/24-7PressRelease/ - January 19, 2007 - Maui band, Kanekoa, is the only band on the planet fronted by two electric ukuleles.
Kanekoa was featured on Entertainment Tonight recently in a story about Ben Stiller's birthday and the filming of "The Heartbreak Kid".
Kaulana Kanekoa and Vince Esquire's,"Somewhere Over The Rainbow", recorded by Barry Shannon, at Manao Radio Studios, on Maui, and produced by The Major Players, has been an international hit on iTunes for the last 16 months.
By the end of January 06, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" went to number 1 on the iTunes Folk Chart in the US and Canada. In February, it went to number 1 in Australia, as well. In subsuquent months it has topped the Folk charts in Ireland, Spain, Norway, and Italy.
"Somewhere" has been featured on "The Pride of Britain" with Tony Blair, various PGA Tournament national television broadcasts, and appears on the soundtrack for "Marylyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School", starring Danny DeVito, John Goodman, and Robert Carlisle.
The bands Major Hana Records debut, "Under The Coconut Sky", is now available exclusively on iTunes.
Vince Esquire, 21, is a guitar and ukulele phenom who has amassed an impressive career and National attention, playing to audiences throughout the Hawaiian Islands, The West Coast, and Mid West, for the past 7 years with his own, Vince Esquire Band. Esquire has openned up for Willie Nelson, Los Lonely Boys, and, will open for The Greg Allman Band, Friday, January 19, on Maui. His electric guitar playing skills cause people to compare him to some of the greatest guitar heroes in history, everytime he performs. "The comparrisons are an honor to me, basically I have my own style, but I'm influenced by a lot of great players who I studied during my childhood." Esquire's role in the band Kanekoa is to sing background vocals and rip the electric ukulele like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jerry Garcia, and Jimmy Hendrix. "The guys in Kanekoa are like my older brothers, we began playing in a coffee house on Maui when I was like 10 or 11 years old. We didn't really mind when iTunes changed the 'Ohana Compilation from World to Folk because the root of Hawaiian Music is Folk music based, at the same time it transends cultures and falls naturally into World music audiences, as well. Our version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is not indicative of the sound of our band, many nights, we'll play for hours and the crowd doesn't stop dancing the entire night, but it does show our diversity." The band has been called the Hawaiian Grateful Dead and their sound has been compared to that of, the Dave Mathews Band, Ben Harper, and Jack Johnson.
Maui native, Kaulana Kanekoa, the band's rhythm ukulele player and lead vocalist, agrees, "Exactly, our music has always and I think will always inspire people to dance. After 10 years of playing together we know eachother so well personally and musically, every night is like another journey. Vinnie and I play the electrified ukuleles and Kanekoa is the first band that has taken this instrument, which esentially is one of the cultural cornerstones of our Hawaiian history, out of the traditional Hawaiian sound and into a more, contemporary style of music that everyone enjoys."
After seeing the band play live in Los Angeles, director/producer, Peter Farrelly ("Dumb and Dumber", "Something About Mary", and "Kingpin") put it this way, "Kanekoa played the best live show I've seen in 15 years, I'm their new, biggest fan." Farrelly since casted and filmed the band in San Francisco, and will feature them, and their original music in the Farrelly Brothers next comedy, "The Heartbreak Kid", starring Ben Stiller, for Dreamworks.
Major Hana Records is based in Hana, Hawaii.
for more info:
contact Peter Monroe
VP Publicity, Major Hana, at:
MajorHana@aol.com
or,
http://www.majorhana.com
http://www.myspace.com/majorhanarecords
http://www.myspace.com/majorhanathemovie
http://www.vinceesquire.com
http://www.kanekoa.com
http://www.fredwesley.com
http://www.myspace.com/theblazebrothers
http://www.monyca.com
http://www.myspace.com/getiTunes
http://www.myspace.com/asshairhat
http://www.asshairhat.com
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