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Makana (musician)
Makana (from Hawaiian "the gift"), born Matthew Swalinkavich, is a slack-key guitar player, singer, and composer. Life Born and raised in Hawaii, his guitar playing has been featured on three Grammy-nominated albums, including the soundtrack of the Academy-Award winning film "The Descendants", starring George Clooney. In 2008, he was second runner up in Guitar Player Magazine's Guitar Superstar competition eliciting praise from judges Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Elliot Easton. In 2012, he was awarded a Na Hoku Ki Ho'alu (Slack Key) Legacy Award by the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts. On November 12, 2011, Makana, who had performed previously at the White House, turned a gig performing at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation dinner in Honolulu, attended by President Barack Obama and the leaders of 18 other nations, into a political protest. He started out his performance by playing traditional Hawaiian music, which then started to veer gently into more controversial territ ...
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Folk-punk
Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success. Characteristics Folk punk is related to and/or influenced by various styles such as Celtic punk, gypsy punk, anti-folk, and alternative country. Folk punk is also linked with DIY punk scenes, and bands often perform in house venues in addition to more traditional spaces. Folk-punk musicians may perform their own compositions in the style of punk rock, but using additional folk instruments, such as mandolins, accordions, banjos, and/or violins.Sweers, B., ''Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music'' (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 197-8. Folk punk possesses a rich history of progressive and l ...
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Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and later worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the ''Harvard Law Review''. He became a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. In 1996, Obama was elected to represent the 13th district in the Illinois Senate, a position he held until 2004, when he successfully ran for the U.S. Senate. In the 2008 pre ...
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Paul Rodgers
Paul Bernard Rodgers (born 17 December 1949) is an English-Canadian singer. He was the lead vocalist of numerous successful rock bands, including Free (band), Free, Bad Company, The Firm (rock band), the Firm and The Law (English band), the Law. He also has performed as a solo artist and collaborated with the remaining active members of Queen (band), Queen under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers, from 2004 to 2009. A poll in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 55 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2011, Rodgers received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Rodgers has been cited as a significant influence on various rock singers. In 1991, John Mellencamp called Rodgers "the best rock singer ever". Freddie Mercury in particular liked Rodgers and his aggressive style. Rodgers holds Multiple citizenship, joint citizenship, after becoming a Canadians, Canadian citizen in 2011. Early career Rodgers w ...
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Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles". His first album, '' My Aim Is True'' (1977), spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad " Alison". Costello's next two albums, '' This Year's Model'' (1978) and ''Armed Forces'' (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 until early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, " Oliver's Army" (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. He has had more ...
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Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States with Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and roll and Latin jazz, Latin American jazz. Its sound featured his melodic, blues-based lines set against Latin American and African rhythms played on percussion instruments not generally heard in Rock music, rock, such as timbales and congas. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2015, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine listed Santana at No. 20 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists. In 2023, ''Rolling Stone'' named him the 11th greatest guitarist of all time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, and was inducted along with his namesake band into the Rock and ...
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Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" that peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. His second studio album ''Mr. A-Z'' (2005) peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200. His third studio album, ''We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.'' (2008), peaked at number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was certified four times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's lead single, "I'm Yours (Jason Mraz song), I'm Yours", reached the top ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, while spending a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100, and it was certified Diamond Certified, Diamond by the RIAA. The album also spawned the Grammy Award winning singles "Make It Mine" and "Lucky (Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat s ...
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Jeff Bova
Jeff Bova (born Jeffrey Bova in 1953) is an American musician. He has been active in the music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Bill Laswell and Herbie Hancock, Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson, Meat Loaf, Robert Palmer, Missing Persons, Iggy Pop, Iron Maiden, Billy Joel, and the Sisters of Mercy among others. Early life Born in Washington D.C., he grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Being the son of a professional trumpet player, he took the instrument up for himself during elementary school and continued with it at the Berklee College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Although he also had arranging and composition lessons by trumpet legend Maury Deutsch, he would choose to specialize in keyboards instead. After leaving college he participated in a Connecticut-based jazz fusion band called "Flying Island" and l ...
