I’m not entirely sure it’s worth reviewing something that’s officially out of print. The ukulele songbook for Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs album was available as a limited edition and was sold out before it was released (apart from a few copies sold on Flea Market Music).

It is still sort of gettable. If you’re willing to spend £300 on eBay. And there is a 48 page songbook with the vinyl version which, I believe, contains the uke charts. There has also been a PDF that was for sale (containing the pertinent uke stuff but not the photos) but I’m not clear on where or if this is still available.

What You Get

A 100 page hardback book.

A two page introduction to playing the ukulele.

Chord charts (no tab) for ukulele above standard notation of the melody for all the songs on the album. The book lists Jim Beloff as the, “songbook consultant and editor.” If you’ve seen any of his chord books before, you’ll be familiar with the layout. The only exception to the ‘no tab’ is Waving Palms – the short instrumental – which has tab for a single ukulele.

Lots of very nice pictures of Eddie and his ukuleles.

A copy of the album.

The Good Stuff

It’s gorgeous: It is by far the most lovely songbook I’ve ever had. Even if you didn’t play uke, this would make for a very nice coffee-table book.

It’s a dedicated ukulele book: And there aren’t many around for contemporary stuff. I had a lot of fun playing along with the album. It’s a big relief not to have to work stuff out myself or try to find something accurate on the internet.

It’s accurate: It all sounded pretty good to me. Only two things didn’t sit right with me. In Longing to Belong it shows F rather than Fadd9 – I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure there’s a G in there. The other is the tab for Waving Palms which I had trouble matching up with the song.

The chart for Hey Fahkah

The Not-So-Good Stuff

There’s a lot missing: It is – apart from Waving Palms – just chords. That means a bunch of stuff gets missed out. There’s missing fingerpicking patterns in Broken Heart and Satellite. Missing filigree such as the solo in Longing to Belong.

There are some weird-ass chord names – which is mostly forgivable because Eddie uses some weird-ass chords. The strangest choice is the use of slash chords. Not really applicable at the best of times, but baffling to refer to 0010 as Fadd9/C (when C is in Fadd9 anyway) and 0220 as D/G (when G isn’t the lowest note).

It’s too nice to use: Being a hardback book, it doesn’t stay nicely flopped open on the selected page. If you want to get it to stay open, you’ll need to do some hefty palm-flattening. I couldn’t bring myself to do it and just used the PDF whenever I wanted to play stuff.

Overall

The book makes for a fantastic souvenir. I’m very glad I pre-ordered it. Not sure I would have been so willing to pay crazy eBay prices. But as a tool for learning it falls short.

There was a time in my life when I counted Before Sunrise as my favourite film. Which at least proves I wasn’t always the empty husk of a man I am today. If anyone asks why, I insist it’s because it was the first time I heard a Daniel Johnston song.

The original version is pretty complex and in the uke-unfriendly key of E. So I’ve gone with the Eels version of the song for this arrangement.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main strum for the verses:

d – d – d u d u

And this once for each chord in the chorus:

d u d u

Twiddly Bits

I’ve adapted the intro in the Kathy McCarty version for this intro:

Intro

Buy:
Daniel Johnston Version
Eels Version
Kathy McCarty Version

I think I might be breaking the cardinal rule of the internet by featuring an anti-cat song this week. If you’re of a strongly pro-cat bent, skip the Uke’s Not Dead track and watch this instead (or this one which seems to be equally enjoyed by cat lovers and haters).

Also this week a non-ukulele selection: Dennis Lobo from Venezuela playing bandola (and backed up by cuatro). You can find out about those and many other South American plucked instruments on this page – check out the charanguita.

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The ukulele previously owned by Eric Clapton that was sold at Bonhams earlier this year is now up for sale on eBay.

At first I just thought Luna ukuleles were making ukes that weren’t, to say the least, to my taste. But seeing their Luna Peace ukulele has convinced me they’re doing it specifically to wind me up (thanks to Phredd for the link).

aNueNue ukuleles have been adding to their line of signature ukuleles including (friend of Uke Hunt) Shigeto Takahashi; (child prodigy) Sungha Jung and (Thai uker) Singto Namchok.

Pictures: 50s girl group, Girls With Ukulele.

Chris Martin discusses the history of Martin ukuleles. Some fascinating stuff in there – like the iterations they had to go through when moving from guitars to ukuleles.

Bossarocker is looking for some tunes for her triumphant return to the Uke Hunt podcast. If you’ve got any (original) songs you’d like to submit you can find out how on this page.

Jim D’Ville discusses practicing with loops.

Guitarkadia points up a TED Talk with 5 tips for listening better.

The Irish Times covers the ukulele ahead of this weekend’s Ukulele Hooley festival. And informs us that Wilco (???) have given the ukulele a ‘hipster sheen’. Good to know.

Tune-Yards chats and plays with Sound Opinions on WBEZ (via sanfordandsong). And Jake Shimabukuro chats and plays for Rolling Stone.

Coverville has its second ukulele cover mix.

Lots of very stiff competition, but this is officially the worst ukulele-featuring advert. Previous leader: Al ‘Off of Happy Days’ Molinaro in a grass skirt. If you’ve got your own (least) favourite, leave a link in the comments.

It’s probably just my age, but the Bends/OK Computer era Radiohead is by far my favourite. So when friend of the blog paulmoody requested a tab of Electioneering I got straight on it.

First bit: the clean(ish) chord bit in the verses is just Dm and Dsus4.


Verse chords

Don’t worry unduly about strumming exactly the right strings. So long as you get the feel of it right.

