John Cruz & Landon McNamara

Hawaii legend John Cruz engages audiences with rich storytelling through songs ranging from Hawaiian to blues, folk, R&B and more. Cruz is multi-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winner (1997, 2008, 2022) and contributed a composition and song to the GRAMMY® award-winning album ‘Slack Key Guitar, Vol. 2.’ With over 1 million people streaming his music every year, Cruz one of Hawaii’s most beloved artists. 

On stage, he fully embodies every song with this alluring energy translating to his acclaimed albums, ‘Acoustic Soul’ (one of the best selling Hawaii records of all time) and ‘One of These Days’ (bowed at #4 on Billboard’s World Music chart). His latest single, “It’s Time To Build A Bridge,” won the 2022 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Video of the Year Award. The video is featured on this page.

Landon McNamara can feel it.  Big things are coming.  The singer-songwriter and guitarist from Hawaii’s North Shore is on the cusp of a major swell- familiar waters for this accomplished surfer- but this wave is one of song and soul.

McNamara’s newest drop, the laid back yet deeply spiritual “If You Only Knew,” renews the artist with strains of acoustic reggae and Hawaiian soul, underpinning a thoughtful recitation on the value of life, and ultimately, the power of love.  “The only promised thing to us all is death. And at the end of our life, when you're taking that last breath, would you be satisfied with how you spent your time?” asks McNamara.  “I wanna motivate people to realize life isn’t about money, or shiny things, or social status. It’s about experiences; creating beautiful memories; family; friends; finding out who you truly are and living that existence to the fullest.  Above all, it’s about love.”  

“Well its inevitable that one day we all gotta go drift away, but if you had to die tomorrow what would you do today, would you take that last breath, would you feel content with how that time was spent?” - Landon McNamara “If You Only Knew”

“The original seeds of inspiration behind this song came from way back, since a young kid I’ve always been aware and at time consumed by the big questions of life, where we came from, where we will go, and that death is inevitable for us all. At the moment I made the song, it was inspired by my Drummer and good friend Kimo (who also produced this song).  His father had just passed away and he shared that sad news, it filled me with the feelings that this song was born from.  As for if it’s part of a bigger protect we got going on, there’s nothing set in stone but we have a lot of songs we are waiting to figure out what we are gonna do with.”

As the scion of one of the Islands’ esteemed surfing families, McNamara’s earliest experiences came baptized by the power of the ocean.  Yet, music, from a young age, proved as magnetic as the heavy current of the Pacific; home video of McNamara as a toddler captures him grooving to a Ziggy Marley performance in Turtle Bay.

In elementary school he established a basic foundation of music theory, gleaned tips from a friend with an acoustic guitar, and endlessly studied songs on YouTube that he wanted to master.  As a teen, McNamara devotedly retreated to his basement, honing his guitar chops and developing his voice.  He shared early efforts with friends hanging at his place- an affectionately self-proclaimed “house of hoodlums”- who encouraged McNamara.  Soon, he was a regular at neighborhood open-mic nights. 

Music was meditative; a release.  It felt good for the socially anxious musician reared on the reggae poetry of Bob Marley and the psychedelic majesty of Jimi Hendrix.  He collaborated with local reggae group, The Late Ones, filming an impromptu take of his original, “Jam With You,” and posted the fledgling video on YouTube.

The track would surface on McNamara’s 2016 debut LP, A Dollar Short & A Minute Late.  Success came swiftly.  The album bowed at #1 on iTunes and #5 on Billboard’s Reggae chart; a seemingly overnight rise for the relatively unknown from the North Shore.. A mature follow-up album, Still Kickin’, followed the hotly performing debut, while McNamara centered his focus, dropped his high-profile modeling gig with the Ford Agency, and outfitted his home with proper gear and a production space. early success wasn’t without time and effort.  There was also his two-year surfing/songwriting sabbatical in Tahiti.  And finding his own signature vocal tone.  The world around him became his muse.  He wrote hundreds of songs, simply tucking them away in his mind, waiting for the ideal moment.

“To write, I just have to be passionate- in any direction- or have something hit me in my heart,” he explains.  “Which, for me, is everyday life.”  In addition to the new single “If You Only Knew,” Landon has also completed an adventurous EP with highly regarded up n’ coming California artist /producer, singer, and songwriter, DENM.  Recorded on the North Shore of Oahu, the collection is a result of McNamara and Slum Beach Denny mixing it up and having too much fun at Landon’s home studio, all while under the influence of the many gifts of nature from Hawaii’s royal landscape. The experiment yielded 5 new gems, including the next up n coming summer drop, “Wild Trip”, a heady biographical account of the duo’s exploits on the island!  

“Early on I got a little taste of the trajectory I was on,” McNamara says.  “Now, my biggest fear is not living up to my potential.  I’m driven to live up to it and doing the work to get it to where I know it can go.”

Now, you know.  Big things are coming.