ROyal Hawaiian Troubadors The Honolulu Students 1904

The extraordinary re-release of this music owes itself to an old-fashioned pilgrimage to the reading room at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., while researching the life of prolific Hawaiian composer and multi-instrumentalist Mekia Kealakai. A chance conversation with a gracious librarian revealed a collection of old records performed by a Hawaiian string band alternately calling itself the Royal Hawaiian Troubadors and the Honolulu Students. Born in 1882, bandleader of the Honolulu Students, Lui Thompson got his start playing in Mekia Kealakais Hawaiian orchestra on a tour across the U.S. in 1901.