Welcome to the Home Page of Grass Skirt Records .
Our mission is to reissue acoustic Hawaiian steel guitar gems from the 1920s and 1930s which have been ignored ,or at least not already covered by more established record labels .
Our first CD saw the first CD issued in Sam Ku West's name ,and that pretty much typifies what we're about . A fantastic player whose records ,apart from the odd one or two , had been forgotten decades ago and there was a mystery to unravel too .
Our Second release made available for the first time on CD the earliest records made by Sol Hoopii ...plus other records for the same label ( Sunset /Hollywood) by such men as Charles Diamond and Charles Fredericks .
2008 should see the first reissue CD entirely devoted to a certain GINO BORDIN , wizard of the Parisian steel guitar .We are gradually adding more information about this project which we are working on with Cyril Lefebvre . We are fortunate to have an amazing number of original Bordin recordings to make our selection from ...thanks to some good friends such as Ingo in Hamburg
,Keith in Japan ,Kari in Pori,Finland and John Marsden ,Cyril of course and the Grass Skirt collection . And we will have a spectacular booklet and notes ,courtesy of Cyril ,
stunning photos of Gino with his Selmer Maccaferri , harp-guitar
,musical saw and artwork once more from Bob Armstrong !
*** stop-press July 26th ,2008 ...the remastering of the 25 sides we're using on our cd " GINO BORDIN ...VIRTUOSE DE LA GUITARE HAWAIENNE" is now complete
We are very proud to be selling copies of English guitar /banjo /steel player Martin Wheatley's latest disc ...see the separate page on this site for more details ....
Also we now have copies of Bob Armstrong's CD with the Joy Buzzards available ,and details will appear soon on a separate page
If you have ideas for future reissue projects of acoustic steel masters please let us know ...some ideas already sent to us which we are considering include Mike Hanapi ,"Les Loups " (the Argentine duo ) , Rodney Rogers ,Jim and Bob ,George Ku , Len Fillis ,the South Sea Islanders ,the Hawaiian Islanders (with Peter Hodgkinson) , David Burrows , Eddie Bush with the Biltmore Trio, Andy Sannella ,Harry Owens or how about Kanui and Lula ??...please write to us at : les@grassskirt.co.uk or Grass Skirt Records ,PO Box 111, Glossop , SK13 8WS , UK ......we would love to hear from you
 Gino holding his Selmer 7 string
 THE JOY BUZZARDS
 MARTIN WHEATLEY
Now for some news items ....
First a plug for some friends in Texas who are now producing high quality steel bars/slides Take a look at their new website www.tribotone.com
And there's a great CD just out by the Midnight Serenaders ,called "Magnolia" ...hot 20s and 30s style jazz with great acoustic Hawaiian steel from Henry Bogdan ...take a look at their website : www.midnightserenaders.com
and have you subscribed to Aloha Dreams yet ?...contact Basil or Pat immediately at patricia.henrick@ntlworld.com or sales@waikiki-islanders.com
Cyril Lefebvre's new ukulélé books ...2 books and a Cd
...are now available . See our separate page with details of where to
buy it .
In the latest issue of Aloha Dreams magazine there was an article on Kanui and Lula and also David Kanui ...the result of years of research by Colin Bolton ,and we urge you to buy a copy and read it . Soon we will be adding a brief biography of David S Kanui with some fine vintage photos ...watch this space
IF YOUR BAND IS LOOKING FOR PROFESSIONAL STANDARD RECORDING IN YOUR HOME OR A VENUE CLOSE TO HOME ,GIVE OUR FRIENDS AT EARWIG STUDIOS A CALL ....http://earwigstudio.googlepages.com/home
updated 27th July 2008
 | 
