Makana provided a textbook illustration of slack-key style. . . dazzling. – NY Times

Slack key guitar music, indigenous to Hawai’i, has been around longer than the blues, and Makana is considered the greatest living player. – Esquire Magazine

His transfixingly agile slack-key technique and genre-crossing music have relit a fire for live music in Waikiki. – San Francisco Chronicle

Charting a new sonic frontier with deep ties to tradition. – National Geographic Society

Back on the main stage, one-man Hawaiian band Makana captivated the audience with a high voice, personal songs and powerful acoustic guitar.” – BBC News, on the WOMAD Festival in Reading, England

Clearly, he’s a world-class talent. – Star Bulletin

Makana proves he’s a master of the showroom. – Honolulu Advertiser

I’ve been deep into classical music and Hawaiian slack-key guitar. I’ve gotten way into Andres Segovia, and this Hawaiian guitar player called Makana. – Kirk Hammett interview, Guitar World (Lead guitarist for Metallica)

He’s lean, young, expressive, with impressive stage presence and jewel box precision… He is a master, for certain, but blessed with sizzling showmanship. – Honolulu Advertiser

Absolutely amazing… You have a great stage presence. – Joe Satriani, to Makana at Guitar Player Magazine’s Superstar Competition

An immensely gifted artist, Makana’s instrumental brilliance bears comparison with the work of such groundbreaking acoustic guitarists as John Fahey and Michael Hedges. – Jon Woodhouse, Maui News

There is an aura about Makana while he is on stage. His heart is completely apparent in his music and this transcends into a command of his audience. – Scott Macgowen, O’ahu Island News