When he was 11 years old, he experienced “the moment.” In version number one, he walks down a railroad track and picks up a railroad spike. It accidentally brushes against the strings of his guitar. In version number two, he’s sitting with his guitar on his lap, and his metal comb falls out of his shirt pocket and onto the guitar strings. A new sound was made when the metal brushed across the guitar – a new voice.

Joseph tries to get the guitar’s voice to come out, but he can’t quite get it right. He’s inspired by the other innovations from the 1800s – trains, steamboats, cameras, and electricity. He realizes that the voice of the guitar is getting stopped in the neck of the guitar. He thinks he needs to raise the strings so they don’t get pressed into the fret. He decides to take the guitar apart and rebuild it from scratch. It didn’t do the trick.

He next tried to smooth out his piece of metal so it wasn’t so rough. He realizes that he’s not trying to get the voice of the guitar out, but he was putting his voice into the guitar, the voice of generations of innovative Hawaiians. The invention spread until all of Hawaii resonated with the voice of the Hawaiian steel guitar!

In 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown and annexed by the United States. It was a time of sadness, and the voice of the guitar went quiet but still persisted.

Young Hawaiian musicians started to look to bring their music to the 48 contiguous states. They were looking for prosperity and to spread Hawaiian music and stories. Joseph shares that he would play at the most popular venues and really learned how to captivate an audience.

Joseph sails to California. He didn’t really have a plan for when he arrived in San Francisco and was waiting for his purpose to appear. What he learned about American music is that it was fickle, constantly changing. He knew that his unique sound would someday be incorporated into American music. Crowds got bigger and bigger and loved his new sound. A 1907 news article names him the greatest guitar player.

He then joined the vaudeville circuit. Joseph explains to the audience what vaudeville was and what variety of acts could be. He dances the hula. He travels around the United States, ending up in New York City. His show played on Broadway for 40 weeks straight. The doors that were opened for them, though, were shut for others. Joseph calls out how Native people and Black people were excluded from the music scene. Some Black musicians even tried to pass as Hawaiians to get into spaces that they were denied from.

Joseph tells the audience about the hotel that he stayed at and how he and other musicians would get together to share each other’s music and serenade each other’s dreams.

Joseph tells us about “Bird of Paradise,” a popular musical play at the time. In the story, a “Hawaiian princess” falls in love with a doctor who is there to help “save the poor Hawaiians.” In the end, the “Hawaiian princess” ends up sacrificing herself by jumping into a volcano. Joseph doesn’t love this story and acknowledges that it is insulting to Hawaiians, but it did contain actual Hawaiian music and musicians. Knowing that the audience wouldn’t understand their language, they were able to pick songs that were meaningful to them. Joseph is asked to join the show.

In 1919, the show goes to England to perform in London’s West End. They then traveled around Europe to the nicest venues. They even played for royalty. Joseph stayed in Europe for eight years.

In 1927, the radio was invented, and his music could be heard everywhere. In 1932, Joseph died. Joseph continues telling the story, though. Later in 1932, the Hawaiian steel guitar goes under a transformation and becomes the first electric guitar to be invented, ever. After his death, the voice of the guitar continues to be used in different types of music and carries on through youth learning to play.