Friday, November 10, 2006

the spirit of woodland solitudes...

hawaii4

hawaii3

a few more hawaiian photos and songs from the archive... along with lua and kaili, one of victor's other prolific stars was frank ferera, who made a slew of solo, duet, and ensemble recordings.

there's a super detailed biography of him (and a nice history of early hawaiian recordings) by tom gracyk online here. gracyk says ferera was truly the first hawaiian slide guitar superstar, with early recordings released beyond the usa.

ferera was born honolulu in 1885 (his original family name was ferreira), and died in 1951. he recorded for at least 20 different record labels; and a number of his early recordings are duets with his second wife helen louise (whose original name was helen greenus). helen louise died tragically in 1919. during a ship voyage, she fell overboard and disapperaed into the sea. hawaiian echoes is one of their earlier recordings together. it sounds a bit like gypsy music...

in the 20's ferera made a large number of recordings with anthony franchini. he also made a few records with vernon dalhart. dalhart must've made a zillion records, and had a huge hit with with the wreck of ol' 97. hillbilly fans tend to view him as a real square; and dalhart's work is constantly viewed with contempt by 78 super collector joe bussard. he had a few novelty hits with topical songs such as 'lucky lindy' about lindbergh; and his recording here with ferera and franchini was surely an attempt to cash in on the recent popularity of hawaiian music. nonetheless, isle of sweethearts is a pretty nice tune.

the last track is pinin' hawaii for you by the frank ferera hawaiians with ralph haines doing the vocal work....the song has the slow mellow feel of a hawaiian sunset...

3 Comments:

Blogger ZubZub said...

two great posts. even with the cheat, wow!

2:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Frank Ferreira is actually my great grandfather, i've been trying to find his music as well as any information on his background and childhood. Thanks for the help. The pictures are amazing as well! if you have any other pictures or info please tell me: l130pigs@aol.com

9:21 PM  
Blogger sroden said...

wow, how cool! i have a lot more 78's of him that i've recorded, i would be happy to burn you a cdr if you like of the music. i don't have any other pics. this one is tiny in an old brochure.

11:02 PM  

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