UPDATE: The poll is now closed. After totting up the nominations, here are the 10 nominees for this year’s award: Ukulollo – Ravel’s Bolero Ukulelezo – Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun uke3453 – ma-i-na-ku-ma-na U900 – Diamond Head tUnE-YaRdS – Hatari Dent May – Love Song 2009 Sophie Madeleine – Take Your Love […]

The Who – Blue, Red and Grey (Chords) I think the fact that The Who – one of the hardest rocking bands in history – had a ukulele song deserves a bigger mention than it usually gets. Perhaps it will do now that Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey both regularly play the song live on […]

Last year, the ukulele world lost two of the classiest players and arrangers for ukulele: John King and John Kavanagh. John Kavanagh’s arrangements of ragtime tunes on his album Parlour Music were a particular inspiration for me. He managed to make those insanely tricky pieces sound clean and elegant. So I was very privaleged to […]

Coronation Street Theme (Tab) I feel a bit guilty for all the UK-centric theme tunes I do. The only US shows I watch have doom laden intros (House, Heroes) or featureless backing for a voiceover (The Daily Show, Mythbusters). So if you have any suggestions for non-UK theme tunes that would work well on the […]

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for ukulele video of the year 2009. Back to this year, two fantastic videos include loops, beats and electric ukes from Kilgore Trout is Dead and Little6ster (which I think is the first contender for video of the year 2010). Also this week is the swearier of Sebi’s […]

A couple more new ukes from NAMM 2010: – Ohana resonator here’s ,resonator specialist, Bob Brozman testing it out. – Uke-blog tributing Ukulelia ukulele. If you can’t wait for the Ohana resonator to turn up, this nickel-plated bell brass Recording King Resonator seems like a sweet deal. But it’s still the National resonator that makes […]

The New York Times declares the end of the ukulele fad, “The high school girl has shelved her “uke” with her slave bracelet.” Michael has been turning up a whole load of great stuff on The Backwards Ukulele Player – well worth subscribing to. Line-ups for the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain and Denver UkeFest […]

One event I’m very much looking forward to following this year is Bosko and Honey’s Oz Safari. Compared to New Zealand, we hear very little about the Australian uke scene. So I’m eager to learn more. One Australian I don’t expect to be seeing on the Safari – I believe he lives in the US […]

Time to look back on the ukulele videos of last year. And it was a bumper crop. If you need any proof check out the list of some of the contenders below. And – to be honest – that’s the real purpose of the vote: to get people watching excellent musicians. So if there’s a […]

The Knitting Song by Sophie Madeleine Sophie Madeleine – The Knitting Song (Chords) There seems to be a natural synergy between the ukulele and knitting. Both much maligned, both newly hip and both excellent, low-key ways for people to be creative. There are certainly a lot of people who do both. And I’m very much […]