This is the second time I’ve interviewed Amber Nash. My excuse – if I need an excuse beyond her being bot-rockingly awesome – is that last time she was part of ukebucket and this time she’s half of Shiny and the Spoon.

Shiny and the Spoon have just released their new EP. You’ll be familiar with many of the songs if you’ve been following Amber’s YouTube channel (although still no sign of Pig Latin despite my protestations).

Here’s her lowdown on the EP, independent recording and being a girl.

Who’s Shiny and who’s the Spoon?

This is something that Jordan and I go back and forth with, mostly to be combative:) I guess I’m Shiny and he’s the Spoon. The name of our band really came from nowhere. We both just really liked the way it sounded and didn’t, at the time, realize how weird of a name it was. It wasn’t until Mark Utley, frontman for Magnolia Mountain, made our logo that the name started to make sense. It’s sort of a nursery rhyme, “dish ran away with the spoon” and “the cow jumped over the moon” sort of thing. I guess we like working backwards.

How would you describe the new EP?

It’s quirky, just like us. There are some “found” sounds, good melody lines, and some sweet, sweet harmonies. It’s playful, but understated…it doesn’t necessarily ask anything of the listener, just to enjoy it. We turned on a faucet, hit a doorframe with a ukulele case, messed with crazy reverbs, and really just made it what we wanted it to be. It reflects our personalities.

How’s it been recording and releasing your own music?

Hell and Heaven and everything in-between. The great thing about recording on your own is that you have complete control over everything…and the bad thing is that you have complete control over everything. Because we are a completely independent band, our progress kind of goes with the schedule of our whims and moods. But I’m glad we did it on our own. We’ve grown with the music, musically, technically, and emotionally. We really tried to make the EP as organic as possible, from the way the songs sound to the packaging. The front and back cover are hand-drawn by Mark Utley, and we do our best to make sure that the tracks sound as close to what we’re like “live” as possible. Apart from a faucet trickle, a trumpet, some hand percussion, and a bit of reverb on some tracks, it’s pretty much just us, raw. We’re really happy with it. There was nothing like going to the pressing company to pick up our EP, printed, pressed, and shrink-wrapped, after all the work we put into it.

What happened to ukebucket? Are you still a going concern?

ukebucket is no more! It is, however, still my handle on YouTube. The ukebucket boys are incredibly talented, but like many things, you grow, you change, and you move on. It’s impossible for us to collaborate because of many things…they live in Florida, and now we’re all busy with our own things. I know Rikk Palmer is doing his solo music thing, and I’ve got Shiny and the Spoon. I still listen to Bad Ukulele… sometimes and smile.

Which three songs does everyone have to listen to?

Simple Song, Two Pennies, and Good On You

A couple of your videos have gone ‘cute girl plays the ukulele’ style viral – how do you feel about that whole trend? Do you think the shock that girls can make music will ever wear off?

You know, like many things, I think it’s just going to come and go in waves. I absolutely love the ukulele. I love the way it sounds, how versatile it is, the way it looks, etc. It’s the only instrument I’ve ever been really passionate about. It allowed me to write my own songs. If it can do the same for others, cute or not, I say more power to them. YouTube is, obviously, not a site that is restricted for “professional and serious” musicians. It acts as whatever medium you want it to…a blog, a diary, a way to promote your music, etc. If that can help others unleash their creative side, whether they be male or female, I think that’s a good thing. And if it comes as a shock that women can make good music, well, I guess, my only comment is, where have you been???!!!!!

Keep up to date with Shiny and the Spoon on MySpace and buy the EP on CD Baby or on iTunes.

As I generally go to great lengths to avoid any contact with people under the age of 21, it took comments from zym, cardboardfrog and Nick to alert me to the ukulele theme tune to Big and Small. Even better, Nick mentioned the ukulele-trio version on the CBeebies website (go through a door, click the piano, give them all ukes). And it’s that version I’ve tabbed up (although the vocal version has the same chords).

Here I am playing the tabbed version:

MP3

The chords are played further up the neck than their standard shapes, but you could use the more familiar ones and it’ll sound fine.

The melody is also fairly straight forward. It helps to play it with a pick as some of the notes are played quite quickly. Here’s the melody by itself:

Big and Small (Melody Tab)

And here’s the accompaniment played by the wee-un:

Big and Small (Accompaniment Tab)

Big and Small on bbc.co.uk
Buy Big and Small DVD

My favourite video this week comes from, Amanda Palmer’s conjoined twin side project, Evelyn Evelyn with a glorious animated video (which is NSFW if you work someone that frowns upon cartoon copulation and foul language – and if you do, what the hell are you doing working there?). Even if you haven’t been impressed with Amanda Palmer’s ukulele efforts so far, you should still check this out. You can read more about the project on Pitchfork – including rumours that the album features Frances Bean Cobain.

