Tiki Oasis 2013 – HulaBilly, a Hawaiian Hootenanny!

This year at Tiki Oasis they’re exploring the Hawaiian influence on American music. Part Americana, part Hawaiiana, Hulabilly is an American music style derived from the blending of Rockabilly and Haole Hawaiian music.

Just as Tiki Style is a blend of Polynesian influences as interpreted through Americans’ romanticized view of the South Seas, Hawaiian music has been sentimentalized and interpreted by American musicians. Like waves hitting the Pacific shores, America experienced recurring ukulele crazes with a longing look toward the Hawaiian Sunset. Similarly in the 1930s, 40s and 50s Hawaiian Slack Key guitar and slide guitar seeped into Western music and permeated The Nashville Sound. American musicians used that sound to play their own versions of Hawaiian music classics such as “On the Beach at Waikiki”, “Hula Blues”, and “Ukulele Lady” and then form their own Westernized Hawaii sound blending Hawaiian music influences with American early rock n roll (Bop) to create the sound of Hulabilly.

From Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys version of “Hawaiian War Chant” in 1946 To Elvis Presley’s “Rock-A-Hula Baby” in the Grammy-nominated movie “Blue Hawaii” in 1961, Hulabilly was a popular music form on America’s radios, televisions, and movies.

For more information about Tiki Oasis 2013 Click HERE