Brothers Cazimero both have performed the song as a joyous celebration of coming home. Kaaihue, Melveen Leed and Keali'i Reichel emphasize more melancholy aspects of the song with a more languid arrangement. Leed -- who left the islands to live in Tahiti until recently -- is particularly expressive when she sings of being so far away from "friends of the heart." It is a beautiful treatment.

The disc includes a CD-ROM version and comes with a "Kama'aina Card" good for discounts at hotels and other visitor attractions listed in the liner notes. Sales of the $6.49 CD, available at Longs Drugs and record stores, benefit "Ke Au Hou," a fund established to "increase assets for Hawaii's keiki."

Home in the Islands 2000: By Henry Kapono, Melveen Leed and Keali'i Reichel, CD-single Mpeg Audio Clips: At Home In The Islands Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info

Click for online
calendars and events.