For the last few years I’ve been making Spotify playlists of the year’s ukulele releases. You can find previous year’s lists here along with a few other ukulele playlists. 2014’s list is starting to fill up nicely with long standing uke acts (like Tony Penultimate of the UOGB and Aaron Keim’s The Quiet American), big stars (Damon Albarn and Imelda May) and exciting new acts (Gracie Terzian and Breaks Co-op).

I’ve also been inspired to start a blues ukulele list after discovering these three artists:

Lemon Nash: Arhoolie recently released a stunning collection of tracks by Lemon Nash recorded between 1956 and ’61. Would have loved to hear how he sound in the ’20s. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the invention of the flux capacitor for that though.

Laura Dukes: I learned about Laura Dukes pretty multi simultaneous from Valerie June (who name checked Laura Dukes as her inspiration for picking up the ukulele) and the BBC series The Devil’s Music which had a performance from her: YouTube link/iPlayer link.

Joe Linthecome: Who I can’t find much about and seems to have only recorded the two songs on the playlist.

If you’re similarly inspired you might be interested in How to Play Blues Ukulele.

If there’s someone else who should be included in either list let me know in the comments.

Blues Ukulele

Spotify Link

Tracklist

Joe Linthecome – Pretty Mama Blues
Joe Linthecome – Humming Blues
Laura Dukes – Crawdad
Laura Dukes – Stack O’Lee Blues
Laura Dukes – Jimmy, You Are My Heart and Soul
Lemon Nash – Gravedigger’s Blues
Lemon Nash – Papa Lemon’s Blues
Lemon Nash – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Lemon Nash – Those Drafting Blues
Sam Ku West Harmony – The Wang Wang Blues
Del Rey – Rockin’ Chair Blues
Jim Beloff – Blues On A Ukulele
Mark Kailana Nelson – Wild Cow Blues
Lil Rev – Ukulele Blues
Lil Rev – Rockpile Blues
Gerald Ross – Ukulele Stomp

Ukulele 2014

Spotify Link

Tracklist

Holland Greco – Stuck
Gracie Terzian – Love Rest – Acoustic Version
Hafdis Huld – Little Light
Ninebarrow – Mother
Shelley O’Brien – Spring Drum
Zoë Bestel – Listen
The Anything Goes Orchestra – Jonny Got a Boom Boom
Imelda May – Dreaming – Ukulele Track
We Were Evergreen – Overnight
David Megarrity – Shoelaces and Yo-Yo
Tyrone and Lesley – All Dressed Up
Tony Penultimate – Blackpool
Kara Square – The Most Generic Thing
Svavar Knútur – Tokan Acoustic
Caravan Gogh – Waltz of the Sunflowers
Breaks Co-Op – Sounds Familiar
The Quiet American – Worth a Million
The Burning Glass – Leather Jacket
Bella Hemming – Play Guitar
Zee Avi – Rainbow Connection
Damon Albarn – Mr Tembo
One Happy Island – Hard Drive

This is different from the stuff we’ve come to expect from The Wellies. It’s not a cover of a big, famous pop song. But this one was written by a friend of the bad, John McDougall. It’s also one of their funniest and most entertaining songs. And it’s fun to play.

Suggested Strumming

Here’s a simple strum you can use this strum pretty much all the way through:

d u – u – u – u

Keep the strums short by releasing the pressure on the fretting hand just after strumming. It sounds like this:

Strum

A couple of places that doesn’t work. There’s the, “Raylene, marry me,” bits. Do four down strums each for C and D. And at the end of Verse 1 just do one down-strum on the C and D.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
WIUO’s site
More WIUO chords

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

Manitoba Hal has just released a new double album: Down in the Kitchen. He’s also touring the UK in the next few weeks with shows and workshops. Mostly hitting the north but his London workshop has just opened up to the public too.

krabbers has a new album out Secondhand Backpack with all proceeds going to the Multiple Sclerosis Society. You can buy a copy directly from him.

Ukes

– Baton Rouge’s smiley ukuleles: :), :P, :x and ;)
– Sweet Martin collection up for sale.

Pictures

– Like father, like son.
– Lineup.
– Hats and overalls.

Blues Run the Game is the up there with World Turned Upside Down as the best modern folk song. Both those songs are widely covered and not best known for the original versions (a defining characteristic of a great folk song).

Blues Run the Game was written by Jackson C Frank but has been more heard in its many cover versions by the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Eddi Reader John Mayer and Laura Marling.

