KEN EMERSON

Biography

Ken Emerson (born Kenton Robert Lopaka Emerson) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was raised partly in Hawaiʻi, where his musical path was shaped by a diverse household record collection spanning jazz, swing, and Hawaiian music. He began on his mother's ukulele at age seven, progressed to guitar at nine, and by thirteen was experimenting with slide guitar techniques. When he and his brother Phil relocated to Hawaiʻi in 1968, Emerson fell deeply in love with vintage Hawaiian 78 rpm recordings from the 1920s–30s, reverse-engineering a largely forgotten musical tradition from old shellac discs — studying masters like Sol Hoʻopiʻi, Sol K. Bright, and Benny Nawahi.

Emerson and his brother Phil recorded the landmark album The Emersons (1979), helping to catalyze a broader revival of traditional acoustic Hawaiian steel guitar. He is widely credited, alongside Bob Brozman, with spearheading that international revival beginning in the late 1970s. His defining innovation is "slack/steel" — a self-accompanying technique combining Hawaiian slack key and steel guitar on a single instrument, a style common in early Hawaiian music but nearly extinct before his revival of it. His catalog spans Hawaiian, blues, jazz, Latin, swing, and reggae, performed on vintage National Tri-cone and Gibson instruments. He contributed two tracks to the Slack Key Guitar Vol. 2 compilation, which won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album in 2005.

Emerson has toured and recorded with a wide range of artists far beyond the Hawaiian music world, including Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Charlie Musselwhite, Boz Scaggs, and Donald Fagen (performing on Fagen's 2007 Grammy-winning album Morph the Cat). He settled on Kauaʻi and continues to perform internationally, representing one of the rare musicians globally who can simultaneously execute slack key and steel guitar in the same piece. A forthcoming slack key recording produced by T Bone Burnett, with a documentary by filmmaker Susan Kucera, further signals his ongoing artistic ambition.

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Fun Facts

• Before his music career took full shape, Emerson worked as a car mechanic.
• He learned Hawaiian guitar largely by studying vintage 78 rpm shellac recordings from the 1920s–30s, essentially reverse-engineering a lost musical tradition with no living teachers.
• His album Slack & Steel includes a cover of Bob Marley's 'Small Axe,' bridging Hawaiian and reggae traditions — a connection he later deepened with a full reggae album, Starlight Reggae, released under the name Kenton Emerson.
• He traveled to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with Boz Scaggs and later memorialized the trip with a recording titled From NOLA to Lahaina, connecting the two great American music cities in his work.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Sol Ho'opi'i - Emerson's self-described primary influence; studied his jazz and blues-inflected Hawaiian steel guitar style from vintage 78 rpm recordings [Late 1960s–1970s (studied recordings)]

Key Collaborators

• Bob Brozman - Co-credited with spearheading the international revival of traditional Hawaiian steel guitar; collaborated on album Ken and Bob Escape to Jazz Island (2012) (Ken and Bob Escape to Jazz Island (2012)) [1980s–2012]
• Todd Rundgren - Performed on Slack & Steel: Kauaʻi Style (2007) (Slack & Steel: Kauaʻi Style (2007))
• Charlie Musselwhite - Blues harmonica legend; appeared on Slack & Steel: Kauaʻi Style (2007) (Slack & Steel: Kauaʻi Style (2007))
• Boz Scaggs - Traveled together to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; associated recording From NOLA to Lahaina [2000s]
• Donald Fagen - Performed on Fagen's Grammy-winning album Morph the Cat (Morph the Cat (2006)) [2006–2007]
• Jim Kimo West - Collaborated on Slackers in Paradise, a slack and steel guitar duets album (Slackers in Paradise)
• Moe Keale - Backed the Hawaiian artist on his album South Sea Island Magic (1980) (South Sea Island Magic (1980))

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia