"Across the Sea" Artists Featured in January Showcase

February 9, 2021 • Addison Ching • Festivals and Conventions

January's Livestream Steel Guitar Saturdays program featured steel guitarists Greg Sardinha and Bobby Ingano along with prerecorded performance videos from NextGen steel guitarists. NextGen videos were featured first as sound issues were being resolved. These sound issues prevented the Showcase from starting at the scheduled time.

For this Showcase, Greg invited artists Jeff Peterson and Tsun-Hui Hung to join him in his set. The three musicians collaborated in 2018 to produce "Across the Sea" which won the Na Hoku Hanohano Best Instrumental Album award that year.

"Across the Sea"

Jeff Peterson, Tsun-Hui Hung, and Greg Sardinha

The album's selections featured a unique combination of instruments and stylings, with Greg playing an acoustic steel guitar, Jeff playing slack key guitar, and Tsui-Hui playing the2-string Erhu, often described as a Chinese Violin.

Greg's set featured several selections from that album. Adam Asing complemented their arrangements on upright bass.

Between sets, Greg interviewed Jeff and Tsui-Hui. All three of them shared their thoughts about the collaboration. Greg also provided information about where the CD was available.

Bobby Ingano invited Alan Akaka to join in for Bobby's entire segment. Viewers saw the two steel guitarists playing off each other kanikapila style and both Bobby and Alan appeared to be enjoying the experience.

Alan Akaka and Bobby Ingano

The two were joined by other members of the Bobby Ingano Trio, Adam Asing and Kaipo Asing. Adam and Kaipo are also the two other members of Alan's group, Alan Akaka and The Islanders.

January's archived livestream broadcast can be viewed at the Showcase's Facebook Page.