I think this song wins the award for shortest time between being put up and me getting requests. And it’s a pretty good one for beginners – no fancy jazz chords to worry about in this one.
Suggested Strumming
Try:
d – d u d u d –
When I first ran across Jessica Graves’s YouTube channel her lusty vocals immediately brought to mind Christina Marrs of the Asylum Street Spankers (she also has a hint of Neko Case at times). What I didn’t know was that she was one of the original members of Shorty Long together with a number of former Spankers (including Pops Bayless) and she provided the vocals for their superior version of I Want To Marry A Lighthouse Keeper.
After taking time out of the music biz (to follow a career signing for the deaf), she’s recently hooked up with Bayless again and recorded an EP Jammin’ At Jackson’s. She sent me the tracks and I was completely knocked out by them. The musicianship on it is fantastic. But they’re obviously laid-back and enjoying making music together. It’s my favourite record of the year so far. Yes, it’s better than Blood Bank. Yes, it’s better than Horehound. Yes, it’s even better than Brooke Hogan’s The Redemption.
How did you first get together with Pops and the rest of the guys?
I met Pops at a jam on the porch of Flipnotics, a coffee shop in Austin, TX. It was in August of 1999. I had just pulled my great-grandmother’s ukulele out of the closet, re-strung it, and learned a single tune. If memory serves, it was “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” That one song Pops was gracious enough to lend me his ukulele to play at the jam that afternoon. When I told him that was the only song I knew, he offered me lessons. When I showed up for my first lesson, two young men from Philly were already socializing in Pops’ living room. I never got a lesson. We jammed, and that was the beginning of Shorty Long.
What brought you back together to make this record?
The only one on this record from Shorty Long other than me is Pops Bayless. He’s the guy who made it possible for that recording to happen. He lined me up with Rob Jewett, and I brought in Jimmie Dreams and Evan Kolvoord. Having players of that caliber performing my tunes is quite possibly the greatest thrill of my life. Evan’s harp has more finesse than most men’s lips can muster to merely speak, much less make a harmonica sound like that. Rob Jewett has prestige oozing out his finest pores. Jimmie Dreams’ stylings cannot be matched. Pops was the one keeping us all on track, and let us not forget that he plucked out some mean ukulele solos.
The record sounds very organic and relaxed. How was it recorded?
The five of us met up at 10:00pm at a fine little house in South Austin, TX. By 10:30pm, we were all situated around a single microphone. We had knocked out all five songs by 1:30am. These four players had never all been in the same room together, much less had they played these tunes together. I tossed charts on the floor next to the microphone stand, called out the starts and stops, and it didn’t take us more than three full takes per song to turn out those five tracks. It’s such a great pleasure, working with professionals.
Are all the songs on the album your own? They feel like songs that have been around for decades. Who influences your songwriting?
I wrote all five of those tunes. You are not the first person to say that they sound familiar. One of my best friends and fellow song writer, whom I greatly admire, balked when I told her I’d written Finally Mine. She thought it was 80 years old. I guess that’s what happens when your family brings you up on live music, and you never listen to pop radio. My parents didn’t take me to church on Sundays, but we’d go every Wednesday to Sittin’ Singin’ & Supper at Threadgills, every Monday to Bummer Night at Artz Rib House. The songs that informed and inspired my life were songs by people I’d grown up listening to and loving. Most of the world outside of Texas has never heard of Uncle Walt’s Band, The Flatlanders, or Toni Price, but they’re among the greatest of my heroes. We would drive an hour out of town to see a show at Gruene Hall, we were such dedicated fans.
I’m fascinated by sign language interpretations of songs. How do you go about conveying the mood of music in a purely visual way?
It requires intense study, and a lot of creativity, not to mention fluency and finesse with both languages. English and American Sign Language have vastly different rhythms, so matching up concepts to beats can be pretty tricky. What English uses many words to say may be expressed in ASL with a single sign, and vice versa, which makes it doubly difficult. There are few who do it truly well. I can give you a fantastic example by Tiffany Hill. A song that made me want to turn off the radio any time I heard it, she transformed into a touching, vital, heart-breaking miracle.
What have you got planned next? Are you back in the music game for good?
In December, I’m moving back to Austin. I’ve been in Washington, DC for seven years now, and as much as I love it here, I have some great musician friends back in Austin with whom I’d like to be playing all the time. I’m in a group of songwriters who meet every week, but participating remotely just isn’t as satisfying. I held a fundraiser that started a ukulele choir at an Austin elementary school, and I want to participate in their first year. I have my own band I’d like to start, plus a side project in mind—an all female band I call the Songbirds of Prey. In short, the answer to your question is that I have an awful lot planned, and you can bet your sweet bippie I’m in it for good. And thanks for asking.
Visit her website. Buy Jammin’ At Jacksons on CDBaby
This one brings back memories. My first band consisted mainly of me (a sullen Yorkshire boy who just wanted to play guitar) and the singer (a great big show-off, drama queen). So we did a lot of Mick Ronson era David Bowie covers. This one being a particular favourite.
Anyhoo, compare to that last two, this one is dead simple.
Most diverting act of the week has to be Dithyrambe who are a cross between Marie Antoinette, Maria Callas, The Tiger Lillies and The Re-Entrants. But the standout video this week is Kalei Gamiao with some incredible playing. Impressive enough to draw attention away from his Kim Jong Il outfit. Also this week is Cousin Alice doing what should be a Bond theme, Siri Nilsen (a Norwegian with an incredible voice) and Ulysses & The Swans (whose song I’ve been back and forth on liking, but the singer is handsome so it’s in).