But my favourite is Bert Jansch’s version. And that was the strongest influence on my ukulele version of the picking.

The first thing to say about my take is that it uses the capo on the fifth fret. Usually I wouldn’t capo that high up but it was the only way I could get it onto the ukulele and keep it in the same key as Jansch’s version.

The second thing is the alternate picking. The thumb alternates between the g and C strings thumb and two finger style.

Links

Buy the Jackson C Frank version
Buy the Bert Jansch version

Hang out the cunting, Uke Hunt is seven years old. Here’s a round up of the last year of the blog.

May 2013

– Free ukulele mixtape.
– Ukulele crossword

In tabs: Mega Man 2: Flashman Theme
In chords: Jonathan Coulton – RE: Your Brains

June 2013

In tabs: Eddie Vedder – Tuolumne
In chords: Daft Punk – Get Lucky

July 2013

– Weird-ass scales
– Great books by ukulele playing authors

In tabs: The xx – Intro
In chords: Skinny Lister – Colours

August

Hooray! Holidays.

September 2013

– Fingerpicking patterns

In tabs: Acoustic intros
In chords: Lorde – Royals

October 2013

– Ukulele selling legend MusicGuyMic passed away.

In tabs: Marty Robbins – El Paso (Instrumental version)
In chords: WIUO – Afternoon Delight

November 2013

– Ukulele picking patterns in 3/4 time

In tabs: I Am The Doctor
In chords: Velvet Underground – I’ll Be Your Mirror

December 2013

– Uke Hunt iPad app launch
– 2013 Ukulele Quiz

In tabs: 80s Medley (inspired by Action Bronson)
In chords: Pokey LaFarge – La La Blues

January 2014

– I did a version of the Klovn theme that even Danish people weren’t interesting in me tabbing.

In tabs: Cincinnati Flow Rag
In chords: Karen O – The Moon Song (from Her)

February 2014

– Ukulele Video of the Year announced

In tabs: Gustavo Santaolla – The Last of Us Theme
In chords: A bunch of Pete Seeger songs

March 2014

– Songs with chords you know

In tabs: Spinal Tab – Stonehenge
In chords: La Vie en Rose

April 2014

– The five best ukulele chords.
– I started accepting Bitcoin.
– My Bob’s Burgers tab was briefly in a Bob’s Burgers ad

In tabs: Mr Moustafa from Grand Budapest Hotel
In chords: Amanda Palmer – Bigger on the Inside

Since I started the site on 12th May 2007 there’ve been 1,858 posts, 20 million visits and over 90 million page views. And I’m still amazed that I get away with writing about ukuleles for a living. It’s such a privilege that I get to do something I love and care about every day. I can’t believe my luck.

This is the self-indulgent ramble post I sometimes allow myself on my blog-birthday – covering my general thoughts, plans for the future and goals. If you want something more useful read the Review of the Year post.

Thanks!

Thank you for reading: It’s such a thrill for me that people find the site useful. I know playing the ukulele helps me relax and – when I really practice a piece – accomplished. And I hope this site helps you feel the same way.

Thanks for commenting and emailing: Makes me feel like I’m not screaming into the void.

Thank you for spreading the word: Telling people about the site is absolutely the best way to support it. I put the success of the site pretty much entirely down to people recommending it to other ukers.

Thank you for buying: It’s my nightmare that one day I might have to get a proper job. So I can’t thank enough those people who spend hard earned money on my stuff. There’s no way the site could exist without your financial support.

Thank you for playing: It’s a huge inspiration to watch people playing and listening to the records. Just watching random YouTube videos gets my brain firing. If you do something cool I’m very likely to steal it.

Coming Up (Or Not)

Will Happen

Another T-Shirt Run: I’ve had enough people complaining that they missed out on the last t-shirt run to run it again this year. It’ll be the same deal: a limited time to pre-order, they all get printed at once then that’s it.

Blues Ebook Update: After updating these three ebooks the blues one is next on the list.

More iPad Friendly: This one is a pain. It’s going to take a lot of video code updating. And audio plugins are causing a few problems. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort something out.

Might Happen

Project Monkey Butter: Every year I try to do one big, top secret project (like Ukulele for Dummies or the Uke Hunt app). I’ve started work on this year’s project (code name: Project Monkey Butter). I’m very excited about it. Some times these projects work out better than others. So we’ll see how it goes.

Chord Progressions Update: I’m not entirely sure what to do with this ebook. I think really it needs splitting into two. One focussed on the practical aspects of chord playing and one on the theoretical aspects.

