Backyard vibes: Kevin Brown plays ‘Sunset at the Point’

Maui-born, Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning slack key guitarist Kevin Brown will perform Saturday at the “Ocean Vodka Sunset at the Point” series in Kula that features live music set to a stunning backdrop. KENNETH K. MARTINEZ BURGMAIER photo

One of the most spectacular locations on Maui to listen to music happens Upcountry at the Ocean Vodka Organic Farm in Kula. Sitting outside on a spacious green lawn with a majestic view of the valley below and the West Maui Mountains in the distance, one can dine and bask in often stunning sunsets, while being serenaded by beautiful Hawaiian music.

Maui-born, Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning Hawaiian slack key guitarist Kevin Brown will be the next artist to play in the beautiful setting on Saturday as part of the free, ongoing “Ocean Vodka Sunset at the Point” music series. He typically appears there on the first and third Saturday of the month.

“I love that venue,” said Brown. “It’s like you’re in your own backyard. It’s a real intimate place. First time I went up there, I was like, holy mackerel. It’s even better than the hotels. It’s an open field, and you look to your left and there’s Maalaea, and there’s the West Maui Mountains, and then all of a sudden the sun goes down. You can see the whole island of Maui.”

The Kula music series is organized by promoter/filmmaker Kenneth K. Martinez Burgmaier, who recently screened his award-winning documentary “30 Years of Aloha” at the annual Celebration of the Arts at The Ritz Carlton Maui, Kapalua, and will present his 10th annual Big Island Jazz & Blues Festival on June 3 at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in Waimea.

“It’s such a breathtaking, beautiful location, and we wanted to bring free entertainment to the farm,” Burgmaier explained of the genesis of the Kula music series. “I was working with the owner Shay Smith, and we came up with the concept during COVID when everything was shut down. We created the Ocean Vodka Sunset at the Point to let the world know that Maui was still here, and we still had beautiful sunsets and incredible Hawaiian music. I brought in John Cruz and the Hula Honeys, and we did it livestreaming. All of a sudden we had a new live series. That’s how it all started.”

Recent musicians performing at the vodka farm include 2022 Carmen Hulu Lindsey Leo Ha’iha’i Falsetto Contest winner Lahela Lee Park, guitarist and composer Benny Uyetake, Grammy nominee Elele Tiana and slack key guitarist Namaka Cosma, who is studying with Brown.

Performing on Maui since the early 1970s, including many years with his brother Sheldon Brown in the Waiehu Sons, the veteran musician spent 18 years with the luau show at the Royal Lahaina Resort, before heading out in late 2022 to play his own music.

“Kenny (Burgmaier) called me and said, ‘We’re looking for somebody to play slack key,’ “ Kevin Brown recalled. “I said, ‘What about the first and third Saturdays of the month?’ He said, ‘You don’t want to play every Saturday?’ I said, ‘Well, right now, I’m playing (other venues) Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I love all the gigs that I do.’”

Discovering Hawaiian slack key guitar one day as a freshman student at Baldwin High School changed his life. He had cut a math class and encountered a teacher, Henry Meyer, playing under a banyan tree.

“I didn’t know what it was,” he recalled. “I was like, that’s so beautiful what he is playing. I said, ‘Excuse me, what kind of music are you playing?’ And he said, ‘It’s an old Hawaiian music called slack key.’ I said, ‘Can you teach me how to play?’ “

Brown revealed he could play slack key to his father after four years of practicing.

“I played ‘Ulupalakua,’ and when I played it for him, that’s the first time I saw tears in my father’s eyes,” Brown said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Make me a promise, you never stop playing slack key.’ “

The Waiehu Sons made their official debut in 1973 at the Pizza Factory.

“We had a unique sound and the Renaissance was just around that time when Gabby (Pahinui) was coming out and Sunday Manoa. And slack key, you never really heard it back in the ’70s,” Brown said. “So I didn’t know where slack key was going to take me. But it’s only because it had a really haunting sound that I was moved to this music, not knowing that it would help me in my career with my family. It’s a blessing.”

He was among the musicians playing on the Grammy-nominated compilation “Hawaiian Slack Key Kings,” and on the Hoku-nominated “Hawaii Slack Key Guitar Festivals – Volume II.” And he played on “Lana’i Slack Key Festival — Live Ki Ho’alu at Ko’ele,” which won the 2013 compilation Hoku award.

Teaching slack key for a number of years at Baldwin High School, he has lately instructed Na Wai ‘Eha’s Kahikina “Greg” Juan, Pekelo Cosma’s daughter Namaka, and another young female slack key guitarist, Kawena Cabatingan.

Looking back over his long career, he’s proud of the 2020 Hoku-nominated album, “Legacy The Brown Family,” which featured him with his children Ikaika and Ka Ena Brown. And one of his favorite memories involves playing with the Waiehu Sons for legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife.

“We played for their wedding,” Brown explained. “They would come to the Wailea Beach Hotel every year. We were there for 17 years. So every year they come. They walk into the terrace where we played. He tips his hat to us, finds a table with his wife and the two kids and the nanny. That was their routine. Then one day the manager said, ‘Ozzy Osbourne asked if you would play for his wedding.’

“So we ended up playing for his wedding. And then he brought his band from England, and it was nothing like you see Ozzy on stage. They sounded like the Beatles, like Chad and Jeremy, and Peter and Gordon. They were as mellow as ever, nothing loud. It was a different side of Ozzy. He told us, ‘When you hit the big time, you always got to get a gimmick, because the gimmick would make you last longer. You’ve got to come up with something.’ That’s how he came up with stuff like the bat.”

The free “Ocean Vodka Sunset at the Point” music series is presented seven days a week from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Ocean Vodka Organic Farm in Kula. Call (808) 877-0009 for more information.

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