By Kaitlin

Growing up, I was never allowed to fiddle with the radio in the car. I listened to whatever my folks were listening to and that was that. I knew kids who would get in the car and change the music, turn it up, and I was a little jealous. In retrospect, I realize that I received a huge musical education in those car trips that I wouldn’t trade for a pile of gold. Seriously!

In my dad’s car was where I first heard the Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, and so on and so on. In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to share some of my memories about hearing these legendary, moving, and talented women.

I believe I first heard of Loretta Lynn when watching Coal Miner’s Daughter, the film based upon her life starring Sissy Spacek. She grew up dirt poor and skyrocketed to fame with an amazing voice and moving storytelling in her songs. She was a strong woman and sang about issues that real, working women dealt and still deal with such as cheating men, being a single mother, birth control, and divorce, among other themes.

Sometimes you never know where the next batch of 78s will be coming from and it's often from unexpected places. Recently, we were contacted by San Francisco's Market Street Railway, an advocate for San Francisco's historic streetcars which run on the Market Street Line. One of their members bequeathed his books on trolley history to them, and included in the donation were the 78s bought by his Hawaiian wife back in the 1920s. Having no use for the records, they contacted us, and we were delighted to find a strong run of records by one of the great early Hawaiian bands that recorded in the late 1920s – Kalama's Quartet. Many other obscure Hawaiian 78s were part of the collection, but by far her favorite group was Kalama's Quartet, and for good reason. Along with steel guitars, ukelele, harp guitar and bass, they featured deeply moving four part harmony singing – raw and forceful, but delicate and beautiful at the same time.

The collectors of early Hawaiian 78s are mostly drawn to the steel guitar giants Sol Hoopii, King Benny Nawahi, and the rare as hen's teeth discs by Madame Riviera's Hawaiians featuring Tau Moe. In addtion to the traditional vocals, Kalama's Quartet features twin steel guitars, playing lead and harmony – more bang for your steel guitar buck, plus the exquisite Hawaiian falsetto singing of Mike Hanapi. Along with Hanapi (front) singing tenor and falsetto, their core personnel included the deep resonant bass voice of Bob Nawahini (left), the baritone of Dave Munson or Dan Pokipala (right) and the lead voice of Bill Kalama (behind Hanapi). They didn't bother to change their name to Quintet when somewhere along the way Bob Matsu was added as a second steel guitar.