FOLK/Music Cyril Pahinui and Patrick Landeza, Hawaiian slack-key guitar

Saturday: 12:50 p.m. Two Rivers, 4 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: 3 p.m. Railroad, 5 p.m. Two Rivers

Cyril Lani Pahinui, born in 1950 on Oahu’s windward coast, is a well-known player of Hawaiian slack-key guitar. He is the second-to-last of 10 sons of Hawaii’s greatest slack-key player and cultural leader, Gabby Pahinui.

Hawaiian slack-key guitar first evolved in the 1830s when Mexican and Spanish cowboys, hired by King Kamehameha III to teach Hawaiians better ranching methods, brought in guitars to entertain themselves. The Hawaiian cowboys quickly made the guitar part of their culture, calling it Ki-ho’alu, which means “loosen the key.”

Portuguese settlers also brought guitars to the islands, but much of what is considered Hawaiian style clearly derives from the parlor guitar fad at the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians retuned or “slacked” the string to suit their own music, so it could be played naturally in a solo, fingerpicked style, often with a steady rhythm to accompany the hula.

Slack-key tunings provide a greater note range than standard guitar tuning and an incredibly lush, full sound, with both melody and bass being played simultaneously. There are a great number of these tunings, depending on key and song, with 16 commonly used today.

Cyril Pahinui learned to play slack key as part of the endless jam at the Pahinui home. Sessions went on all day, sometimes all week. Watching the senior players, Cyril starting playing around age 7. He was playing local gigs on Oahu by age 12, made his first ensemble recording in 1968, and joined the Gabby Band shortly after.

In 1968 he joined the Sandwich Isle Band and performed in that and other bands throughout the 1980s, playing frequently in a C major tuning he had learned from senior player Atta Isaacs.

Cyril recorded his first solo album in 1988 and has toured internationally. With his brothers Bla and Martin as well as with Ry Cooder and others, Cyril contributed to the critically acclaimed Pahinui Brothers album in 1992.

His playing is considered to be individualistic, but also reflects the training, attention and love that his father, Gabby Pahinui, bestowed on him. As the old Hawaiian proverb puts it, He keiki mea makua (it shows that the child has a parent).

Patrick Kahakauwila Kamaholelani Landeza is a young and innovative slack-key guitarist with connections to the U.S. mainland as well as to Hawaii. He has toured extensively with Cyril Pahinui. Landeza, born in Hawaii in 1973 but raised in Berkeley, Calif., was introduced to slack key at age 15 by two uncles. His idol was slack-key master Raymond Kane.

Landeza has Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese and Irish ancestry. He’s one of the few mainlanders accepted into the close-knit circle of Hawaiian slack-key artists, and many believe that he’s on his way to becoming the U.S. mainland’s leading player of the style.