A previously unissued Sol Hoopii cut from 1927

[Andy Volk]

Thanks to Christo Ruppenthal for the link ... Great performance with excellent sound quality! Some of the licks remind me of Django.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fICQm8qKk

[Mike Neer]

Fantastic track. An absolute giant.

[Brad Bechtel]

Thanks for sharing, Andy. What a talented man!

[Jack Hanson]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

[Glenn Wilde]

The Master! Awesome stuff, he's 100% the reason why i wanted to play steel in the first place.

[Sebastian Müller]

It's a great tune, I already had it for quite some time on my harddrive, given to me by a good friend and Sol Hoopii lover.
What is quite appeared in his style is the masterful use of open strings in his playing,
adding some wicked funkiness.
It's really worth slowing Sol's Solos down and to listen very closely, it reveals so many amazing details of his style.

[Andy Volk]

The astonishing thing is that Sol was making this up as he went along, assimilating both the Hawaiian music in which he was steeped along with the hippest blues and jazz music of the period and creating something entirely new.

[Ryan Matzen]

Very cool!

[Joe Cook]

So good!

[Glenn Wilde]

The astonishing thing is that Sol was making this up as he went along, assimilating both the Hawaiian music in which he was steeped along with the hippest music blues and jazz of the period and creating something entirely new.

Yes! I know he must've practiced non stop but the sound of reckless adventure always seems to be lurking, so much excitement in his playing, the comparisons to Django are well founded imo, those two are in their own category.

[David Matzenik]

Reminds me of a Dylan line:"Some things get too late to learn."

[Mike A Holland]

fantastic playing. A real talent. People who listen to this will think it is nice and quirky and from its time. Musicians will say that it is cool and clearly the guy can play. Players that will play a little slide or steel will say Sol is a really good player and is important to the development of playing steel guitar. The really good players that have worked hard and developed their playing to a high level will understand the nuances, touch individual feel, musicality, wonderful phrasing, Lyrical feel, etc. I cannot verbalise how good Sol Hoopii's playing is........ except that he is one of the few very gifted and top players in the world of steel guitar. A true giant.

[Tim Toberer]

Amazing how he seems to have access to any part of the fretboard at any moment, and his intonation is just stunning. I'm guessing he's playing a tricone, is that High A bass tuning?

[Jack Hanson]

When I first heard Sol on the old Hula Blues LP, shortly therafter my D-10 went back in its case for most of two decades. Sold my beautiful birdseye Pro 1, and used the dough to obtain a Style 1 that I played nearly non-stop for those decades. Finally pulled that old D-10 out of the closet during the first decade of this century, but it doesn't get the seat time that it once did.

Sol Hoopii set the standard that has been achieved by very few others since. His mastery no doubt helped sell a boatload of Nationals back in the day; Bakelites and Dickersons as well. A true master. And his voice is equally sublime.

[Bill Bradford]

Wow. He could have gotten together with the young Louis Armstrong. Imagine what that would've been like.

[Allan Revich]

Really great playing. He could easily hold his own today with any band. Nice and loose, and really tight, at the same time.