Friday night we saw Kalai at Thanksgiving Point's waterfall amphitheater. I am SO glad we went! Cousin Mary, her roommate and two guy friends came along too. After the first song I leaned over to Seth and said "I think I have a crush on him" (kalai). He asked if that's why I wanted to come to the concert so bad, I told him, "nope - the crush just started 5 minutes ago."
He's considered to be 'Urban vintage', I like how his website describes him: If Dave Mathews, Paul Simon, Ben Harper, James Taylor, John Mayer, Bill Murray (Yes, the comedian.) and Béla Fleck had a baby it would surely be this guy!
I bought a few of his CD's, he has 5 and another soon to be released. I visited w/ some of his friends at his booth, and got to know a bit more about him. He has a 10 day baby that was there, and another kid. His wife was there, but I didn't see her since she was running around being a musician's wife. He's from Hawaii, raised in Alaska. Not sure if he was born in the church, but he's a member of the LDS church. He introduced one of his songs to us about a girl he secretly liked in Seminary. The crowd cheered as he mentioned Seminary and he said, "Only in Utah do they know what I'm talking about. Usually after I say that half of the crowd clueless and the other half is whispering "'s he Mormon? I think he is Mormon?'. Yes Utah, I am Mormon. Mormons, the beards are back!!" It was pretty hilarious. His website is http://www.kalai.cc/ or look him up on Wiki here.
We got a picture with him before the show. He's pretty chill to talk to, and wish I wasn't so 'nervous' so we would have chatted more. His left hand was all wrapped up and I thought he had hurt his hand and hoped he'd be able to play well. Well, actually he was born with a cavernous hemangioma on his left hand. He had surgery on it that went bad and is now left with a painful and crippled hand. But that never stopped him from becoming an amazing musician. I admire his story and want to support him and his little family.
Seth really liked his style too. He was afraid it'd be the slow acoustic stuff I'm obsessed with, like Mayer/Johnson, etc. He is a great entertainer between songs and he is just an amazing musician. We will surely be watching for upcoming concerts to go to, and definitely recommend him to anyone
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