Master of the Hawaiian Guitar

There is no 1930s “album” in the modern sense. Native Hawaiian lap steel virtuoso Sol Hoʻopiʻi recorded 78s in the 1920s and ’30s that helped make Hawaiian steel a continental pop and jazz sound, later influencing Western swing steel players.

Rounder Records compiled those sides as Master of the Hawaiian Guitar (Volume 1 in 1977, Volume 2 later). The 1991 Rounder CD is the pressing most buyers still find. The material sits years before Denny’s Shell Bar and decades before the tiki revival.

A home tiki soundtrack that never touches actual Hawaiian steel is only Hollywood fantasy. These sides are the older layer under exotica — acoustic and early electric lap steel, swing phrasing, and the roots Denny’s fantasy borrowed from.