If you want to know what triggered the Dog’s preoccupation with Hawaiian music, check out the clip below. I came across it a few months back and have not succeeded in putting it out of my mind. The reference in the spoken introduction to an “urban cowboy” — the title of a film released in 1980 — suggests that it was recorded when the performer, who was born in 1909, was over seventy. After the first minute and a half, I defy anyone watching to sing along.
Solomon Kamaluhiakekipikealiʻikaʻapuni
selling them to stores to raise money to go to the movies. As a teenager, he won the city’s Charleston dance contest — after coming in second during a prior try in which he was assaulted by the winning contestant. He also played the drums in the Hannah Bright Orchestra (Hannah being his slightly older sister).
In 1928, he was recruited by Sol Ho’opi’i (ho oh pee ee), perhaps the greatest Hawaiian musician of his time, who brought him to Hollywood. In addition to appearing in a few films, Bright later wrote and recorded songs with his own group, the Hollywaiians. He was known for performing on the steel guitar, although it was said that he could play just about any instrument. After World War II, he produced and directed Hawaiian-themed live shows in Los Angeles and elsewhere before returning to the Islands in his final years.
In a 2014 broadcast on his radio program “Territorial Airwaves,” — the audio archives of which are available online — disc jockey Harry B. Soria, Jr., recalled old “Uncle Sol” coming down to the station in the early 1980’s, drinking scotch in the studio, and taking him carousing. Many hours later, Soria came to his senses to find Bright still going strong, riding a broomstick in a club while performing “Hawaiian Cowboy.” Today, Bright is best remembered for that song — a novelty tune, but one that reflects a proud tradition.
Hawaiian cowboys, known as paniolos, have been a part of island life since 1793, when King Kamehameha I received a gift of cattle from George Vancouver (after whom, I hear, they’ve named a city in Canada). Among the most famous of them was Bright’s cousin, Ikue (ee ku ah) Purdy, who stunned the rodeo world by winning a competition in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1908 after roping and tying a steer in 56 seconds. Although Purdy went back to work on a ranch and died in 1945, his memory has not faded: he was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1999; and a bronze statute of him was erected in Waimea, Hawaii in 2003.
3 thoughts on “Sol K. Bright — Homage to a Hawaiian Cowboy”
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35 years I’ve been looking for this song. Thank you!