Makana Returns to The Shops at Wailea, June 19

The Shops at Wailea welcomes back slack key guitarist Makana to Concerts at The Shops, with a performance on Wednesday, June 19 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Makana, award-winning slack-key guitar artists. PC: file courtesy MACC.

The June concert series benefits Maui Food Bank.

Hawai’i born and raised Makana is globally recognized for forging his own music style which he calls “Slack Rock”— a hybrid of slack key, blues, and bluegrass. A protégé of various Hawaiian slack key legends, Makana uses more than a hundred tunings to fashion a massive, resonant, symphonic sound without using loop pedals or other trickery. He was voted one of the Top Three guitarists in America in 2008 by Guitar Player Magazine and described as “the greatest living (slack key guitar) player” by Esquire Magazine.

He has supported acts of music greats ranging from Santana and Sting to Jason Mraz, Joe Walsh of The Eagles, Bad Company, Leon Russell, Chris Isaak, Chris Botti, Elvis Costello, Common, Gotye, Jack Johnson and many others. His music has been featured on three Grammy®-nominated records including the soundtrack for Academy Award-winning film The Descendants. Makana’s distinctive sound includes folk, bluegrass, and acoustic rock while his voice is reminiscent of Tracy Chapman or Jeff Buckley.

Concerts at The Shops is a free, monthly concert series that is open to the public and features headlining musicians from across the Hawaiian Islands. This community event occurs on the third and fifth Wednesday of every month at the main Fountain Courtyard, with select tenants featuring special offers on event days.

In a continued effort to give back to the community, The Shops at Wailea supports a different Maui non-profit each month, with 60 percent of the special event parking fees going to the selected charity. The non-profit recipient for the month of June is Maui Food Bank, whose mission is to help the hungry in Maui County by collecting and distributing food through community partnerships.

The Maui Food Bank is Maui County’s primary safety net for hunger relief, serving 10,000 people each month, 40 percent of which are children and youth. Working with over 120 partner agencies, the Maui Food Bank distributes safe and nutritious food to anyone in the Maui community who is at risk of going hungry, including those living in the rural communities of Hāna, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi.

For more information about this event, visit TheShopsAtWailea.com.