Born and raised in Kohala, the slack key guitar master Sonny Lim decided to pick up the instrument when he was a kid, after hearing it at a family lūʻau.
He recalled hearing legendary slack key guitarist Gabby Pahinui, playing alongside another master, Leland “Atta” Isaacs.
“I had never heard anything like it,” Lim said. “They were playing slack key.”
So, he wanted to learn.
Lim’s uncle, Lolena Neula, got him his first guitar. He used to sit in the corner of the living room and put his instrument and ear against the wall to amplify the sound.
“That’s how I started playing,” he said.
On Sunday, Oct. 18, Lim will perform at a musical event in Pahinui’s memory: the 29th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival – Kona Style at Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa on Hawai'i Island. The event features more than a dozen musicians from across the state, including Lim, Brother Noland, Bobby Moderow, Stephen Inglis and Anthony Pfluke.
The festival is one of several produced by the Ki-ho'alu Foundation Inc., which takes slack key guitar music to four islands: Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island, Kauaʻi and Maui. Tickets are $20 for kamaʻāina. Details.
The Lim Family: A musical ʻohana
Lim grew up on Parker Ranch with the paniolo lifestyle in a musical family. His mother, Mary Ann Lim, sang at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in South Kohala, and his father, Elmer Lim Sr., also played music. Soon some of the duo's six children — including Sonny, and his sisters Nani Lim Yap and Lorna Lim — joined them to form The Lim Family performance group. In 1977, The Lim Family began its recording career, winning Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards for “Most Traditional Hawaiian Album of the Year” in 1981 and 1982, plus “Group of the Year” in 2022.
As a slack key guitar master, Sonny Lim went on to be part of a compilation album “Slack Key Volume 2,” which won the Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album in 2005, the first year an award was given in that category, as reported by CBS News. In 2010, Lim received the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Slack Key Legacy Award.
In July, he also won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award for the 2026 Slack Key Album of the Year with his album “Hoene,” released in 2025, which is a mix of traditional and contemporary music and is his first solo album release in 20 years.
A childhood start: slack key guitar
A few years after hearing slack key guitar for the first time, Lim started taking lessons with Fred Punahoa, or “Uncle Fred,” who came to Kohala and taught him how to play. At the time, Lim had only wanted to learn slack key guitar, but Punahoa insisted he also learn standard guitar, which gave him opportunities to play other kinds of music, including contemporary and rock n roll.
“It kind of opened up the doors to every style of music,” Lim said. “In hindsight, he was actually exactly correct on that point.”
Lim was playing steel guitar in Waimea when a group from Honolulu saw him performing. It was the Mākaha Sons of Niʻiahu. The group performed their set, then left. A little while later, they came back and asked Lim to join them.
Lim was part of the Mākaha Sons of Niʻiahu from 1975 to 1978. At the time, the teenager would drive straight from Kohala High School to the airport in Kona to catch flights for gigs with the group, which included Iz Kamakawiwoʻole; his brother, Skippy; Moon Kauakahi; Jerome Koko; and Sam Gray. Lim would fly out on Friday and arrive home on Sunday.
“We were so young,” he said. “We just had this passion. … Money didn’t matter. We just wanted for play. And we had so much fun playing.”
In 2010, Lim received the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award with the Makaha Sons of Niʻihau.
A full circle moment with Gabby Pahinui
Lim eventually ran into Pahinui at a concert in Honolulu.
“He had an amazing memory,” Lim said. “He remembered me from when I was a little boy.”
That’s when Lim learned that while plenty of people knew Pahinui for slack key guitar, his first instrument was actually steel guitar.
In 2005, Lim released his first solo album, “Slack Key Guitar: The Artistry of Sonny Lim.”
“In my whole career, I [have] only released two [solo] CDs,” Lim said. “I did one in 2005, and then, I just did this release in 2025.”
New music and colors of the rainbow
The newly released “Hoene,” which includes 12 tracks, captures the variety of ways slack key guitar has been played in the past 20 years, he adds. Among his favorite songs on the album is “Ku’u Ipo Aloha,” which was written from Niʻihau by his friend Jean Kele Keale, in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. He also likes the song, “Heiau / Mehameha,” which he sings in English, and the contemporary slack key version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
“Not only did I do traditional slack key, but I also did contemporary on this project,” he said. “Because slack key is going in so many different directions.”
Looking ahead, he's already working on the next project.
Lim has been part of the slack key guitar festival in its early stages and now. He enjoys seeing the legacy live on and hearing the next generation of young artists, he added.
“Just to be a part of it is more than enough,” he said. “As a metaphor, you can use the rainbow. You don’t need to be the brightest color, so long as you one of the shades that’s in there with everybody else.”
Follow Lim on Spotify and Instagram or find updates on shows and buy his album, “Hoene,” on his website.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
