Keeping the falsetto tradition alive with Raiatea Helm
Photo courtesy of Maui News
By Don Harrison
Growing up a self-described "country girl," Raiatea Helm says that she and her peers weren't surrounded by a lot of traditional Hawaiian music. They knew more about the songs of the Everly Brothers, say, or Earth, Wind & Fire. Living on the island of Molokai, which she likens to an American small town (pop: 7,000), she was instead familiar with what she calls the ancient stories. "We call them mo'olelo."
These oral histories are key to understanding Hawaiian culture, says the celebrated vocalist, slated to appear at the 2025 Richmond Folk Festival, October 10-12. "These stories give us context as to, you know, the relationship between man and nature and the spiritual realm. They really give us an appreciation of the landscape and our culture and, of course, our past and the resilience of our people."
“These stories give us context as to, you know, the relationship between man and nature and the spiritual realm. They really give us an appreciation of the landscape and our culture and, of course, our past and the resilience of our people.”
A multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano award winner, and the first solo female vocalist to be nominated for a Hawaiian Music Grammy, Helm, 40, has devoted her career to keeping alive a cherished falsetto singing tradition — leo ki‘eki‘e — that defined several generations of male and female singers on the Islands.
Her most recent album, A Legacy of Hawaiian Song & String, Volume One, was produced in partnership with the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings, a non-profit that researches and celebrates Hawai'i's Indigenous music history. The album is an expert recasting of classic songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, considered by many the golden age of Hawaiian song. "This kind of music was not popular in my generation," she says. "I don't know why, but I'm attracted to them. I had a calling, as though I needed to learn these songs and share them."
Photo courtesy of artist
Protecting Hawaiian Culture
That calling may be hereditary. Her uncle, George Helm, is considered by many to be one of the Islands' greatest falsetto singers. But his renown as a singer of "authentic" Hawaiian mele is matched by his influence as a political activist. He was one of the leaders of Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana, an Indigenous group that sought to end the U.S. Navy's indiscriminate bombing of the island of Kahoʻolawe for war exercises. "His mission was to let the Hawaiian people know that, hey, our culture is still alive," she says, noting that her Uncle George disappeared, presumed to be an assassination victim, in 1977. "I didn't get a chance to meet my uncle. But he had this gift. He wanted Hawaiians to know and protect their own culture."
It's her mission, too, she says. Raiatea is also a descendant of King Kamehameha, Lot Kapuāiwa, who ruled as King of Hawai'i from 1863 to 1872. "The stories we hear in the history books are that he didn't leave a child," she told podcaster Kamaka Dias last year. "They say he didn't have an heir. But there was a child. My tutu [grandmother Olga] is a direct descendent of Lot."
Olga is also the person who lent young Raiatea her first ukulele, after the youngster watched, and was transfixed by, a TV performance by one of Hawai'i's preeminent female vocalists, Nina Keali'iwahamana.
"I never heard anything like that in my life. I'm 14 years old in Molokai, and I immediately fell in love with her. And she's singing traditional Hawaiian music, this beautiful song, this beautiful, beautiful love song called 'Pua Tuberose' — the Tuberose Flower." Helm would later memorably cover the song on her 2007 album, Hawaiian Blossom.
The tune seemed to awaken something in this self-professed "teenage tomboy," who never really enjoyed the hula dance, even though Molokai is the birthplace of the hula. When father Zachary, a musician himself, gave his daughter a CD of recordings by another legendary falsetto vocalist Lena Mechado, it sealed the deal. "My dad taught me a few chords. And then a lot of it was self-taught. You just mimic and then you just try and learn by feel, by ear, which is how a lot of indigenous people learn."
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Storied History of Hawaiian Music
"Raiatea has become sort of the preeminent Hawaiian falsetto style singer," says Kilin Reece, a master luthier and the founder and president of the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings. "There's that really iconic skip in the voice that has been compared to a yodel. She's a master of that style, and firmly in the tradition of the people who came before her, like Lena Machado, Genoa Keawe, all these wonderful singers."
