Kilauea’s Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom has been busy this year. It started off with the birth of her baby daughter, Madeline. “She’s a really good baby to travel with,” Gilliom said. “She knows the new album more than I do. I
Kilauea’s Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom has been busy this year. It started off with the birth of her baby daughter, Madeline.
“She’s a really good baby to travel with,” Gilliom said. “She knows the new album more than I do. I don’t know if it’s because she was growing inside of me while I was recording.”
Then came the release of her solo album “Generation Hawai‘i.”
“I’m extremely proud of ‘Generation Hawai‘i,’” she said. “It’s an evolved album. The arrangements are a little more mature. I think it might be that I’m just getting older.”
Next came the release of the read-along book “Goodnight Hawaiian Moon,” a project she worked on with husband-and-wife publishing team Dr. Terry and Joanna Carolan.
“Dr. Carolan is Madeline’s pediatrician and I would go into the office and see all these books,” she said. “I had done read-alongs with Island Heritage publishing and I mentioned to him, ‘You know I do these read-alongs too?’ So we recorded it really fast. But I’ve never sung on one of these. I got to sing Brahms in Hawaiian for this, so it was an added bonus for me.”
A successful California tour followed and then a Grammy nomination for Best Hawaiian Album. Gilliom was in San Francisco getting ready to appear on a morning news show when she heard the news.
“The nomination does mean a lot just because I’ve been on my own and I’m a new mother,” she said. “And because I’m the only female nominated, I would be so honored to receive it, just to mahalo all the kupuna that came before us.”
She spoke candidly about what she’s going to wear to the awards show, what it was like the first time she went and the changes she hopes will be made at the Grammys in the future.
“I haven’t really thought about what I’m wearing yet because I’m still trying to lose weight from the baby,” she joked. “But it will probably be a more classic-style dress. My husband John and my baby will most likely go with me. I’ll probably take my parents, too, next year.”
No one out of the Hawaiian category has been asked to perform yet.“When we first went, they had the Native Americans perform and that was just amazing,” Gilliom said. “They were dressed in their traditional garb, it was great. We haven’t had Hawaiians perform yet, but hopefully they’ll be going to it.”
She was previously nominated in the Best Hawaiian category for “Amy and Willie K Live!”
She’ll cap off this whirlwind year with a concert in the Grand Ballroom at the Princeville Hotel tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
“I just came back from performing a show at the Castro Theater in San Francisco so I’ll be doing a lot of what I did there,” Gilliom said. “There’ll be a lot of Christmas songs, songs from the new album and incredible footage of my grandmother. It will be a great visual show and very festive, of course.”
For more information, call 826-9644. Tickets locations include The Hanalei Trading Company, Backdoor Hanalei, Larry’s Music, Progressions Expressions, Kmart and the Princeville Hotel concierge.
Want to Go?
Who: Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom
Where: Grand Ballroom, Princeville Hotel
When: Tomorrow, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $35/adv; $40/door
• Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
