Tavana to play at Mulligan’s on the Blue Wednesday and April 10
Collaborating with a range of musicians over the years from Henry Kapono to Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Tavana teamed last year with John Cruz for a scenic video shot in the middle of Pacific Biodiesel’s sunflower field. Singing and playing lap steel guitar on a bluesy version of Cruz’s “Mama’s Lil’ Baby,” it was produced for Hawaiian Airlines’ inflight Island Harmonies series.
“John told me he was thinking about doing a new version of ‘Mama’s Little Baby’ and it had always been one of my favorites of his,” Tavana explained. “His first version had kind of like a folk sweet touch to it and we went with a more rough edge. It was such a fun time.”
One of Hawaii’s acclaimed musical talents, Tavana performs as a oneman band singing soulful, island-inspired rock and blues, using electronic drum triggers to lay down a variety of grooves with his feet while accompanying himself on guitar, lap steel, ukulele, and banjo.
Performing at Mulligan’s on the Blue on Wednesday, “I’ll be doing my one-man band thing with the kick drum, the whole shebang there,” he said. Juggling instruments and percussion “you really have to be in the song, in the moment. It’s one of the things I love about doing it. Your whole body’s moving, every limb is involved. It’s much more of a meditation for me now.”
The supporting act for a range of artists, including the Alabama Shakes, Xavier Rudd, and Julian Marley, in 2009, Pearl Jam’s lead singer invited him to sing “Hawaii ‘78” with him at the Hawaii Theatre. It was later released as a vinyl record to Pearl Jam fans.
“I was just setting up in the little Irish pub I played at back then and I turn around and he’s standing right in front of me,” Tavana recalled. “He’s ‘hello my name’s Eddie.’ I’m like, oh man, I know who you are. So he just sat down and watched my first set and we got to talking and got his phone number. Then he called me a while later and asked me to sit in with him at the Hawaii Theatre. He’s one of my childhood heroes and so to be able to get to know him and get to play some music with him was definitely a bucket list thing for me.”
Born Tavana McMoore, he was influenced by guitar legends like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton, and the reggae of Bob Marley. His most recent album “Sway” reflected his eclectic influences and featured several life affirming songs. Opening with the grungy blues of “Tumble Down,” The Greens’ Caleb Keolanui joined him on the soulful “Put Down the Phone,” and he ventured into backyard slack key guitar territory on “Kuli‘ou‘ou Blues” with Danny Carvalho.
One of the album’s highlights, “Plastic Island,” focused on the devastating impact of plastics on our oceans and beaches. He promoted it with a stop-motion animated video featuring plastic collected from local beaches throughout Hawaii.
“Charles-Antoine Vallieres came up with the idea of taking that song and making a stop-motion video out of it to bring awareness to the plastic issue,” he explained. “It came out so fantastic. I was able to show it to Jack Johnson, and he helped us put it out there and the Surfrider Foundation got involved.”
For the future, he will release a song with Kala‘i Parish and there’s talk of a Kapono collaboration. “He wants to do a song together, and Gretchen (Rhodes) and I are hoping to put something out as well.”
Enjoying performing on Maui, Tavana said, “I really love playing there. People are so appreciative and just fantastic audiences.”
Tavana plays Mulligan’s on the Blue on Wednesday and April 10 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 for premium seating, (inside, guaranteed seating, early check-in) and $20 for general seating (outside and bar area with tables available on first come first serve basis). Tickets for both shows on sale now at https://aloha.ticketleap. com/tavanamaui/.