Reece, who co-produced A Legacy of Hawaiian Song & String with Helm and engineer Dave Tucciarone, will accompany the singer in Richmond, along with many of the stellar musicians who performed on the album. This includes Joe Zayac on lead guitar, Kapono Lopes on upright bass, lap steel guitarist Casey Olsen, guitar and ukulele player Jeff Richardson, and fiddlers Duane Padilla and Eli Bishop, the latter of the Grand Ol’ Opry house band. Reece, as the "extra member," will showcase traditional Hawaiian instruments.
More recently, Reece and Helm have collaborated on a PBS documentary, Pu‘uwai Haokila: The Story of How Hawai‘i Shaped Modern Music. The 90-minute film traces the complex history of Island music, including its influence on bluegrass, country, and western swing, and the storied Hawaiian falsetto singing tradition that Helm is working to preserve. "Starting around 1883, Hawaiian string bands started traveling as ambassadors and became messengers of what was happening in their kingdom," Reece explains. "Along the way, they taught everybody they met how to play the steel guitar and the ukulele. And before long, we have Jimmie Rodgers, "Mother" Maybelle Carter, Son House, and all these wonderful Delta blues guitar players who took the sounds of the Hawaiian ensemble culture and really made them their own."
Helm, he says, is the perfect narrator for the documentary. "We very quickly realized that this was also the story of her family — her connections to some of the royalty, the monarchs, and the Royal Hawaiian Band-styled ensembles that we are sort of bringing back to life on this album. She has family members and her grandparents, great grandparents, who were actually in these ensembles and bands... and I think she has caused a reawakening of interest in this earlier era of string ensembles."
Photo courtesy of Honolulu Symphony
Carrying Forward a Legacy
A Legacy of Hawaiian Song & String, Volume One is rich with songs from the classic era, rendered lovingly by Helm and her all-star band. This includes the first Hawaiian national anthem, “He Mele Lahui Hawai'i,” penned by Queen Lili’uokalani, Hawai'i's last sovereign ruler, and “Moani Ke ʻAla,” written by her brother Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku. There's also a beloved paean to home, "Old Plantation" by Mary Jane Montano and David Nape, and “Lanakila Kawaihau” and “Nuʻuanu Waipuna” written by Mekia Kealakai, conductor of the legendary Royal Hawaiian Band. Reece reminds that these were songs written and sung while Hawaiian sovereignty was under threat and during the time of American annexation, and were used to assert proud defiance, often by using koana, or hidden, layered meanings.
Raiatea Helm's Richmond Folk Festival appearance shines a spotlight on these sacred tunes and will mark her first time at a multicultural festival of this scale. "We're excited that she can join us," says Víctor Hernández-Sang, programming manager for the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), which programs the RFF. "She's actively wanting to promote and preserve this rich musical heritage. She is like an ambassador for Hawaiian music and culture."
He adds that, during her stint in Richmond, she and the band will perform at a local Richmond public school as part of the festival's school outreach program. Kilin Reece will join them. "The school show is not only a performance, but also talking about the music tradition, talking about the cultural background. He is going to be there to complement that and enrich that experience for students."
Helm, who paused her career in 2017 to get a degree in music from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, now teaches music at Honolulu's Windward Community College, and serves as programs manager at the Lili‘uokalani Trust, which recently opened a 97,000-square-foot youth center in Honolulu to serve destitute native Hawaiian children.
At this stage in her career, it would only be natural for Helm to perform mainstream pop (she did briefly join Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood in his Island Rumours Band). Instead, "she remains focused on keeping Hawaiian traditions alive," Hernández-Sang comments. The singer herself says that she has never stopped being fascinated by the ancient stories, and the otherworldly sound of the old songs.
“The tone that makes Hawaiian music unique is deeply connected to the cultural and emotional depth of the mele [song],” Helm described to her fans in a Facebook post. “It’s not just about the notes you sing, it’s about how you deliver them with intention, sensitivity, and an understanding of the poetry behind the lyrics. This tone is often warm, resonant, and fluid, reflecting the natural beauty and storytelling tradition of Hawai'i. It carries a certain humility and presence, which adds an emotional texture that transcends technical ability alone.”
“It’s not just about the notes you sing, it’s about how you deliver them with intention, sensitivity, and an understanding of the poetry behind the lyrics.”