the spirit of woodland solitudes...

a few more hawaiian photos and songs from the archive... along with lua and kaili, one of victor's other prolific stars was frank ferera, who made a slew of solo, duet, and ensemble recordings.

there's a super detailed biography of him (and a nice history of early hawaiian recordings) by tom gracyk online here. gracyk says ferera was truly the first hawaiian slide guitar superstar, with early recordings released beyond the usa.

ferera was born honolulu in 1885 (his original family name was ferreira), and died in 1951. he recorded for at least 20 different record labels; and a number of his early recordings are duets with his second wife helen louise (whose original name was helen greenus). helen louise died tragically in 1919. during a ship voyage, she fell overboard and disapperaed into the sea. hawaiian echoes is one of their earlier recordings together. it sounds a bit like gypsy music...

in the 20's ferera made a large number of recordings with anthony franchini. he also made a few records with vernon dalhart. dalhart must've made a zillion records, and had a huge hit with with the wreck of ol' 97. hillbilly fans tend to view him as a real square; and dalhart's work is constantly viewed with contempt by 78 super collector joe bussard. he had a few novelty hits with topical songs such as 'lucky lindy' about lindbergh; and his recording here with ferera and franchini was surely an attempt to cash in on the recent popularity of hawaiian music. nonetheless, isle of sweethearts is a pretty nice tune.

the last track is pinin' hawaii for you by the frank ferera hawaiians with ralph haines doing the vocal work....the song has the slow mellow feel of a hawaiian sunset...