Jake Shimabukuro on Conan O’Brien tonight

February 19th, 2008

Filed Under Hawaii TV |

Hawaii’s premier ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro will play on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight. If you’re not a stay up late kind of person then set the TiVo/DVR/VCR or whatever other recording apparatus you employ for your viewing pleasures. (Check local listings)

Any time a Hawaii artist can get national exposure its a good thing because people tend to completely rethink what they have always considered to be “authentic” Hawaiian music. Mainlanders and those who have never been to Hawaii seem to thing it’s all slack key of old Hawaii. While slack key is definitely a part of Hawaii and very popular as demonstrated by the Grammy’s the past few years, contemporary and instrumental remains largely undiscovered outside the islands. As we’ve seen with Iz’s “Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” medley, all it takes is one song and many bought Facing Future because of that song that normally wouldn’t have bought a Hawaiian artist.

Here’s wishing Jake a great reception and opening up people’s minds to the ukulele’s potential when placed in the hands of a truly talented representation of Hawaii.

Update: In case anyone missed it, here’s the performance below. Check it out while you can as they tend to yank Conan’s stuff off YouTube pretty quickly.

WPvideo 1.10

Comments

4 Comments so far

MrBeachBum on February 19, 2008 9:41 am
I will definitely set the DVR for this one. Looking forward to it big time!
Pele on February 20, 2008 2:34 am
Just watched him and it was amazing as usual. He gives this big Kool Aid smile in the middle of the performance which was so cute. When he was done Conan said “I’ve seen a lot of things doing this show for so many years and this was by far one of my favorites.” He was completely in awe! Way to go Jake!
Daniel on February 20, 2008 3:44 am
WHAT was the name of the song he played on the show? I can’t for the life of me figure out what it was
Pele on February 20, 2008 6:28 am
I want to say it was the title track “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” If anyone else is absolutely sure, please feel free to confirm it.