Jack Johnson & Friends: Best of Kokua Festival

This is a great live CD compilation by Jack Johnson titled 'Best Of Kokua Festival'. For six years now Jack Johnson has initiated this eco-minded Kokua Music Festival with his musician friends to support schools & communities in Hawai'i on environmental matters. This CD (13 tracks) presents the best that Jack Johnson, a native of Hawai'i himself has selected over the six years of the festival : incredible live performances by Jack Johnson & his famous friends including the Marley brothers (Ziggy & Damian playing reggae), legends (Willie Nelson doing his country music & Jackson Browne doing his rock classic "Take It Easy"), John Cruz, Taj Mahal, Eddie Vedder & Ben Harper among others. Stand-outs/gems/solid tracks include "Cry, Cry, Cry" by Ziggy Marley; "A Pirate Looks At Forty" by Jack Johnson (J J, Dave Mathews & Tim Reynolds) : wonderful guitar, vocals & melody, this is my favourite track ; "Mudfootball" by J J; "Constellations" by J J; "Island Style" by John Cruz (a great duet with J J) & "Breakdown" by J J. Jack Johnson plays & sings typically as he has done in his albums but here it's live of course with the usual crowd noises but the overall quality of the sound is good. Great tracks include "Better Together" by J J, "Further On Down The Road" by Taj Mahal, "High Tide Or Low Tide" by Ben Harper (a great duet with J J), "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" by Willie Nelson & "I Shall Be Released" by Eddie Vedder (another great duet with J J).On overall, you have a great live CD compilation by Jack Johnson and his friends (collaborating magnificently well) in this CD release, well executed performances of great songs by talented musicians, a highly recommended CD listening.

What a fun album and lots of fun to listen too but not very well recorded. Some of the artists are not on top of their game like Willie Nelson. I am a huge Willie fan but he seems like he forgets where he is and what he's playing on this record but that's what makes it fun its like being at a live show where things like that happen. Jack is a great artist and you can tell he actually likes playing for an audience.A good buy too. You won't be sad you added this to your collection. Sammy the cat says 4 paws up...no she's not dead just asleep. You see she thinks she's a dog and she sleeps on her back when she's content and this album had her purring and feet up in the air in no time.

Jack Johnson is one of my favorite artists for a long tome now. One of the few artists I religiously buy CDs from and yes I still buy CDs. I pulled the trigger on this album because of the Damien Marley track. However, after listening to the entire album, I have a new favorite each time I listen to it. Truly a great CD. High Tide or Low Tide was a favorite for awhile, then it was Island Style, then A Pirate looks at Forty, now it is Further on Down the Road.The CD has a great variety of artists and genres, but all have that laid back Jack Johnson vibe. It has since made me look into some of the artists I was not overly familiar with and expanded my musical horizons.Great CD highly recommend. Thanks for a great product Jack!

Great mix of performers and songs. I felt like I was part of the show even though I was in NY. Next time I listen to it I'm going to grab my hula skirt and an umbrella drink and play it at high volume on my deck! Jacks voice mixes so well with everyone. The CD makes me happy and who dosent want to be happy? I love the combo of voices with Jack,Eddie Vedder and Dave. Next time Jack, invite Donovan Frankenreiter to join you.

I would love to live in Hawaii so that I could go to the Kokua festival. This album is a great mix of Jack songs and other laid back jams. I almost passed it up because the clips on Amazon were not that great, but my husband convinced me it would live up to be Jack Johnson quality... and it is amazing. I live in the DC area so I turn any Jack Johnson album on and it mellows me on my commute!

.......live album with various artists performing. And the concert it comes from was performed for a very good cause to boot.

The blend of music / musicians and the Hawaiian theme make this easy to listen to. It saved our butts when we were painting our bedroom by keeping the atmosphere mellow, thereby reducing the frustration level of our task.Ziggy Marley is fun to hear since I used to listen to Bob Marley years ago. Willie Nelson is great, as always, but Jack Johnson and friends keep it going with their amusement and devotion to the cause and the people of Hawaii.

Excellent songs and Artists on this recording.