<\/p>\n
Maoli, a Hawaiian artist who started out making reggae, is finding a natural, new path in country music. – Credit: Reggie Villa*<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cEverything that I represent has to do with the culture and the lifestyle of Hawaii,\u201d Glenn Awong says. \u201cBringing it out here is really easy for me. I\u2019m just being me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awong is best known as Maoli, the performing moniker for the Maui native who is, by most metrics, one of the brightest stars in the 50th state. Since beginning as a reggae artist in the mid-2000s, Maoli has steadily incorporated elements of country, culminating in Last Sip of Summer<\/em>, a decidedly country record that dropped earlier this summer. A subsequent U.S. tour of historic venues like L.A.\u2019s Greek Theatre and San Diego\u2019s Rady Shell was enough to land Maoli an invitation to the Grand Ole Opry<\/a>: He\u2019ll make his debut on Nashville\u2019s most famous stage on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Loosely translated, \u201cMaoli\u201d means \u201cnative,\u201d and Awong\u2019s music is steeped in Hawaii history.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to reggae music, we can relate to Jamaica, because we\u2019re both island people,\u201d Awong tells Rolling Stone. \u201cWe can relate to country music, because in Hawaii, there\u2019s a lot of country living. There\u2019s a history of cowboys there, and you can date it back to the late 1700s. Cowboy living and island living? You\u2019re describing country-reggae. Hawaii is such a melting pot of so many cultures, we got to witness so many different things. The music, the food, the history. We put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent Maoli run across the American west left an impression on Awong. The Greek Theatre show in mid-July, for instance, was a sellout. It also marked Maoli\u2019s first time playing in Los Angeles. Still, with a capacity under 6,000, it\u2019s nowhere near the crowd Maoli commands in Hawaii. Back-to-back sellouts in June at Honolulu\u2019s Blaisdell Arena overshadow most of the stateside run \u2014\u00a0with the exception of an early August concert at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s notable that the country bent of Last Sip of Summer<\/em> has brought a fresh wave of fans to Maoli, and it has done so without playing into cliches about reggae or tropical music. This is a country record, recorded in Nashville with the help of Dann Huff<\/a> and David Huff \u2014\u00a0two of the most influential producers in recent country music history. When Awong sings \u201cLonely Won\u2019t Leave Me Alone\u201d over just a hint of reggae percussion, he puts his Maui accent on full display.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a country record, but it\u2019s true to Awong. He\u2019s not stretching or playing a part. He\u2019s as country as it gets, and this record was his way of letting the world know.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to make this album for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to do it for fans or anyone other than me. I\u2019m a huge country fan, and I wanted to make a country album.\u201d<\/p>\n Where does your approach to music fit in Hawaii?<\/strong> Can you elaborate on your country influences?<\/strong> It\u2019s not the biggest genre in Hawaii, but I\u2019ve definitely helped it. I\u2019m not saying it to brag. I am the biggest-streaming artist in Hawaii. What I want people to understand is that country music is a lifestyle, and I really would like the Polynesians that I\u2019m around to see the cowboy life and realize that we\u2019re very similar. You just don\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n This is my gift, man, and I want to share it. If you\u2019re not sharing it, then it\u2019s not a gift at all.<\/p>\n What about making Last Sip of Summer most resonates with you?<\/strong> Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose latest books, <\/em>Never Say Never<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Red Dirt Unplugged<\/em><\/a> are available via Back Lounge Publishing.<\/em><\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maoli, a Hawaiian artist who started out making reggae, is finding a natural, new path in country music. – Credit: Reggie Villa* \u201cEverything that I represent has to do with the culture and the lifestyle of Hawaii,\u201d Glenn Awong says. \u201cBringing it out here is really easy for me. I\u2019m just being me.\u201d Awong is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1978992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22846,354431,22080,354430,354432,354429,314737],"class_list":["post-1978991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-country-music","tag-country-record","tag-hawaii","tag-maoli","tag-reggae-artist","tag-reggae-music","tag-rolling-stone"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/This-Hawaiian-Singer-Is-Finding-His-Lane-in-Country.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1978992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
There were a lot of artists before me back home. Hawaii has its own industry. You can really make a great living just playing Hawaii. You can almost just play weddings alone. There\u2019s a lot of OG\u2019s there, who have been doing the country-reggae thing for a lot longer than I have. I just took it to a place where the world is starting to hear it. I just can\u2019t take credit for it. Artists like Kapena and Ka\u02bbau Crater Boys, they\u2019ve been doing this way longer than I have. We just took it to another level.<\/p>\n
I was raised in the country, for one. My grandpa was a cowboy and farmer. He used to play music, and he loved country music. I was raised on George Strait, Alan Jackson, Willie Nelson, and George Jones. I loved the storytelling of country music, and even though reggae is much bigger in Hawaii, I just resonated with those stories about red dirt roads, pickup trucks. That\u2019s the lifestyle we live. I could bond with it.<\/p>\n
That was my first time recording in Nashville. What blew my mind is how all the musicians and producers were in the studio at the same time. I\u2019m used to giving a producer an idea, and they\u2019re not even in the room with me. I\u2019ll start working on it and send it back to them. I never went into a studio where the whole band was there, and I watched Dann Huff do his thing, and I sang the songs with the band. I\u2019d never done that before.<\/p>\n