SLACKERS IN PARADISE - KEN EMERSON AND JIM “KIMO” WEST
Jim Kimo West and Ken Emerson are both living legends in the world of Hawaiian slack key and acoustic steel guitar. They strive for freshness and spontaneity in their duet shows in keeping with the true Hawaiian “kanikapila” style. Their shows often feature world-class hula dancers and special guests.
Their diverse musical influences venture beyond the islands toward the land of blues, ragtime and jazz. Both Ken and Kimo have a number of Grammy, recording and touring credits. Ken was composer/guitarist on Hawaii's first Grammy-winning album “Slack Key Guitar Vol 2” and also featured guitarist on “Morph The Cat” by Donald Fagen (Steely Dan).
His many other touring and recording credits include Jackson Brown, Boz Scaggs, Charlie Musselwhite, Todd Rundgren, Darryl Hall and Elvin Bishop as well as Hawaiian slack key legends Gabby Pahinui, Moe Keale, Genoa Keawe and Raymond Kane.
Kimo is a two-time Grammy nominee and 2021 Grammy winner for his CD, “More Guitar Stories”. He is also a winner of the Hawaii Music Award and has four Na Hoku Hanohano ( the Hawaiian ‘Grammy’) nominations as well as two LA Treasures Awards. Kimo’s twelve slack key CD’s have garnered him much praise and well over 75 million streams on Pandora and Spotify.
Besides his solo slack key career, Kimo is long-time guitarist on CD’s and tours for the world’s most famous musical satirist, “Weird Al” Yankovic whose recent CD, “Mandatory Fun” debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and won the Grammy for Best Comedy Recording, his fourth Grammy award.