Joseph Kekuku‘upenakana‘iapuniokamehameha Apuakehau, Jr., better known as Joseph Kekuku, was born in Lāʻie on the island of Oʻahu in 1874. In 1885, as a young boy of eleven years old, Joseph made the accidental discovery of making a new sound by brushing against the strings of his guitar with a railroad bolt. 

In an article from in 1932, C.S. DeLano, publisher of the “Hawaiian Music In Los Angeles” whose “Hawaiian Love Song” was the first original composition to be written for the Hawaiian Steel Guitar said: 

"Joseph told me that he was walking along a road in Honolulu forty-two years ago, holding an old Spanish guitar, when he saw a rusty bolt on the ground. As he picked it up, the bolt accidentally vibrated one of the strings and produced a new tone that was rather pleasing. After practicing for a time with the metal bolt, Joe experimented with the back of a pocket-knife, then with the back of a steel comb, and still later on with a highly-polished steel [bar] very similar to the sort that is used today." 

 At the age of 15, Joseph and his cousin Sam Nainoa became boarding students at Kamehameha School for Boys. Young Joseph made his first kila, steel bar, in the school’s machine shop. He continued to refine his technique and modified his guitar, raising the strings, to create a new sound and method of playing that would become known throughout the world.  

Oli (Hawaiian Chant) 

Oli refers to a type of chant in Hawaiian culture, distinguishing it from mele, which can also include songs involving dance and musical accompaniment. 

“Hawaiian chant is part of the oral tradition of Hawai‘i and Polynesia. It is a major source of traditional knowledge of Hawai‘i, its environment and people, and an important personal connection for me to the place of my birth.” - Samuel ‘Ohu Gon III, master Hawaiian chanter. 

Hawaiian chant, or oli, is deeply woven into all aspects of Hawaiian life. For example, there is an oli to identify yourself and ask for permission to enter a place, such as a friend’s property or a sacred site. There were oli or pule (prayer) for planting, growing and harvesting, for rain or clouds, to start the day well before the sun rose in the East, for offering gratitude to the household gods before eating, for the birth of a child, the blessing of a new house, and to convey “aloha” to a person who had passed away. Each of these oli would be in a different style, like a wailing, emotion-filled kanikau (dirge chanting) to a beloved who had passed, or in a low voice, in a nearly inarticulate prayer at the start of the day, or in a clear-voiced calling across the threshold or far distance, or the rapid-fire recitation of long genealogies of high-born chiefs and royalty.