CORDELL grew up in Minnesota in the 40s and 50s and some of his fondest musical memories are "country."  He listened to radio and jukebox music of such great singers as Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Don Gibson, Eddie Arnold, and Jim Reeves.  Now, after 40 years of singing and recording Hawaiian music, and having written more than 200 songs in a variety of genres, he's taking a trip back to his musical "roots."  
    He is better known as one half of the popular Hawaiian song and hula team, Keith & Carmen Haugen, regulars in Waikiki's finest venues for the past 30 years.  The husband and wife duo has been performing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for 17 years as one of the few remaining all-Hawaiian shows anywhere.  
    But he'd always had a hankerin' to do a country recording, and on occasion would sing a country favorite or an old folk tune from his childhood.  Soon friends were asking him to sing some of their country favorites and he started putting together plans to record a country CD.  For decades, he had listened to country music and had occasionally added to his growing list of favorites -- country songs that he thought would someday fit into his "dream" recording.  
    In 1995, Cordell sang a country and folk song tribute to the late Burl Ives in a Grandparents' Day Concert at the Atherton Performing Arts Studio in Honolulu.  After a 1996 performance at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Cordell decided to develop his repertoire of old country and folk classics and to record some of his favorites.  And he began work on his first country music project.  Now, four years later, we introduce his "new" style to the public.
    Cordell did premier performances in the country genre at the Kilohana Americana in Concert in Honolulu in 1999, and in a February 2000 concert at Wailuku's historic Iao Theatre on Maui.  He was billed as Cordell, using his given first name as a single moniker, to separate his country music identity from the Hawaiian format in which he and Carmen are well known and continue to perform.

 Cordell's Complete Biography

 
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Cordell's Biography

Cordell has been a professional entertainer for 40 years.  If you count his early years in a male quartet, mixed chorus and church choir, it's been
nearly half a century since he began performing as a singer.

Born March 7, 1940, Cordell grew up in Minnesota in a very musical family. His father, Anton, played violin; his mother, Gudrun, the piano.  His siblings played trumpet, drums, clarinet and piano. As a high school musician, Cordell won honors as a baritone horn soloist.  In the 40s and 50s, he grew up listening to country music on radio and in the jukeboxes at his favorite "hangouts;" church music from aunties who sang and played religious
and inspirational music, and "Hawai`i Calls," a radio broadcast that introduced him to Hawaiian music as a youngster and finally brought him to
live in the Islands.

While in the Army, he teamed up with a group (The Islanders) of Hawaiian musicians in Japan and performed at Hawaiian club events and in military clubs. After college on the Mainland, he returned to the Islands and made his home on Maui.  In 1970, he moved to Honolulu and restarted his career, singing in the Red Fox Lounge in Downtown Honolulu. He moved to Waikiki, performing solo at the Warrior's Bar in the Kuhio Hotel, then the center of Hawaiian music in Waikiki. In 1975, Carmen joined Cordell and the couple moved to the Garden Court Lounge of the new Hawaiian Regent Hotel.

Except for one six-month engagement with Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawai`i at the Palm Garden in the Blaisdell Hotel in Downtown Honolulu in 1979, the
husband and wife duo has been in Waikiki ever since. They were regulars as the famous Blue Dolphin Room in the Waikiki Outrigger Hotel, the Warrior's Lounge in the Hale Koa Hotel and, since 1986, at the Mai Tai Bar and Surf Room of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, one of the most sought after venues for
Hawaiian music.

During the past 30 years, Cordell & Carmen have also performed in many countries -- from Japan and Korea to Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Christmas Island, Canada, England and Thailand.  They have entertained in many major Mainland cities and on cruise ships -- Royal Viking Lines and American-Hawai`i Cruises -- and in some of the best venues on the Neighbor Islands.  They have been featured on radio and television specials in Norway, Sweden, Iceland,Finland, Germany, Japan, Australia and on the US Mainland. And they have done Valentine's Day, Christmas and Grandparents' Day concerts, and dozens of benefits for schools, churches, senior centers and other organizations -- many of them non-profit groups the couple volunteer to help.

In 1962, Cordell began a song writing career and has written more than 200 songs. Nearly 40 of them have already been recorded by such prominent artists as Ledward Ka`apana, Diana Aki, The Lim Family, John Rowles, Ohta-san, Pierre Grill, Butch O`Sullivan, Rhonda, Agnes Kimura, Don Shane, the Leo Marchildo Orchestra and Chorus, The Sugar Cane Express, Stephen McDonough, Lanakila
Rittenband, US Senator Daniel K. Inouye and others.  He has co-authored songs with such notables as Jimmy Kaholokula, Larry Kimura, Carole Miguel, Bob Nelson, Agnes Kimura.  Among his awards is First Place in the 1993 Friends of the Royal Hawaiian Band songwriting contest for new songs about the 1893
overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.  

Among his best-known compositions are ""It's Christmas (All Over The World)," "Brown Skin Woman," "The Lei Maker," "Close Your Eyes (Haugen'sLullaby)," "E Hula Mai `Oe," "Maua Pu," "In Your Eyes," "`O Ka Wehi `O Kawehi," "Mokupuni
Nui," "Crown Flower," "Carmen's Song," "He Makana Mai Ke Ali`i," "Ka Makana O Pauahi," "Ho`omaika`i," "O`ahu," "The Christmas Prayer," "Merry Christmas One & All," "Cease Fire, A Christmas Song," "The Greatest Gift," "I Watched Love Die," "To That Little Girl Who Taught Me Love," "The Love That Counts," "Protea," "We Still Care, The Pearl Harbor Commemorative Song," "Mokukaua,"
"Walking Through The Memories, a Requiem To The Fallen," "Chasing Rainbows," "Growing Up" and "I Ka La `Apop",
"`O Ka Lei La`i," "Ka`u Mea Aloha," "Ke Ali`i Wahine Aloha," "Together Forever," and "A Bar Full of Guys." 

In 1978, Cordell and Carmen began a recording career that includes many singles, extended play singles, albums and more recently CDs.  Their most recent Hawai`i releases are "Na Mele Hawai`i Punahele" (Favorite Hawaiian Songs) "`Ukulele Lady,"on the Island Viking label; and "Looking Back, a Hawaiian Anthology" for Pumehana Records. Their most recent Mainland releases are
"Lullaby" and "The Village Where I Went To School" on the Island Viking label.
 

He has produced more than 30 recordings on half a dozen labels and has two Na Hoku Hanohano awards from the Hawai`i Academy of Recording Artists for albums he has produced.

Cordell returned to college in the '90s and earned a BA in Hawaiian Language, Music & Culture at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa.

Cordell teaches music and Hawaiian language in a private school in Wai`alae on the Island of O`ahu.  He is a published poet, an award-winning short story writer and author of thousands of articles published in local, national and international publications.  He often conducts workshops on songwriting, Hawaiian language and other subjects.

The Haugens have five adult children and are expecting their tenth grandchild. They live on Wai`alae Nui Ridge, a residential community near Kahala in East Honolulu.

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