Tau Savea Moe, who learned steel guitar from the instrument's inventor and brought Hawaiian music to dozens of countries starting in the 1920s, died Thursday, June 24, in La’ie, Hawaii. He was 95.

Born in American Samoa in 1909 and raised in La'ie, Moe learned steel guitar in the instrument's infancy and played with Hawaiian legends like M.K. Moke, John Almeida, and David Kaili, but was absent from Hawai'i's music scene for most of his life and was only rediscovered here during his old age.

Tau with his wife, Rose and, later, their children, traveled the world from 1928 to 1970. They entertained throughout Europe and Asia, meeting heads of state and working with legendary musicians including Josephine Baker, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong.

Moe also helped at least 150 of his Jewish musician friends escape Germany and Austria just before the height of Adolf Hitler's reign by having them impersonate groupies, relatives and stagehands. Once, he even sneaked a few Jewish buddies over the border by hiding them in his car's trunk among the folds of his colorful stage costumes. "I wasn't scared with anything," he said in a recent interview, "Hitler didn't know."

In February 2004, Debashish Bhattacharya, one of India's top steel guitarists, made a special point to meet Moe when in Hawaii for a performance. Moe had taught Bhattacharya's grandfather to play the steel guitar in 1932. Bhattacharya was awed that he had been able to meet the person who had brought the steel guitar to India.

[This obituary is reproduced by courtesy of the Folk Alliance].