Country Comfort - biography

   No history of island music in the Seventies is complete without a full chapter on Country Comfort. The band surfaced in public consciousness outside Waimanalo as a unique acoustic bar band playing at The Sty in Niu Valley, then as local recording artists with a distinct acoustic rock sound. Country Comfort helped change the direction of island music.

Country Comfort consisted of Jimmy Freudenberg, Billy Kaui, Chuck Lee, Randy Lorenzo and Eugene Matsumura when it recorded its first album. "We Are The Children". The sound was soft, the harmonies smooth, the arrangements unpretentious and memorable. The album reportedly sold over 20,000 copies in less than two years - big sales for a local album in the early Seventies. It is still an all-time classic.

Country Comfort has expanded to six - Steve Wofford replaced Lorenzo on bass; Gaylord Holomalia added synthesizer keyboards - when it went back into the studio to record "Country Comfort". The second album was a potpourri. Freudenberg, Kaui and Wofford contributed original songs but it sounded like the band was torn between maintaining the extremely successful sound of its first album and experimenting with a country-rock posture. Hindsight is 20/20: The most enduring songs on this second album were, "Pretty Girl" and " Hello Waimanalo". These two songs were also the closest to the down home acoustic sound of their first album.