Search - Various Artists :: All The Best From Hawaii: 40 Hawaiian Favorites [2-CD SET]

For an easy-to-recognize slice of Hawaiian music, you can hardly go wrong with this two-CD set at less than the price of most single CDs. The selections lean more toward popular music interpretations than toward folk music, though songs like "Blue Hawaii" and "Hawaiian War Chant" are certainly so deeply embedded in popular consciousness that they have achieved quasi-folk music status. The first disc concentrates on simple, clean arrangements usually of strummed guitar, lap steel guitar, and vocals. The second disc opts for a larger sound with a lounge-style orchestra and chorus. It also offers arrangements that occasionally toss in Portuguese music influences and embrace the oddball song not usually associated with the islands, like "Vaya Con Dios." All in all, it makes for an enjoyably sunny set, though seekers of authentic local Hawaiian styles should complement this collection with The Rough Guide to Hawaiian Music or one of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters anthologies. --Bob Tarte