Doug Fitch
Friday - September 12, 2008
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Hometown: Estes Park, Colo.
Currently living:Kailua, Oahu
Musical occupation: I am a songwriter,a guitarist and singer. My specialty is traditional slack key.
I sometimes play with Led Kaapana when he calls me up on stage.When I’m in Colorado, I perform with my brother. For years, I played drums and percussion and I’d like back into some of that.
Can you talk about your recent album release, Paradise on the Ocean? Yes. The album is a collection of 14 original acoustic songs (one by my brother) about family and friends, and living in the Hawaiian Islands. Some songs reflect my background in the folk music of the Rocky Mountains while others, my love of Hawaiian slack key guitar. All the songs are inspired by people I know. The album was originally intended to document for family and friends how they’ve impacted my life. I’m astonished and very pleased that so many others are enjoying it as well!
One song on the album is about Kaneohe and our friends having to move to the Mainland. Another is about my brother-in-law saving a young mother’s life with his gift of bone marrow. After the transplant’s success, each traveled from across the country and they met right there at our house in Colorado. That song wrote itself. There’s a song about enduring the wait for our daughter during the adoption process. Another was written in appreciation for my mom. There’s a couple for my wife, and one inspired by some married friends who’d been having some difficulties. There also are three instrumental tracks of solo guitar.
Can you describe your sound and style?
I’m told I sound something like Cat Stevens and John Denver when I sing. That’s flattering, but I think I just sound like me. It’s just obvious what kind of music I grew up on. It gets in your bones.
There’s no question that Hawaii has shaped my recent songwriting. I’ve been immersed in traditional slack key guitar and have been very fortunate to be taken in by several of the greats, the traditionalists, of Hawaiian slack key guitar. I love to create new music as this album attests, but so much of the old kihoalu is just too great to lose along the way. Although this album is originals, it remains very important that I perpetuate the gifts my teachers have shared with me. Some of the songs on this album are slack key in the strictest sense, others have components of the genre, and the rest are folk or ballads.
Upcoming performances: Saturday, Sept.13 at the Kapiolani Community College Farmer’s Market from 7:30 a.m. And at Sunset at the Park at Kailua District Park on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday Sept 14 from 2 to 2:45 p.m.
Contact information: www.dougfitchmusic.com
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