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Mitchell Froom
Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, including David LaFlamme, Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, Suzanne Vega, and Vonda Shepard. Career Froom began his career as a keyboard player in Sonoma County, California. The band Crossfire featured two keyboard players; Mitchell on one side of the stage and his brother David on the other with Gary Pihl on guitar. He also played keyboards on the Ronnie Montrose-led group Gamma's third album '' Gamma 3'', and the first two solo albums of David LaFlamme (of It's a Beautiful Day fame) titled ''White Bird'' and ''Inside Out''. The latter two projects he also co-produced with LaFlamme. He then produced the first three Crowded House albums, which led to more production jobs with Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, American Music Club, Suzanne Vega and Paul McCar ...
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Ron Nevison
Ron Nevison is an American record producer and audio engineer. He started his career in the early 1970s as an engineer on '' Quadrophenia'' by the Who and Bad Company's debut album. He eventually became a producer, working with artists including Meat Loaf, The Babys, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, UFO, Michael Schenker Group, Survivor, Jefferson Starship, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Europe, Chicago, Grand Funk Railroad, Heart, and Damn Yankees among many others. Career overview Nevison's first work was as an engineer for the Who's '' Quadrophenia''. From there, he did engineering work on the first three albums by Bad Company. He produced and engineered the '' Nightlife'' album by Thin Lizzy. In 1974, he engineered Led Zeppelin's '' Physical Graffiti''. Nevison also worked with Ozzy Osbourne on '' The Ultimate Sin'', Shooting Star on '' Silent Scream'', Kiss on '' Crazy Nights'' and both Damn Yankees albums. Nevison has been recognized four times as ''Billboards Top-5 Producer of t ...
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Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of April 2025, Kickstarter has received US$8.71 billion in pledges from 24.1 million backers to fund 277,302 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards or experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, in which artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work. History Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler. ''The New York Times'' called Kickstarter "the people's National Endowment for the Arts, NEA". ''Time (magazine), Time'' named ...
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Hawaii Music Awards
The Hawaii Music Awards were an annual people's-choice awards program established in 1996. The awards were organized and managed by the Music Foundation of Hawaii, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the diversity of music in Hawaii and to honoring and acknowledging the talents and achievements of the state's musicians. The awards program was founded by Johnny Kai, and included various music genres such as Rock, Jazz, Classical, Ska, Punk, Latin, Blues, Reggae, Jawaiian, Polynesian, Exotica, Country Western, and also established Hawaiian genres like Traditional Hawaiian and Contemporary Hawaiian. The award winners were theoretically selected by the general public although in some years artists affiliated with record labels that were financially sponsoring the awards won in significant numbers. The Hawaii Music Awards implemented the first online interactive voting system developed for the internet. See also *Na Hoku Hanohano Awards * Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame *Musi ...
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Pepe Romero
Pepe Romero (born 8 March 1944, in Málaga, Spain) is a classical and flamenco guitarist. Biography Early life Pepe Romero was born in Spain, the second son of celebrated guitarist and composer Celedonio Romero, who was his only guitar teacher. His first professional appearance was in a shared concert with his father at the Teatro Lope de Vega, Seville, when Pepe was only seven years old, playing a gavotte by Bach and ''Sevilla'' by Albéniz. In 1957 Celedonio Romero left Franco's Spain for the United States with his singer actress wife, Angelita, and his three sons, Celin, Pepe and Angel, settling in the San Diego area. Teaching Romero served as guitar professor at the University of Southern California, Southern Methodist University, University of San Diego and University of California at San Diego, before taking up the post of adjunct professor at USC Thornton School of Music. Romero published a guitar method, ''La Guitarra'', in 2012. Career In 1959, Pepe made h ...
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