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The Blues was first classified as such in 1903 when W.C. Handy, a bandleader who had moved to Clarksdale, heard a black boy, barefoot and singing at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi. He remarked that it was the strangest music he had ever heard. He fell in love instantly. The fateful meeting is now known as the birth date of the Blues in America. The Blues existed however, long before this classification. The Blues have a large influence derived from that of Hawaiian music. The introduction of the steel guitar to America occurred at the 1912 Broadway show Birds of Paradise and the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco in 1915. In this show Hawaiian musicians and their unique methods of playing instruments were used. This kicked off a large selling of Hawaiian recordings. America loved the sounds of the steel guitar and vocal recordings. Hawaiian steel guitar music in the 20’s and 30’s was a major, and very sophisticated genre that also encompassed the Jazz, and Blues. The best-known national player of that genre was Sol Hoopii, who “is without a doubt the most important and musically influential Hawaiian guitarists of this century. In addition to affecting all Hawaiian guitarists, Sol also had great influenc