Coding Projects: I’ve been learning some JavaScript and jQuery recently (as well as brushing up on my CSS and HTML). It’s entirely possible I’ll never make anything good enough to be actually used. But I’m having a lot of fun messing with stuff and have attempted a couple of ukulele related things so far: a strumming metronome that only works in Chrome and a very early stages ukulele-selector.

Won’t Happen

Three things I get asked about regularly but have no intention of doing: ads, video tutorials and looking cheerful in my videos.

Now I Am Seven

According to the child development websites, seven year olds are supposed to display an increased vocabulary and greater attention span. Which is very good news for me because those are two things I struggle with. And I’m looking to improve them in the next year.

Procrastination

I have struggled with motivation and procrastination the whole time I’ve been doing the blog. Particularly when it comes to big writing projects. It’s a constant source of frustration for me. If I knuckled down I could get the day’s work done in the morning and spend the rest of the day staring at mountains and twirling my mustachios very independently.

The problem has been worse since Ukulele for Dummies. I knew I only had one shot at getting it right and that a lot of people would be relying on it to get them playing. So I felt under pressure and put a great deal of work into it. Afterwards I was burned out and I fell into bad habits.

It’s not just laziness – although that certainly helps – it’s based in anxiety. That I’ll screw something up so mightily I’ll have to leave the internet forever. Of the pain of actually making an effort. That I’ll put in the effort for no return, have to ditch it and I’ll have wasted precious time that could’ve been spent watching OSW Review or playing Mini Metro.

Writing

I’d also like to improve my writing. With any luck spending less time procrastinating will mean more time for editing.

Thanks Again!

Thanks again to everyone for their support over the last seven years. I look forward to the next seven years at which point I expect we’ll all be playing futuleles.

I’ve been enjoying Anything Goes Orchestra’s album Mr Otis Regrets recently which includes a ukulele cover of Imelda May’s Johnny Got a Boom Boom. Then Imelda May came out with this ukulele cover of Blondie. And next week I assume Blondie are releasing their Anything Goes Orchestra ukulele tribute CD soon to complete the circle.

That got me wondering what the longest chain of ukulele covers is. Here’s my best attempt:

– Kristina G did a ukulele cover of Summer Vibe by Walk off the Earth.
– Who did a ukulele cover of From Me to You by Paul McCartney (and John Lennon).
– Who did a ukulele cover of Something by George Harrison.
– Who did a ukulele cover of Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Arlen and Koehler.

If you’ve got a good ukulele cover chain leave it in the comments.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this strum all the way through:

d – d u – u d u

When you have two bars of the same chord a good alternative is:

d – d u – u d u
– u d u – u d u

Twiddly Bits

Al (super cool name for a ukulele player) integrates the riff from the original version into his ukulele version. In the verse this riff takes the place of the C – F move:

And the chorus this is used in the C – F part:

Blondie Version

The Blondie version is two frets higher. Which makes it a little more tricky to play on uke but still very playable.

Requested by RobNY and AlistairC.

Links

Buy the Imelda May versionbuy the Blondie version

Full Playlist

Don’t miss the James Hill video. It’s on Vimeo so it’s not part of the playlist.

James Hill – New Moon

Read the rest of this entry »

In case you missed it, I released new editions of three of my ebooks this week. If you bought one or more of them before and haven’t received a free update let me know the email you bought with and I’ll send you the update. If you haven’t you can get any of my ebooks at half price by using the code freebooting before 14th May.

New Releases

– Craig Robertson is putting together a “Greatest Hats” collection of songs. Which is excellent news because he’s very prolific and I never know which album to recommend to new folks. He’s going to remaster the tracks but he’s also putting the originals up for free on his blog starting with The Hypnotist and She Likes to Pull the Wings Off Flies.
– Folkie colouring book.

Ukes

– Ukutele – two neck ukulele/Telecater guitar.
– Sufjan Stevens, Bieber and their ukulele.
– Purple People Eater.
– Myka Cocobolo.

FretPen – the tiny-guitar iPhone periphery I mentioned a little while ago – has cancelled it’s Kickstarter. The Kickstarter that used some pretty shady misleading quoting.

The debate surrounding making the ukulele Hawaii’s official state instrument has officially become a farce. The choice between ukulele, steel guitar and ipu was too much for them to handle. One of the senators did realise that this was a decision even a child could handle and suggested putting it to a vote amongst primary and secondary schoolchildren. But they rejected that and decided the best thing to do is drop the bill and forget it ever happened. Politics in action.