When they get round to writing the history of this ukulele revival Craig Robertson‘s name should be up there with Jake and IZ in importance. One thing’s for certain, if it hadn’t been for his involvement in Ukulelia and Ukulele Cosmos there wouldn’t have been a Uke Hunt. Craig’s just put all his albums up […]

Burberry are throwing a lot of nice clothes at ukers: Misty Miller, General Fiasco, Acoma and, this week, Pegasus Bridge. If this is general policy, can I put in an order for one of these? Size: the fattest one you make. Not quite so well dressed but just as entertaining this week are Hawaiian soloist […]

Some stiff competition for my affections this week: Les Reitfors concert, Kumalae Style 5, 1928 tenor Gibson, Jose Do Espirito ukulele. But for this week, it’s not a ukulele I want. It’s this strange, jumbo tenor guitar thing. (Over-Keyworded) Pictures: 3 Handsome Ukulele Banjo Boy Pretty Girls Ocean Grove, ukulele pretty teen girl, 2 boys

The Guardian are letting you stream the new Tune-Yards album w h o k i l l. Mark Gutierrez experiments with fingerpicking. You can win tickets to a Ukulele for Dummies session at the London iTunes festival (and, no, I will not be there – I’m hoping for Mogwai tickets). Make a cardboard ukulele (thanks […]

Following on from yesterday’s post about the Cabral manuscript, two more C19th pieces for, the uke’s forerunner, the machete. I say ‘forerunner’ but reading Manuel Morais‘s Colecção de Peças para Machete, the rajão seems like the much more likely candidate. The soprano uke is more like a machete in size and number of strings, but […]

After I did my post about Madeiran music (the ancestral home of the ukulele), Jay left a comment about music for the uke-like machete (ma-shet). He was also kind enough to forward me a scan of Estudos para Machete Arranjados by Manoel Joaquim Monteiro Cabral which is a machete method book from the mid-19th century. […]

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man (Chords) There’s been a fair bit of Grammy-bashing around here but this set of performances from Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers and a Bob Dylan impersonator was incredible. Since the last time I did some Mumfords, Marcus has picked up the ukulele. Until some uke action crops […]

A slight stretching of the rules this week to include Melodica Melody and Me’s charango. Well worth it I think. People actually playing ukuleles this week include The Original Rude Boys, Diane Rubio, Chester Gaylord and plenty more. Not in the line-up but of interest: Zooey Deschanel doing the Winnie the Pooh theme with a […]

The Kala’s Ukedalic range has hit Amazon with the Plaid, Tiki and Paisley models. Equally (*tries to think of a nice way of saying garish*) eye-catching new designs for the Flea and Fluke: Island Fluke, Atomic Fluke, Aloha Plum Flea. Plus the Firefly banjo ukulele. Martin are releasing 6 new models. Full specs can be […]

After all the hullabaloo, the Grammys have dropped their Best Hawaiian Album category along with a number of others. Uke Geeks has a couple of doodads that help you pretty up your chord charts and make your plain-text tabs more handsome. In Videos: Nellie McKay did a Tiny Desk Session for NPR, Tiny McItchyface‘s follow […]