The Ohana CK-65D is a bit of a strange beast. As well as the off-centre soundhole, it has a fretboard that is a mixture of rosewood and maple. I think the Kala travel ukulele is a good idea. I can see how shaving a little off the size could help. But then way make one […]

15 year old uker Killian Mansfield has been putting together an album in aid of children’s cancer charity Hope and Heroes (Killian himself has cancer). The album includes collaborations with some serious musical heavyweights: Dr John, Levon Helm, Todd Rundgren and John Sebastian. If the music is anywhere near as good as the photos, I’m […]

I couldn’t let Robert Johnson week pass without covering the Baron’s version of Come On In My Kitchen. It is a fairly standard I – IV – V progression in A (A – D7 – A – E7), so I thought I’d focus on the twiddly bits. Here’s the intro with two typical Johnson-style descending […]

I couldn’t take a look at Robert Johnson without covering slide playing. And using the slide on the ukulele seems to be a trend of late. Just in the last few months I’ve seen videos of it used by James Hill, Tomotaka Matsui (of the Sweet Hollywiians), Peter Madcat Ruth and plenty of other people. […]

Robert Johnson – Walkin’ Blues (Tab) A while back I decided to stop paying attention to the news. I must say, I’m a whole lot better for it. Anyhoo, I just found out there’s a second great depression now and absolutely everyone is eating their shoes to stay alive. So, to keep up the doom […]

Jake Wildwood – Birch (MP3) Jake Wildwood – Nightshade (MP3) via JakeWildwood.com When I interviewed Jake about his last album he mentioned he was working on a record of songs about, “a particular tree, bush, shrub, flower, that I’ve come to know up here.” He’s now finished it and you can download the album for […]

Zee Avi – Just You and Me (Chords) I love the things that can happen on the internet. Step One: Upload some songs to YouTube as KokoKaina. Step Two: Get the drummer off of The Raconteurs to watch them. Step Three: Get signed, fly to LA and change your name to Zee Avi. And she […]

This week’s videos include an old old clip from Tafra, a new old clip of James Hill rocking the White Stripes look, The Puppini Sisters calypsoing around and Todd encouraging us to take a ukulele break (as if we needed any convincing).

The new Pono Mango ukuleles have some serious grain going on take a look at this one and this one. BugsGear’s EleUke range gets crazier with each new uke: Butterfly Ukulele. Whilst Applause go the other way and branch out into boring looking ukuleles. If you’re in a belligerent mood try a WWII Victory Regal […]

More technical issues this week. If you tried to access the blog on Thursday morning, you might have noticed the site was down. Boing Boing – very kindly – linked to me in their regular cute ukulele girl post. This sent a flood of visitors and shortly after a, “We notice your site is very […]