This Hawaiian music isn't the stuff of Elvis movies.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

Keola Beamer recorded his first album of Hawaiian slack-key guitar music in 1972. He's toured the mainland a number of times. He's appeared on "Sesame Street."

But still, people constantly mix up the Hawaiian slack-key guitar with the Hawaiian steel guitar, Beamer said.

Hawaiian steel guitar is that twangy music that's been the soundtrack to a million backyard luaus. Slack-key guitar is more like the acoustic guitar, Beamer said, except that it has vastly different tunings.

Beamer and his wife, Moanalani, a gifted Hawaiian dancer, will share the stage at the Shedd on Sunday as part of OFAM at the Shedd's Now Hear This series.

`I'm very blessed with a wife who is an extremely beautiful hula dancer,' Beamer said. "She's recognized in Hawaii for her beautiful interpretations and also for her work with Hawaiian percussion instruments.

`She's a really wonderful talent in her own right.'

The show will feature a variety of sights and sounds from the islands, Beamer said.

`We think of it as a multilayered evening featuring hula, the Hawaiian form of dance, `oli,' what we call the Hawaiian chant, and `male,' which is the music, which is the part where I come in with the slack-key guitar,' Beamer said.

"I'll also play a little of the `ohe,' the Hawaiian nose flute.'

Beamer comes from one of Hawaii's most prestigious musical families. His great-grand- mother, Helen Kapuailohia Desha Beamer, was an accomplished composer and dancer. His mother, Winona (Nona) Kapuailohia Desha Beamer, is a noted chanter, teacher and composer. His lineage can be traced back to the 15th century.

Beamer himself was musical as a child, learning piano, guitar and the `ohe hano ihu.' His debut album, 1972's "Hawaiian Slack Key in the Real Old Style," is credited by many as helping revive interest in slack-hey guitar. His 1978 release, "Honolulu City Lights," is the largest selling recording in the history of Hawaiian music.

He's also a teacher. He wrote the first comprehensive teaching guide on the slack-key guitar called, simply, "Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar.' He currently hosts a series of music and dance camps on Molokai where people from all over the world come to study on the beach. He describes it as an immersion in the culture of the islands.

Hawaii has been a state since 1959, but many still have musical misconceptions, Beamer said - and not just about slack-key vs. steel guitars.

`Most of the misconceptions of Hawaiian music can be traced back to those old Hollywood Dorothy Lamour movies. People think if they've seen an Elvis `Blue Hawaii' movie that they know Hawaiian music. That's like me seeing a Tarzan movie and thinking I know African music.

`It's been a bit damaging in a sense that sometimes the conception is that this is lightweight, wackyhula, hickydula kind of stuff. But actually it's not. It really is its own beautiful and unique art form. And it's gradually being appreciated as that.'

Beamer is not one to be pigeonholed. Throughout his career, he's been praised for his ability to bring traditional Hawaii sounds into his contemporary works. He recently teamed up with American Indian flutist R. Carlos Nakai for a series of concerts, Native Voices Tour. Earlier this month, the duo performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The collaboration yielded an album, "Our Beautiful Land," which will be released on Tuesday by Canyon Records.

After that, he will collaborate with contemporary jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer, combining native Hawaiian percus- sion, slack-key guitar, jazz and modern American piano. That CD will be released on Beamer's own record label, 'Ohe Records.

`I respect and I have so much aloha for our traditions of our music and Hawaii's rich musical past,' he said. "My family is immersed and has been part of that development since the 15th century. But we grow and we change and we move in new directions some- times.

`For me, one of the most beautiful concepts, the most beautiful two words in the world are `artistic freedom.' And what that means or what journey that involves, sometimes we don't know. We just go there and see what happens.'

CONCERT PREVIEW

Keola Beamer

With: Moanalani Beamer

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: The Shedd, 285 E. Broadway

Tickets: $28.50, $23.50 and $19.50, available through the Shedd ticket office, 434-7000 or [phone]

CAPTION(S):

Keola Beamer says popular culture has created an incorrect perception of traditional Hawaiian music. "It's been a bit damaging in a sense that sometimes the conception is that this is lightweight, wackyhula, hickydula kind of stuff," says the serious student of the genre.