Kanekoa: Hawaiian style jams coming to Crystal Bay

Kanekoa plays Crystal Bay Casino on June 25.

Hawaiian jam rock is coming to Lake Tahoe.

Maui’s Kanekoa will perform Saturday, June 25, at the Crystal Bay Casino. Tickets are $15 in advance. LINK

Kanekoa’s instrumentation is three ukuleles and a cajon, and in the band’s 25 years it’s captured the attention of folks such as Los Lobos, Gregg Allman and the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kruetzman.

Kruetzman first saw the band when it opened for 7 Walkers. He later hired Kanekoa to play at his wedding in Kauai.

“They are the Hawaiian Grateful Dead,” Kruetzman said.

David Hidalgo of Los Lobos said, “These guys scare me, they are that good.”

Two of the members – Kaulana Kanekoa (lead vocals, rhythm ukulele) and Travis Rice (cajon) — grew up in Reno. “Uncle” Don Lopez plays fretless U-bass and the lead uke is played by Vince Esquire, who joined the Allman Brother onstage and toured and recorded with Gregg Allman.

Kanekoa’s new album, “Songs from the Great Disruption” includes contributions from Jake Shimabukuro, G. Love and Steve Berlin, who produced the album.

“Kanekoa is one of those special bands where years and years of hard work give them the license to create seemingly effortless beauty, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of sweat equity,” said Berlin, who plays saxophone and keyboards for Los Lobos. “Their peaceful and gorgeous songs are uniquely suited for these unsettling times, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of working with them on it.”

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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