Kapali Long’s Heartfelt Hawaiian Country

Hawaii has a rich history full of cowboys, guitars, and stories. A history with an oversized and under-appreciated influence on American music. Indeed, long before the Gene Autry-inspired American myth of the singing cowboy riding the range with a guitar slung over his shoulder and a song at his lips swept over the mainland, natives on the Big Island of Hawaii, trained by Mexican cowboys (vaqueros), were becoming experts at roping, riding, and herding cattle, which were introduced (as a gift of six cows and one bull to King Kamehameha I from Captain James Vancouver) to the island in the 1790s.