There’s a new band in town, one featuring some old, familiar faces. Henry Kapono, Brother Noland Conjugacion and John Cruz have branded themselves The Rough Riders after a famous paniolo trio, and these cowboys of music are ready to ride into their first Oahu concert this weekend<\/p>\n
It’s high noon when three men step off of steel horses snorting carbon monoxide into the breeze and mosey into a coffee tavern in Kaimuki. Their hair is long and their skin weathered from years spent riding down highways in the sun, and yet their raspy, nasal voices are as clear and strong as ever.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
They’ve come to a roundup with this writer holding nothing but drinks in their hands — their six-string shooters left somewhere out on the range. But their minds are armed with tales to tell, particularly about their upcoming trek into the Great Wide Open.<\/p>\n
“We’re heading west,” says the elder statesman of the group, his squinting eyes momentarily fixed on towns-folk outside rolling past the establishment like a tumble-weed caught in the wind.<\/p>\n
“We ride!” growls another member of this band. “Alive — and wild!”<\/p>\n
And with that The Rough Riders — made up of the familiar faces and voices of singer-songwriters Henry Kapono, Brother Noland Conjugacion and John Cruz — are off and running. They’re also firing warning shots in all directions of the music landscape just to let others know this will be no casual alliance of legendary local artists, no poorly tied knot of a supergroup. Despite their decades of experience in the music industry, churning out classic hits as individual artists or as members of other bands, these good ol’ boys have clearly not run out of steam — nor are the sunsets of their long and illustrious careers ready to be painted on canvas. Yes, siree, there still are happy trails ahead.<\/p>\n
“Our music has to keep moving forward, otherwise, it just stays in one place,” explains Kapono, the admitted city slicker of this gang of rough-around-the-edges men, but one who also proudly carries his nickname, “The Wild Hawaiian,” on the vanity plate of his steel horse.<\/p>\n
“We gotta be stalkers,” says Conjugacion, the spitting image of the white-haired, White Lotus priest Pai Mei of kung fu lore, and someone who’s as much known for his outdoor survival skills as he is for being The Big Daddy of Jawaiian music.<\/p>\n
“Exactly,” adds Cruz, the lone wolf of this band of hard-charging characters, who prefers passing his days doing it island style — with a fishing pole in his hands whenever a guitar can’t be held and strummed. “You can fish with bait, throw it out, put the pole in the holder, sit down, drink beer and wait until the fish bite. Or, you can get out there and cast and cast.”<\/p>\n
And since kicking up their spurs and letting good things come to them isn’t exactly what these go-get-’em Rough Riders are about, expect a whole lotta casting this summer. That’s when their debut album is scheduled for release. It’s also when the first leg of the band’s much-anticipated tour to the West Coast kicks off, and when the symbolic path of discovery they’re on — this Great Wide Open frontier that welcomes both their unique take on traditional Hawaiian mele as well as the type of contemporary island music with which they’ve made their fame and fortune — finally hits full stride.<\/p>\n
“Individually, the three of us are not really known for playing traditional Hawaiian music,” explains Cruz. “So, it’s an honor to combine forces with these guys and bring our brand of Hawaiian music to the masses, while also redefining what Hawaiian music is here in the Islands.”<\/p>\n
Kapono continues: “We do play some Hawaiian music in our own way. It’s not real traditional, it’s different, but the arrangements work for us. I think people will appreciate our ideas, our style of singing and how we play, as we search to find the right combination where this all comes together.”<\/p>\n
Music fans on Oahu will get their first shot at seeing the band perform live Saturday, when it headlines the “Hawaii for Hawaii” concert, a benefit for the homeless and the social services agency Institute for Human Services, whose mission is to prevent and end homelessness in the Islands. The show begins at 5 p.m. on the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Great Lawn.<\/p>\n
Obviously, Saturday is more than just another gig for this band of rebels — it’s an opportunity for these proud Hawaiian men to show love for those who lack a basic necessity in life.<\/p>\n
“We’re not doing this for any other purpose other than this is an issue,” adds Kapono. “We just want people to look at (homelessness) and not turn their heads away.”<\/p>\n
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“People need that funnel of hope,” Conjugacion says. “We know that’s our job, from so many years of playing benefits. We’ve had our glory performances too. But we’re kind of at a period in our lives where we can just go and throw our hearts out there, give it our all for a good cause.”<\/p>\n
