Biography
For most of his life, Walter Keale — pronounced Kay-all-ay — shied away from performing music publicly. A devoutly spiritual man, he would occasionally perform in church as a younger man, but upon receiving a compliment, he would retreat.
His family includes Moe Keale, a renowned ukulele player in Hawaii until his death in 2002, and his cousin, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, who achieved fame for his Hawaiian-style remake of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” For most of his life, Keale grew up as a fan of music, and even though he got his first ukulele at the age of 36, he never thought about performing publicly: “Why pick it up when you’re around these masters?” he said with a laugh.
But a visit from his Uncle Moe changed his life — in particular because it was the day after his uncle had died in 2002, Keale said.
“I was sitting at the beach, thinking about him and our family, and I had my ukulele, and he came and sat right next to me,” Keale said. “I was praying, and I said, ‘God, what’s this? What’s happening right now to me? Is this OK with you?’ And He just told me, ‘Be quiet and listen.’ And Uncle Moe only said two things to me.
“He said, ‘I love your music,’ and I thought to myself, ‘I don’t have any music. I’ve never wrote a single song; I just listened to it.’ So when he said that, it just floored me. And then he said, ‘You are Keale,’ and that’s why I go by Keale and have since that day. It’s my family’s traditional name, and it means when the wave begins to crest. It means that’s the signal that the wave is coming.”
Keale was born Walter Mix, the son of a native Hawaiian mother and a father from Arkansas. (His grandfather’s uncle was silent film star Tom Mix.) He was raised in “Indian country” outside Yosemite National Park, and from an early age he took an interest in Native American rights and social justice issues. He was a seminary professor for several years, teaching Hebrew and Greek, and when he decided to pursue music, he realized that the shadows cast by his uncle and cousin were large ones to live up to.
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