When Barry Flanagan and Keli`i Kaneli`i  burst on the Hawai`ian music scene in 1993 with their first album, everyone stood up and noticed. With a pulse and energy that made it entirely modern, their music connected firmly to the Polynesian past, walking that fine line of tradition and modern-day acceptance of their music. While featuring poetic ballads about the sea, the lushness of the land, and favorite chiefs all told through music rich in harmony and backed by virtuoso guitar exploring music and the Hawaiian heritage binding all the while. most of the songs are sung in the Hawai`ian tongue - Nearly half of the quarter-million sales of Hapa's first album have been on the mainland, a first for a band from Hawai`i.

 In the Name of Love  landed at #5 on Billboards World Music chart the first week of release. Harmonies and liquid guitars are still here. Add ancient Hawaiian chants, finger cymbals and electric sitars, and a guest appearance by the legendary Don Ho. The cover, which features Barry Flanagan in his family kilt and Kaneli`i in a Hawai`ian lava lava, instruments poised like weapons. 'Kenny Loggins calls us the "rainbow warriors," Kaneli`i said.  'A warriors life is not about imagined perfection or victory, it's about love.' ALOHA. "Its Braveheart meets Don Ho," laughs Barry Flanagan, the blond haired, blue-eyed, New Jersey-bred, Irish part of Hapa. Manhattan-born, Barry is not Native Hawaiian. Flanagan had spent his youth surrounded by guitars: "My mom played guitar in church and my sister played guitar in a rock and roll band", though he didn't pick up the instrument himself until he was 18. "This was in the late 70s, and it was the Jersey rock and roll scene. In Boulder, Colorado, in 1975 (he was playing in country rock bands and preparing for a career as a writing teacher) he heard Gabby Pahinui's inimitable guitar on an album. Flanagan began a love affair with Hawaiian slack-key guitar (Ki Ho 'alu (meaning, Loosen the Key) when he first heard Gabby Pahinui "I said to myself, Id love to learn that music," recalls Flanagan. "It had so much soul and spirit. It had everything. "I'm a real melody person, and Hawai`ians do the best melodies in the world." Flanagans "other half at the time," a 14-year partnership with Keli`i Hoomalu Kaneli`i, was a native Hawaiian who hails from a musical family of 15 and who grew up in Honolulus urban valley of Papakolea. "When I heard Keli`i's voice, I knew I had met my musical soul mate," says Flanagan. "I just had to travel 6,000 miles to find him.

Throughout the 1990's, Barry Flanagan enjoyed immense popularity in concert and on record as one half of the duo, Hapa. After the group split in 2000, Flanagan has pursued a solo career, with a renewed interest in his acoustic guitar playing.

While HAPA was in it's hiatus Barry A gifted musician, composer, arranger and producer, released his solo album.  Flanagan pays homage on the album to some of the artists who have influenced him, from jazz legend Miles Davis to rocker Joe Satriani. He blends a handful of artful covers with a number of memorable original compositions that express his love for Hawaiian slack-key guitar.
While on his own, Flanagan continued to raise the bar, creating a CD that will likely be remembered as one of the best and most creative local releases of 2003. Flanagan says he wanted to create some music that would impart a peaceful tone.  "It borders on New Age music with a pulse, not music to put you to sleep but to level you out.”
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It’s been 25 years now since a young guitarist from New Jersey moved to Hawaii to study the art of Kiho Alu, (slack-key guitar) and plunged headlong into study of Hawaiian poetry to grasp the power of the Hawaiian language, and Haku Mele, Hawaiian poetic song composing.  Barry Flanagan, went on to form one of Hawaii’s most enduring musical groups, the super-talented duo Hapa.  Flanagan has composed many of Hawaii’s most popular songs.
In putting together the group’s most recent recording  MAUI — its first since 1999 — This time the subject was Tahiti.
The new album is called "Maui,". Flanagan and his new Hapa partner Nathan Aweau are embracing cultures of Polynesian South Pacific. The new work is where native art, music and history are pulled together by the powerful force of Maui." "Maui." of course, the gorgeous and popular island in Hawaii, the spiritual home to Hapa and the physical home of the great volcano Haleakala. But "Maui" is also the name of a mythological Hawaiian demi-god who is said to have pulled the Hawaiian Islands, as well as the Marquesas, Samoa, French Polynesia and Tahiti, out of the ocean with his magical fishhook.
"We went as far to the extreme of quality as we could go on this project," said Flanagan. "That not only applies to the concept and the recording of the music, but in the packaging as well."

Genre: Contemporary Hawaiian

"Hapa’s music represents the past, present, and future of Hawaiian music." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Hapa burst onto the scene in 1993 with a self-titled CD that became the biggest-selling album by a group in the history of recorded Hawaiian music, winning six Na Hoku Hanohano (the Hawaiian Grammy) Awards. The band’s altogether successful amalgam of the traditional oli (chant), mele (song), and hula rhythm, melodies and harmonies from the early missionaries, and strains of American acoustic folk/rock struck a chord that sparked numerous comments like the quotation above.

Founding member Barry Flanagan’s distinctive slack-key guitar style is central to Hapa’s sound. He first heard Gabby Pahinui, the acknowledged slack-key master, on Ry Cooder’s "Chicken Skin Music" LP and knew his path was set. Adding the influence of Willie Nelson’s idiosyncratic take on Mexican/Southwest guitar, Flanagan forged a compelling sound all his own.

His current partner, bassist/vocalist Nathan Aweau, brings a wealth of diverse experience to Hapa. Classically-trained, Aweau is also conversant in jazz and modern Hawaiian pop, having served as Don Ho’s arranger for 13 years. Charles Ka’upu, contributing vocals and chant, rounds out the Hapa lineup.

Hapa’s music, described as "beautiful, spiritual, powerful" by the LA Times

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Nathan Aweau was first heard by Barry and Leslie when they attended the Don Ho show shortly after Keali'i's departure from the group. Both looked at each other saying his voice was perfection and just what was needed in the revival of HAPA. "Nathan is the most talented person I have ever worked with," said Flanagan. Aweau brings a funk and jazz sensibility to the group, absent in Hapa’s earlier recordings. He is also accomplished in the Hawaiian art of ha’i, male falsetto singing considered distinctively Hawaiian.
Clearly, "Maui" is a turning point in Hapa’s evolution.
Bridging Hawaiian culture with its larger Polynesian heritage is, Hapa’s founding member believes, the way to re-invigorate Hawaiian music

Nathan Aweau - biography
At an early age was exposed to many different styles of music. His mother played the piano and his father was a teacher of music/choir who himself sang and played a variety of instruments. Nathan in turn took piano lessons and was taught to play the ukulele and guitar by his father.

During his teen years, he expanded his talents to playing the saxophone and singing. He performed in such school ensembles as the high school wind symphony and big band jazz ensemble.

Nathan spent his college years studying the double bass and voice. As well as learning how to arrange for a symphony orchestra. He played the bass guitar in the jazz ensemble and was even a timpanist for the wind symphony. All of these experiences helped to develop him into a more versatile musician.

In 1983, during his college years, he started his professional career accompanying performers such as Gabe Baltazar, Kapono Ka'aihue, Loyal Garner and Nohelani Cypriano. He was a member of the Hoku award winning group, Ka'eo, as well as with the award winning group The Ali'i's. He also did a 16 year stint with the Late but legendary Don Ho who recently left us on 4-14-07 while Hapa was performing in Seattle.

Other than being a stage musician, Nathan has composed and arranged music as a studio musician singing and playing in commercials for Windward Mall, Meadow Gold and Ala Moana. He's done background music for various T.V. shows for the Travel Channel.