Keola Beamer

Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer, February 18, 1951) is a Native Hawaiian slack-key guitarist, composer, and author. He was born in Honolulu on Oʻahu and raised in Kamuela on Hawaiʻi Island. He descends from the Beamer ʻohana, a musical family spanning several generations; his mother was cultural educator and composer Winona "Nona" Beamer and his great-grandmother was the songwriter and hula figure Helen Desha Beamer.

Beamer's first recording, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style, appeared in 1972, and he recorded a series of albums with his brother Kapono Beamer that helped shape contemporary Hawaiian music, rooting the tradition in Hawaiian language while drawing on pop and folk influences. Their 1978 album Honolulu City Lights, whose title song Keola composed, became one of the best-selling Hawaiian records and a lasting standard. In the 1970s he also authored an early written instruction method for the Hawaiian slack-key guitar.

From the 1990s onward, Beamer recorded a series of slack-key albums for George Winston's Dancing Cat label and continued composing and performing. He founded the Mohala Hou Foundation and directs the Aloha Music Camp, teaching slack key and Hawaiian cultural practice. He has often performed with his wife, Moanalani Beamer, a hula dancer and vocalist.