Also up are highlights from Annie Bacon’s The Folk Opera – which I am now eager (and very unlikely) to see.

Don’t forget to cast your vote for the Ukulele Video of the Year.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are a few Valentines ukulele cards around, but if you really love your uker you get them a Kanilea valentines ukulele.

The sitar-lele from NAMM is now available to pre-order from Mid-East ukuleles. At $200, I’m going to be very tempted.

A couple of sweet looking Ayers/Uluru ukuleles: AU2 and the AU9

Kimo Jones tenor uke.

30s Dobro resonator.

The vote for video of the year is very close between U900 and Ukulelezo (one vote between them as I write) with Sophie Madeleine and Mr B not far behind. Go and cast your vote if you haven’t done so.

This year’s ukulele festivals are stacking up:

– Ukelear Meltdown (in Newcastle, UK) always has the most interesting lineup. This year it includes acts from the US, Pakistan and Finland as well as the UK debut of Mighty Uke. Most of the acts on the bill are a mystery to me (as is the ticket ordering process).
– Lone Star Ukulele Festival including James Hill, Pops Bayless and Ukulele Bartt.
– NYUF early-bird tickets available.

Professional trendspotter Magnus Lindqvist is going round business conferences extolling the virtues of the ukulele and duetting with GUGUG.

Jim D’Ville finds a use for the compass on a Kala Travel uke.

Bushman winners – best video comes second.

Ricardo Motta ukulele.

More NAMM uke pics.

Credence Clearwater Revival and Charlie Darwin on Uker Tabs.

Pictures: antipodean ukulele, antipodean ukulele 2, Hobbit is at it again

In the comments: Jimmy made a few interesting points in his comments on the video of the year vote. A particularly contentious one: “Well, we’ve gotta rule out all the covers on the ground that they are covers and therefore have little of merit other than wankery.”

I wish we had songs this good when I was a kid. All we had was Fingerbobs (okay, so Bagpuss was pretty amazing). I can certainly relate to the story of a mad scientist working away in the shed with everyone wondering what’s he building in there?

This track turned up on the Phredderiffic in a uke-less form. But I’ve written up the uke version from Phreddtube because, of course, it’s far superior.

Suggested Strumming

In the verses, he’s using the same figure as the intro. But if you’d rather strum, you could go with:

d – d – x u d –

For the chorus:

G…………C
d – d – – u d –

D…………C
d – d – – u d –

Buy it on iTunes and check out his new album Phreddtastic!

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 With Me
John King and James Hill – Larry O’Gaff
Todd Baio (doogey9) – I’m a Uke-aholic
Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer – Chap Hop History

You only get one vote, so use it wisely. I still haven’t made my mind up – although I have safely eliminated one of them.

Vote here (you’ll have to visit the blog if you’re reading this by email or in a feed reader).

[poll id=”4″]

Voting ends Tuesday 9th February (midnight Hawaii time).

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 uke.

They both play Blue, Red and Grey slightly differently to the version on The Who by Numbers (which is the version I’ve written up). The original is played in D-tuning but both now play it in C-tuning. Daltrey uses the same chords as the original while Townshend uses – broadly – the same chord shapes as the original (so it’s a tone lower). Another difference is that Townshend uses the F – C7M progression from the bridge in the verses as well.

Suggested Strumming

Time to invent a new bit of shorthand: t = touch strum (i.e. a down strum only hitting the g-string).

The only tricky bit is the intro:

D………..Dsus4
t – d – – u d –

For the rest of the song it’s just

t – d – t – d –

over and over.

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 have been able to exchange emails on our shared passion for playing ragtime on the ukulele and delighted when he was generous enough to say nice things about my Ragtime arrangements – in this excellent article on Ragtime ukuele – despite my obvious noob status.

The same mastery of ukulele arrangement is on display on the album he was working on when he died Small Rooms. The album has been completed and released by John’s friends and family – who have done a great job with it – and it’s well worth checking out. You can stream clips of it on johnkavanagh.net and buy it here

John’s ukulele lessons:

Finger and thumb strum lesson
Getting that bluegrass sound

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 uke, let me know.

Having said that, the Coronation Street theme tune doesn’t work too well on the uke. It’s a little too slow for the uke’s sustain. Which is why Ian Re-entrant’s funky version works well. But it’s a more faithful version that I’ve tabbed up.