A MELE FOR LAHAINA, MAYBE?

An open letter to Henry Kapono

From Wayne Harada

Re: A Mele for Maui

First, kudos for your 50 Years of the Songs of C&K concert Saturday Aug. 26 at the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell. Indeed, it’s been a good time together, and C&K tunes provide the soundtrack of all our lives in Hawaii.

FYI, I’ve been hospitalized at Queen’s Medical Center for nine days, released last Friday, because of health issues. My wavering health prevented  me from attending. I’m OK with lots of hurdles ahead.

But from my hospital bed, I watched the ravishing of Lahaina and homes swallowed by a raging wild fire. Also saw promos for your milestone concert, simultaneously, the eyes of the world were focused on the astounding devastation and destruction of Lahaina town due to the uncontrollable flames as lives and homes were decimated.

Then I had an “aha” moment, about Hawaii’s most prolific and productive singer-composer; that you could put your imprint, with the kokua of other stellar Hawaii performers, to compose, record and perform A Mele for Maui that many would embrace.

Your voice and wisdom have been essential in community matters, and I hope and wonder if you might step up and with imfluence lead this valuable mission, to compose a “We Are the World”-type of mele that would unify, solidify, verify, and identify the pride and power of this Maui/Hawaii mission to provide help, funding and support of this global catastrophe.

It would have been a profound moment, if this tune had been written and performed with your Waikiki Shell cast, but the clock is ticking. So better late than never.

If anyone can do it, you probably have resources and partners to pull this off. Recording  the tune, of course with a companion video, would ultimately and undoubtedly raise funds for the restoration and rebuilding of Lahaina. Indeed, nothing could be finah for Lahaina if you do get this one launched.

And imagine the world premiere; the networks will tune in to help publicize the effort.
I thank you for listening…

And that’s Show Biz. …