Patrick Cockett - These Trails Interview
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first fall in love with music? Was music relevant in your household? Do you have any siblings?
I was born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1947. The 50’s were great on Kauai. Wonderful time. Not many people, one traffic light. Sugar and pineapple. I was always into music. My family was Hawaiian and played Hawaiian music. I heard Chet Atkins play the guitar, and I was hooked. Singing and dancing when my Dad’s family visited. We had some famous singers. I had an older brother, who gave me his funky guitar.
What did you do for fun growing up? When and where was your first concert? Who were some of your early influences? Did you participate in any bands before These Trails?
Surfing was it. I remember seeing Bo Diddly in the gym at Kauai High School. Too much. The impact was Bo Diddly himself. Very funny cool guy. Musically, Gabby Pahinui was a major influence. Great slack-key artist. Also Ray Kane influenced my slack key style... I went to college in LA in the 60’s. So much music in all directions. Loves ins, etc. I saw all the famous bands. I had a folk group at Kamehameha School for Boys when I was a senior. In college, I played in a Hawaiian trio.
How did you initially meet Margaret? What initially led to the decision to forming the group? Tell me about writing and recording the album.
Margaret’s family was from Kauai, and during the summers they would stay in their beach house on Hanalei Bay. We also had a beach house, so that’s how I met her. So I had known her a long time before we connected musically. It was after she went to school on the mainland that we started playing. These Trails was the name of the album. We never gigged. Peter Corragio was a concert pianist, University Prof. and had a recording studio called Sinergia. He wanted to show off his Arp, new synthesizer, on our songs. Dave Choy did all the arp and string arrangements. He came with the studio. Great guy, into Bejing Opera, Samuel Barber. Eric Kingsbury was a luthier and friend. We brought him in to play on a couple of songs. Carlos Pardeiro was a great musician and surfer from Uruguay. We met him on Kauai and are great friends to this day. We used to jam with him, but mostly his originals. We didn’t jam as such. Margaret and I laid down the acoustic songs, and then Dave had his way with them. We liked what he was doing. Maybe it was the elephant I was smoking.
Margaret and I were offered recording an album at Sinergia after hearing us. The name is from the first song on the album. We never did any shows. Just playing for friends. Our vision for the album was to record our original songs. We knew it was different, and we recorded our straightest songs. The songs were all already written. That’s what we did together. Margaret and I recorded the acoustic tracks, and then Dave added the Arp. Sinergia deal: Peter heard a dub of Rusty’s House and on the basis of that offered us a chance to record. This is really a nature album, inspired by living in Hawaii. These trails had a dulcimer played by Margaret. Inspired by her thoughts while hiking, or climbing trees. Psyche one was a fun exercise with taro patch sack key tuning. Nice instrumental conversation. Psyche 2 david added the arp to another take. Share your water is again Margaret in nature riffing on her vision. It could be the theme of climate change. Sowed a seed is a plaintive account of failure.
Band History: After Margaret went back to school and the album was done, we released it and it went nowhere. After that, I played with Carlos Andrade in Na Pali. We made two albums – Pacifc Tunings and na pali. I also spent 6 years touring with Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues, 4 in Europe and 2 in the US. We made three albums, one live. You can see us playing “The Calypsonians” in the movie 6 days and 7 nights with Harrison Ford and Ann Heche. I also recorded an album with a trio-”Kupaianaha”. Margaret passed before our album became an underground hit. She never knew.
I have been recording my originals with George Winston. I have a youtube channel with songs he recorded over a period of years. I am still writing and will be recording soon:
