David Cogswell

My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua

Last year I (your editor) corresponded with David Cogswell (the brother of Ed who was one of our hosts in Everett WA in 2000) about this sheet music cover which he had sent to our historian. Many of our older members may remember this tune which was very popular in the thirties. David sent me the following email:

Funny that you should write the very same day that I received a 78-rpm record by Joe Keawe and his Harmony Hawaiians of this very song. The writing credits are "(Cogswell-Harrison-Noble)" and it's on "49^th State Hawaii" records.

Being raised in Hawaii, you'd think that I'd have known about this song's author, but, it wasn't until I'd started to collect Hawaiian music early this year (particularly the vintage kind) that I became aware that Bill Cogswell was credited as one of the song's composers. I'd (of course) heard the song before, but never knew who had written it.