Sonny Lim

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Sonny Lim
SonnyLim.jpg
Sonny Lim, Slack Key Guitarist
Background information
Origin Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii
Instruments Slack-key guitar
Associated actsLim Family, Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau

Elmer "Sonny" Lim is a Hawaiian musician and slack key guitar player from Waimea (Kamuela) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Sonny is part of the musical Lim Family of North Kohala. [1]

Hawaii State of the United States of America

Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States, having received statehood on August 21, 1959. Hawaii is the only U.S. state located in Oceania, the only U.S. state located outside North America, and the only one composed entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean.

Sonny's father, Elmer Lim Sr., who was a Paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) on the famed Parker ranch and later worked for the ranch himself. In this respect, Sonny carries on the slack key tradition born amongst Waimea Cowboys over a hundred years earlier. Like Ledward Kaapana, however, Sonny learned primarily from Kaapana's uncle, Kalapana slack key master Fred Punahoa, who moved in with Sonny's family for several weeks to teach him.

Ledward Kaapana is a Hawaiian musician, best known for playing in the slack key guitar style. He also plays steel guitar, ukulele, autoharp and bass guitar, and is a baritone and falsetto vocalist.

Fred Punahoa was a Hawaiian musician and slack key guitar player from Kalapana, Hawaii. Though only two known recordings exist of "Uncle Fred," he remains one of the most influential slack key artists of all time.

In addition to playing with the Lim Family, Sonny played with the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau (using the stage name "Kohala") in the late-1970s, and he has shared the stage with many other Hawaiian artists such as Cyril Pahinui.

Cyril Pahinui American musician

Cyril Pahinui was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music.

He can be heard on the Grammy Award-winning anthology album, "Slack Key Guitar Volume 2", as well as his solo debut album. [2]

"Slack Key Guitar: The Artistry of Sonny Lim," was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album. [3]

The Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists from 2005 to 2011 for quality Hawaiian music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

Both albums available on Palm Records.

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References

  1. ↑ Valentine, Karen (2016-07-01). "The Lim Family of North Kohala". Ke Ola Magazine. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  2. ↑ "What Happened at the Grammys?". www.honolulumagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  3. ↑ "Sonny Lim". GRAMMY.com. 2014-03-17. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
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