Nashville – There’s nothing that solo act Kawehi can’t accomplish as long as she’s armed with a sampler, a guitar, a keyboard, and her voice. Though her setup is humble—and dwarfed on a large stage—the Hawaiian-born artist is able to pull a formidable sound from less than ten square feet of space. Proving that the even tiniest instruments can produce some seriously booming beats, Kawehi blew Nashville fans away with her stunning, original work as well as a few covers.
These covers are, in fact, what put her on the map in the first place, and they’re what crowd members were buzzing most about as they waited for her to take the stage. A veteran of YouTube and Kickstarter, Kawehi is perhaps best known for her sensational cover of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box,” which Esquire called “an uncoverable song.” But challenges only translate into success for Kawehi, and her version of Nirvana’s hit took the Internet by storm, earning high praise from critics and blogs alike as her views continued to increase.
In one of the most daring and impressive moves I’ve witnessed in a long while, Kawehi crammed an array of different songs—from different genres and periods—into one beautiful, cohesive entity. Beginning with Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know,” she seamlessly folded in Britney Spears, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, and even Journey—without changing the overall rhythm. It’s difficult to pull off this level of precision with so many things happening at once, but Kawehi didn’t skip a beat on Friday night as she casually tweaked the looping and made small talk with the audience. She even broke down the process for us by showing exactly what she loops, and when, and what needs to be in place for everything to align perfectly. It was like being inside of her brain, and it was beautiful.
This super cover, however, in no way detracted from the original work she chose to showcase. While it allowed Kawehi to play the bolder side of her music that her viewers have come to know and love, she also let everyone in on a softer side of sound. Her performance of “Lucy” was beautifully tender and subtle, with poetic lyrics and light keyboard chords. This confluence of poetry, music, and context filled the room with a purely magical vibe, and the story behind the song is just as charming—it was written for a Kickstarter backer’s one-year-old daughter. Considering how Kawehi goes the extra mile for her listeners and viewers, it really makes her music and performance intensely personal.
An Internet darling turned seasoned performer, Kawehi is certainly on the upswing, and ideally, she will continue to produce content for her vast online following after her tour. There’s no denying that the Internet is a better place because of her work, but with such a knack for live performance, touring and recording might just be her true calling. It will be interesting to see how her music might change post-tour, but at least one thing will remain fixed, and that’s her genuine, gritty, one-woman-band vibe. With so much talent packed into something so deceptively small, Kawehi remains one of the coolest things to hit the stage this year.
Kawehi will continue to tour the U.S. until the end of March. Keep up with her future dates via Facebook.
Photo: Kawehi live by Boston Heath
Amaryllis Lyle
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