Every Little Thing (Is Beautiful)

Songsblue sky guitar, fingerstyle guitar, nick borho

Today’s song from the vaults is an exuberant song called “Every Little Thing (Is Beautiful).” Hope you enjoy.

Moonglow (Alternate Take)

Songsacoustic guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil song

Here is an alternate take of Moonglow, a song I wrote years ago while sitting outside under a full moon. I’ve played it on and off for years, most always on steel string guitar. More recently I tried it on nylon and found it worked quite well – perhaps even better. Hope you enjoy.

Waimea Ride (Slack Key Improvisation)

Songsbig island, Hawaii, hawaii ranch, Holualoa, kamuela, ki ho’alu, mauka, open g tuning, paniolo, slack key, taro patch, Taylor 310, Taylor 310e, waimea cowboy

Today’s song from the vaults, “Waimea Ride,” is a slack key improvisation that blossoms from a familiar type of descending figure. Though often used as part of a turnaround, this type of walk down has also been featured as a melodic device in a number of songs, most notably Leonard Kwan’s classic signature tune Opihi Moe Moe. I also recall Ozzie Kotani using it in some of his songs. Anyway, I thought the descending figure and overall pace of this improv might evoke the picture of a Paniolo riding downslope on horseback, ergo the title. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 1/11/08.

Mino’aka – Keola Beamer

Songsblue sky guitar, Hawaii, keola beamer, ki ho’alu, nick borho, rosewood taylor, slack key, soliloquy, Taylor 912ce, taylor grand concert

Mino’aka (Smile) is a short, sweet song from slack key master Keola Beamer’s Soliloquy album. Soliloquy is one of my favorite Dancing Cat era albums from Keola and a highly recommended listen. Keola’s book is one of the first I picked up when I really delved into the slack key style years ago, and this was one of my favorite songs featured in the book. In fact, I also recommend Keola’s book for beginner to intermediate fingerstyle players who are looking to learn some slack key. Although the version I recorded here is at a slightly faster tempo, I hope it still captures the original’s relaxed feel. Hope you enjoy.

Louisville Rag

Songsacoustic guitar, fingerstyle guitar, open tunings, ragtime guitar, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar

Here is a demo from the vaults of a song called “Louisville Rag” that I recorded a few years back. The idea behind the tune was to write an uptempo instrumental with a similar feel to the Nashville Skyline Rag from the eponymous Bob Dylan album. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded in Louisville, Ky 9/28/12.

Silver Threads – Slack Key Improv

Songsbig island, blue sky guitar, Hawaii, Holualoa, kailua kona, ki ho’alu, kona coffee, mauna loa tuning, nick borho, open g tuning, slack key, taro patch, Taylor 912ce

Here is an improvisation I did based on Leonard Kwan’s famous slack key arrangement of “Silver Threads Among the Gold.” This classic tune is a popular piece in the slack key repertoire and often one of the first things people learn when exploring Drop C tuning. Most listeners of modern day Hawaii radio will recognize Silver Threads as the slack key passage quoted in the intro to Country Comfort’s Waimanalo Blues, a beloved song in the islands in its own right. Hope you enjoy.

Morning & Night (alternate take)

Songsacoustic guitar, original fingertyle, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar

Here is another take of my original fingerstyle song, Morning and Night. I like this version because you can hear it breathe, with overtones blending and blooming between musical phrases. Hope you enjoy.

Auld Lang Syne (Alternate Take, Remix)

Songsacoustic guitar, auld lang syne, blue sky guitar, drop C, Fingerstyle, honolulu, ki ho’alu, new year song, nick borho, open tunings, peaceful guitar, robert burns, slack key

Here are an alternate take and a remix of my fingerstyle guitar arrangement of Auld Lang Syne. It’s a slack key tinged version with an added bridge/transition, but otherwise follows the familiar melody closely.

Remix of original post:

Alernate take:

Happy New Year!

Both takes recorded in Honolulu, Hawai’i 12/30/14.

Fronds in the Wind

Songsfronds in the wind, slack key

Here is my song, Fronds in the Wind. I recorded several slightly different versions, but liked this one best. Hope you enjoy.

Kaiminani Slack Key

Songsacoustic guitar, big island, blue sky guitar, blueskyguitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kailua kona, kaiminani drive, kalaoa, Keahole Point, ki ho’alu, Kohanaiki, Kona International Airport, Kona Palisades, Mamalahoa, open g tuning, open tunings, OTEC beach, peaceful guitar music, Pine Trees beach, Queen Kaahumanu, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, slack key, taro patch, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil song, Wawaloli

Here is an original slack key song I named for Kaiminani Drive in Kalaoa, North Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kaiminani Drive is a main mauka-makai road that connects the Queen Kaahumanu and Mamalahoa highways (lower and upper roads, respectively). It also runs through the Kona Palisades neighborhood where I lived for a number of years as a child. Back then, the neighborhood was less developed, and my friends and I would build tree houses and play in the vacant lots. We could also watch the planes come and go at Kona International Airport at Keahole Point (KOA), and had easy access to then-uncrowded OTEC (Wawaloli) and Pine Trees (Kohanaiki) beaches. Hope you enjoy.

Nick Borho

Slack Key & Fingerstyle Guitar