In giving their everything as musicians over the past four decades, the men have carved out quite a legacy. Kapono is a Grammy-nominated artist recognized more for forming one-half of the C&K duo, which produced such powerful hits as Friends<\/em>, Sailing <\/em>and Highway in the Sun<\/em>. His annual Back in the Day concerts are still hugely popular, as are his weekly afternoon gigs at Duke’s on Waikiki Beach.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\n Conjugacion pioneered the entire Jawaiian scene and wrote a number of feel-good songs rooted in Hawaiian slack key and swing, including Coconut Girl <\/em>and Pua Lane<\/em>. Additionally, he’s operated Hawaiian Inside Tracking for the past 20 years, a program that allows adults and keiki the opportunity to learn traditional Hawaiian survival skills.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Cruz is a Grammy Award-winning artist who hails from one of Hawaii’s great musical families (his father is Ernie Sr., the country western musician known as “The Waimea Cowboy,” and his brother, Ernie Jr., was a member of the popular Ka‘au Crater Boys), and is credited with a number of hits as a soloist, including Island Style<\/em>, Shine On<\/em>andSitting in Limbo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, each of them chose to go elsewhere to find his place in the music frontier. Or, as Conjugacion eloquently puts it, “We had to get the hell out of Dodge … go beyond the reef.”<\/p>\n Kapono discovered his voice playing music for soldiers deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia during the height of the Vietnam conflict. Conjugacion spent five years in L.A. and Seattle taking his shot at music greatness. And Cruz honed his craft on the East Coast over the course of 13 years, playing in pubs from Greenwich Village to Martha’s Vineyard while attending University of Massachusetts on a scholarship.<\/p>\n Eventually, the Islands’ pull was too difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n “Every time I came back home, I had this deep appreciation for Hawaii,” says Conjugacion. “For me, it was always ‘How can I communicate my Hawaiianess to the people on the Mainland, and how can I communicate my worldliness to the Hawaiians here.'”<\/p>\n Forming a supergroup isn’t the easiest or smartest thing to do.<\/p>\n Often, egos get in the way and muck things up. But in The Rough Riders’ case, they didn’t start out trying to be a group; rather, they just wanted to be friends. “We had to see if there was something more than just the music between us,” says Cruz.<\/p>\n During their first gathering at Sandy Beach last summer, no songs were played. Oh, the men brought their instruments along, but as Kapono recalls, “All we did was talk story, you know? Just wala‘au.”<\/p>\n What the men discovered was they shared commonalities in areas such as hunting, fishing and surfing. Soon, more talk-story sessions were scheduled, and when the time was right, the guitars naturally surfaced and they began to play.<\/p>\n “Had we just jumped on the music, I don’t know where this would have gone,” says Kapono, the oldest of the bunch and the one who initially approached the others about forming a supergroup. “But getting to know each other as individuals first helped us to connect.”<\/p>\n Eventually, the time came to officially brand this partnership, and the musicians looked no further than the inspirational story of paniolo Ikua Purdy, Archie Kaaua and Jack Low — the Big Island trio that shocked the cow country world back in 1908 by capturing the Frontier Days celebration in Cheyenne, Wyo. — for their name.<\/p>\n Kapono believes the paniolo story was particularly important because it helped break down misconceptions of the kanaka to Mainland cowboys.<\/p>\n “At that time, (the attitude) was like, ‘What is a Hawaiian?'” he says. “This was way before Don Ho, before even Duke Kahanamoku, so these guys were unknowns, and I think the cowboys were probably laughing at them. They were given junk horses to use for the competition, but these paniolo wound up training the horses there and winning. Afterward, they got a standing ovation, and then all of a sudden, Hawaii is on the map.<\/p>\n “So to me, these were the people we needed to identify ourselves with and represent.”<\/p>\n “Those paniolo persevered; they were determined and had skills,” Conjugacion adds. “I like to think we’re the same way. So, we’re kind of like cowboys of music.”<\/p>\n The Rough Riders have spent the last few months laying down tracks for their much-anticipated debut album. Besides the contribution of original compositions from each of the band’s members, two classic cover tunes will almost assuredly make the final cut: Kilakila Na Roughrider<\/em>, the traditional song that pays tribute to Purdy, Kaaua and Low; and Waimanalo Blues<\/em>.<\/p>\n Naturally, The Rough Riders have put their own spin on these time-honored numbers. Last week, for example, they gathered in studio to put the finishing touches on Waimanalo Blues<\/em>.<\/p>\n During playback of the instrumental portions of the song, they listened carefully to the driving rhythms of their acoustic guitars and Kapono’s accompaniment on electric guitar, and when the instrumental groove felt right and true, you could almost hear the trio communicating telepathically to each other, “Let’s ride.”<\/p>\n And so they got down to business. Situating themselves in separate vocal booths, the men slid up close to the studio mics and began singing and emoting in the only way they know how to: as if their very lives depended on it. And when their voices combined for the “ah-ah-ahhh-ah!” refrain — their own attempt at modernizing the song with a majestic three-part harmony — the beloved tune suddenly turned into a new and exhilarating experience. It was as if these artists had transported themselves back in time, and were all sitting in saddles as they and a hundred galloping horses raced along the rolling hills of Waimea, or across the plains of Cheyenne, with the wind in their long hair, the hypnotic rhythm of hoof beats in the air and the magic of being paniolo everywhere.<\/p>\n “Our music is a lot like riding a horse,” Kapono says. “Wherever it goes, it goes.”<\/p>\n “Yep. Always forward,” Conjugacion adds. “But just hold on tight.”<\/p>\n Right on, Rough Riders. Ride on into the Great Wide Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s a new band in town, one featuring some old, familiar faces. 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