I'LL REMEMBER YOU REVIEWS
For Friday, March 13, 2009
By John Berger
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 13, 2009
Danny Couch
(Danny Couch Records)
Danny Couch first worked with Don Ho in 1981 when Ho and the Aliis reunited for
an engagement at the International Market Place. Aliis founding member Al Akana
retired on opening night, and introduced Couch as his replacement as the group's
drummer.
Ho shared his knowledge with Couch in the years that followed, and Couch pays homage to his longtime mentor and friend with this album. With one exception, every song was popularized by Ho and the original Aliis at Duke Kahanamoku's in the mid-60s. "Suck 'em Up," "Lover's Prayer" and the title track are several.
Couch shares credit with co-producer/keyboardist Pierre Grill for the instrumental arrangements and most of the instrumentation; Anela Kahiamoe (guitar) and Bryan Tolentino (ukulele) are the other members of the studio band.
Couch has always been a powerful pop balladeer at heart, and it is the ballads that stand out most vividly; in particular, "Days of My Life," "She's Gone Again" and "I'll Remember You." Some of the others are relics of a bygone era, fine as material for inebriated late-night sing-alongs at Duke's in the mid-60s, but a bit antiquated taken out of that context in 2009.
On the other hand, no one nailed "Nightlife" like Ho and the Aliis in 1965, but Couch succeeds in making it his as well.
"Maka
Hilahila"
"Ain't
No Big Thing"
"I'll
Remember You"
Danny Couch Voice of ‘These Islands’ turns Maui Beach Hotel
into a showroom Friday
For his latest album project, multi-Hoku winning Hawaiian entertainer Danny Couch decided to pay tribute to the Waikiki showroom legend who had helped him in so many ways. The former lead singer with The Ali'is, the group that accompanied Don Ho for many years, features some of Ho's most loved repertoire on the CD "I'll Remember You."
In his inimitable style, Couch spotlights a number of Kui Lee songs associated with Ho including "Suck Em Up" and "Days of My Youth," includes Willie Nelson's classic "Night Life" and closes with Ho's "Lover's Prayer."
"I listened to this one album he recorded in 1965 and it had all these great songs like 'Ain't No Big Thing' and 'Everybody Suck Em Up,' " Couch explains. "A lot of content was from that era when it was OK to say everybody suck em up."
Steering close to the original arrangements of songs Ho popularized, Couch injects a contemporary Jawaiian twist on "E Lei Kaleilai."
"I love my ballads and songs that are powerful and meaningful, but I cross over if need be, so I made it Jawaiian without losing Don's flavor," he continues. "Don had a Hawaiian beat to it and I made it a little contemporary."
"He was a friend, mentor and at times a father to me," Couch writes in the liner notes of the CD.
"I wish everyone could have met him," he says. "He was probably the most unique human being I have ever met. He just shined and let you shine. He taught me so much, he taught me never to be envious of anybody. Don scolded me once. He wanted me to hear someone sing. I said, this guy's not that good. He said, 'Don't judge, just enjoy what he does.'
"Prior to his passing, he asked if I would take over while he was sick and front his show when he's gone. I said it would be really hard to host. I think I broke his heart, but we left on good terms."
Ho loved shining the spotlight on the talented musicians he introduced to audiences, and without his encouragement Couch may never have emerged as a leading entertainer.
"I was his drummer with The Ali'is and when he heard me sing for the first time, he turned around and said, 'Who is that? Get up from behind those drums, you're singing,' " Couch recalls. "I was afraid to sing in front of people, that's why I put the drums surrounding me. He forced me to get up there and if he hadn't, I would not have had the gift of entertaining. He didn't care how scared you were. At the Hilton Hawaiian Village he finally said, 'I don't want you playing drums any more. I want you up front singing'."
Raised on the leeward coast of Oahu, as a 12-year-old the young drummer formed a band with some cousins called the Rolling Coconuts. "It was one of the best bands I've ever worked with," he notes. "When I was 15, there was a song called 'Oh Akua' by John Kalani Lincoln and that won Brown Bags to Stardom (as a member of the Good Time Friends) and things took off, and then with The Allis we started winning Hokus."
Debuting with The Ali'is in 1979, Couch helped the legendary group reinvent itself as a major local pop act winning Hoku Awards in 1982 for Contemporary Album of the Year and Single of the Year.
Over the years he's worked with many leading entertainers and even starred on Dolly Parton's nationally aired "Dolly Show" in 1988, filmed on Oahu.
"When I worked at the Kahala Hilton, all these phenomenal entertainers would come in to eat," he reports. "Frank Sinatra came in for dinner and stood up and applauded me and said, 'Who's singing?' I was playing drums at the time. I opened for people like Paul Anka, Dionne Warwick and Sergio Mendes. I was very fortunate, what a life."
Of all the songs he's composed, the Hoku-winning "These Islands" remains his most popular. The theme song for the 1998 Miss Universe Pageant, it was utilized for six years by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau in a worldwide campaign promoting Hawaii. And in March this year, Couch was honored, invited to sing it at a special joint session of the House and Senate marking the 50th anniversary of statehood.
Though now associated with tourism, Couch's signature hit was actually composed for his ailing mother.
"I was going to visit my mom who was dying at the time and I was stuck on the freeway. I closed my eyes and said, God, do you mind if I speak to my Hawaiian spirits - my mother is pure Hawaiian - is there something I can leave for you? I've written many songs, but nothing flew through me faster with more clarity. It was like I was a vessel and these words came to me. When I got home, I spent 10 minutes writing the song, and the words flowed through me like water. Later that night we recorded it and we played it through one time, and that's the original voice you hear. It continues to sell every day."
* Danny Couch performs with his band at the Maui Beach Hotel on Friday. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., buffet dinner at 6 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets available at the Maui Beach Hotel are $40 for dinner and show in advance, and $50 at the door.