Here’s the electric riff playing in the verses.


Verse Riff

The end bit of the verse is C and Am (both with a few little extras):


Verse End

The ‘You go forwards…’ bit has a lot of guitars going up and down. The chord bit goes a bit like this. I think.


Chorus

About three years ago I put together a tab ebook to benefit Ukuleles for Peace with the help of some friends. Since then it’s raised over $3,500 for them. It’s done so well that Ken Middleton has put together a follow-up featuring tabs from me, Colin Tribe, Michael ‘Ukulele Mike’ Lynch, Herman Vandercauter and Ken himself. It also features a foreword from James Hill.

It’s priced at $15 (that’s 75c per tab, that’s about 50p in the UK and 50 Euro cents). You can pick up a copy on Ken’s site for $15. Or just click this button:

What is Ukuleles for Peace?

Ukuleles for Peace brings together Arab kids from Tira and Jewish kids from Hod HaSharon in Israel. They learn ukulele, sing songs (in Arabic, Hebrew and English), gig and have get-togethers. The aim is to create ties between the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel.

Take Siwar Mansour. In 2007 she was the strumming hand in this pair. Now she’s the only Muslim in a Jewish high school and has rocked up a storm with Ukulollo.

Find out more on their website.

What’s in the ebook?

20 tabs (all shown for both C and D tuning – two designed for low-G/A) in an ebook with a foreword by James Hill and an introduction by Paul Moore.

The tabs are for:

Al Wood
– Banana Boat Song (Day-O) (traditional)
– Bean Setters (traditional)
– Hard Times by Stephen Foster

Colin R Tribe
– Malaguena (traditional)
– Misirlou (traditional)
– Morning by Edvard Grieg (this is the one I’ve been practicing since getting my hands on it)
– The Flea Bites Back by Colin R Tribe

Michael Lynch
– Cherry Blossoms by Michael Lynch
– Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
– Keyport Rag by Michael Lynch
– The Rose Garden Serenade by Michael Lynch

Herman Vandecauter
– Andante Vivace by Francesco Molino
– Anglais (anon)
– Chacarera (anon)
– Savillana (traditional)

Ken Middleton
– Willson’s Wilde by John Dowland
– The Sky-Divers’ Waltz by Ken Middleton
– Blackberry Blossom (traditional)
– Worried Man Blues (traditional)
– The Water Is Wide (traditional)

How do I get it?

The ebook costs $15 and it’s delivered by download. You can buy it on Ken’s site or by clicking here:

Once you’ve paid via PayPal or credit card, you’ll go to a page with the download link (the money goes directly to Ukuleles for Peace’s PayPal account). You’ll also get a email with the download link in it.

Quick warning if you’re on iPad/iPhone etc: You won’t be able to download the file directly. You’ll have to download to a computer, unzip the file, and transfer it.

If you’ve got any questions, ask in the comments or contact Ken Middleton.

I almost tabbed up this song when it came out but it slid by. But after hearing the live version I was won over.

Vevo tends to block a lot of stuff so if you can’t see it above, you can listen to the original version here. But that one is in the key of E (the live version is in G) so here are the chords in that key:

Be careful with the chords. Take note of the numbers at the top right of the chords diagrams. That’s the fret the chord diagrams start at. So for the live version you’re mainly barring at the 7th fret (4th fret for the original version).

Suggested Strumming

Do this once each time you see a chord written:

You can play the ‘x’ with a chnk, but I prefer to release the pressure with my fretting hand and strum that.

Slowed down, it sounds like this:

Strumming Pattern

You can also add an extra strum at the end so it’s:

d – x u – u d u

Twiddly Bits

The picking bit he does in the first verse varies a lot. Here’s one basic pattern you can use and play around with.

Which sounds like this:

Picking Pattern

A healthy crop of ukulele acts, as always, at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Here’s a quick rundown of the acts I’d be going to see if I was there.

Helen Arney – Festival of the Spoken Nerd and Alchemy

Comedy ukulele nerd and star of Uke Hunt podcast #8, Helen Arney will doing a whole bunch of shows at Edinburgh including a two-off show Festival of the Spoken Nerd with Blue Peter spod Steve Mould and maths stand up Matt Parker.

She’ll also be doing AlchemyEH1 (“new sketches and songs in a secret off-Fringe venue”) and gigs with MJ Hibbett, Tricity Vogue and, fellow uncaged monkey, Robin Ince (who you should definitely catch if you’re there – I saw one of his preview shows and it was hilarious).

You can find everything Helen is doing on her website.

Tricity Vogue

Tricity Vogue is going to have a busy time at the fringe. She’s doing both her Blue Lady Sings Back show and her free, bawdy and guest-packed Ukulele Cabaret. Guests so far have included Ria Lina, Helen Arney and Amanda Palmer.

Jo Stephenson – Can You Dig It?

Jo Stehpenson is teaming up with Dan Woods for vegetable-based songsmithery in their show Can You Dig It?.

Book tickets here

Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer

Mr B will be chap hopping the fringe in his show How I Invented Hip-Hop and Other Faux Pas.

Buy tickets here.

Emily Scott

I was completely unaware of Emily Scott before seeing her Edinburgh listed. But after seeing a few of her videos I’m very interested in hearing more. And her Edinburgh show will feature a classical string trio.

Book tickets here.

Yes, Michael Jackson did a ukulele song. Who knew?

Also included in this week’s round-up: Amanda Shires (only her first song is on uke but she plays violin uke-style), Savannah Smith, Sophie Madeleine (to remind you to support your favourite singed record label), Wilfried Welti and plenty more besides.

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