My daughter worked for a Hawaiian restaurant and she was just raving about Kealii Reichel. I had no idea who he was because living on the mainland, we don't get a lot of news about Hawaii entertainers. Anyway, she kept asking me to contact my sister in Hawaii (Honolulu) to buy her Kealii Reichel's CD. I finally asked my sister to get it and the first time I heard it, I was in awe of his music. All of a sudden, my hands started moving to the music and it made me want to dance the hula after such a long, long time of losing interest in dancing the hula.

When Kealii Reichel came up to the mainland, he played at El Camino college, and we bought tickets for the whole family (13 tickets total). My husband (who is a ca-tonk) was just blown away by his music and the man himself. Kealii Reichel was so relaxed, friendly, talking to the audience and bringing the Aloha spirit. Also, my brother who moved here when he was 13 yrs.old was also totally mesmerized and even though we spoke to him, he was listening and watching Kealii Reichel's performance and wouldn't answer us. It made him proud to be from Hawaii , and also he wanted to be a "local" again.

This old lady did dance the hula at my daughter's wedding to Kealii Reichel's version of "The Road that Never Ends." Everyone said they shed a tear because although I was shaking and nervous when I first started, the music overcame all fears, and I just really enjoyed representing Hawaii through hula. We also did a family hula (brother, brother-in-law, nephews, sisters, nieces and which my daughter also joined in her wedding gown) "Kananaka" to thank all the guests for sharing Aimee's special day.

Thank you for listening to my story.

P.S. A lot of people were interested in the music and we sold a lot of CD's for Kealii Reichel.

Lea H.
Cypress, Ca.