A big thanks to Samantha for pointing me in the direction of Jennifer Teeter who is hilarious. Just don’t watch her video while you’re eating. Or before you eat. Or after you eat. Read the rest of this entry »
Ukulele4U has an usual looking Road Toad Mana Tenor. It looks like the bottom half of a Vita uke spliced to the top half of a standard uke with the soundhole shunted into the corner. I’m not too keen on the look of it myself.
But I am keen on the look of the Kala Koa Sunburst ukuleles. They’re being called ‘limited edition’. So if you want one, best get your skates on.
The Southern Ukulele Store are doing a bang up job of bringing quality uke brands to the UK. The latest additions include Honu and Pono.
MGM describes the cut-out soundhole on this Ana’ole custom tenor as, “resembling a maple leaf.” But it looks a whole lot more like a more medicinal type of leaf to me.
Ukulele photos: long hair ukulele, harp guitar and what might be a taropatch. It’s a mandolinetto. Thanks, Karl
Two new records out: The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s Live in London #2 and a solo EP from Howlin’ Hobbit available on CD and by download. And he could use the support.
Tab-U-Learn is back up and running. It has the best selection of baritone ukulele tabs anywhere on the net, so get over that if that’s your axe of choice.
I discuss playing ukulele by ear with Jim D’Ville.
Bosco and Honey officially launch their OZ contest. And it’s great to see they’re getting a lot of support from sponsors.
Judy Robinson is doing a survey of ukulele players. Fill it in and you could win an iPod.
New(ish) uke blog: Ukulele Perspective.
Ian Chadwick has a bunch of vintage ukulele songbooks available for download.
The Indie Rock Coloring Book – cool idea and it has a ukulele on the cover.
“George Formby is one of my heroes,” says Zooey Deschanel.
Celebs on the uke: Tony Danza and Nicky Campbell.
Photos: Day of the Dead painted ukulele, Paper Moon (Thanks to Ukulelia and Zoe), Gibson SG style ukulele, one of those rare cases of a kid-with-uke photo that is so adorable even I don’t hate it.
Armelle interviews classical uker Herman Vandecauters and Ken Middleton for some ukulele fingerpicking tips.
The Blower’s Daughter by Damien Rice on Uker Tabs.
MP3s: Franny Deschanel has some of his songs available for download, Songs:Illionis has Andrew Phillip Tipton. Said the Gramaphone has a track from one of the many bands called The Ukeladies.
Why the ukulele is the smart boy’s choice.
Netbook essential #4 Foxit Reader with one of my ebooks loaded (Thanks to the eagle-eyed J-Hob for spotting that).
I’m currently down with a bit of a cold. So please forgive any disgusting sniffs and snuffs that might be audible on that MP3. And you don’t want to be tackling this one in a weakened state because it is seriously tricky.
The first section is trickiest. There’s a quick succession of notes on the same string so you’ll have to use your index and middle fingers for the picking. For bars 3 – 8 it’s one finger per string. And for the main body of the song it’s a Travis-picking pattern with the thumb covering the G and C strings, the index on the E string and the middle on the A string.
I’m off back to bed *sniffle snuffle*
A recent comment from George made me realise that I’d completely forgotten to include rests in the How To Read Ukulele Tab series. So here it is. Better a year and a half late than never.
Rests indicate that there shouldn’t be anything playing at all. That means if there was a note played before you should stop it ringing. Rests look different depending on how long they last.
Whole Note/ Semibreve Rest
Half Note/ Minim Rest
Quarter Note/ Crotchet Rest
Eighth Note/ Quaver Rest
Sixteenth Note/ Semi-quaver Rest
You’ll sometimes see rests with a dot after them. This means you should increase the length of the rest by half (e.g. a minim rest with a dot after it would last for three beats).
This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.
Read the full series here: How To Read Ukulele Tab.
This week I thought I’d tab up a few of my favourite intros, starting out with easily the best.
It’s interesting listening to this early version of This Charming Man recorded a Peel Session. The riff is intact in the verse but the intro sounds very weak compared to the final version.
The version I’ve tabbed above is in the key of the original. But it’s easier to play it two frets down as Perrecy does in his German ukulele version of the song. Here it is in that key.
I first heard Hailey Wojcik when she did a session for Midnight Ukulele Disco. I got so excited Craig Robertson told me to calm down. But I still haven’t. So when I found out Hailey was releasing a new album, Diorama, I took the opportunity to fire a few questions at her.
What can we expect from the new album? How’s it different from Jealous Sees?
The new record, Diorama, is very different from my previous one. First of all, it has full band arrangements, and is almost exclusively electric guitars (aside from the songs on which I don’t play guitar, of course) – so it is louder! But I also feel like it is more eclectic and much more mature. It was produced by Dan Romer, (who produces Jenny Owen Youngs, Ingrid Michaelson, April Smith) and he is just fantastic and brilliant. It’s a much stronger, more thought-out record I think. I made a diorama to represent each song (hence the title), and pictures of these are the album art. Also though, I like to think of the album itself as a diorama of my life at a particular moment. So conceptually it feels like a more complete record to me as well.
How did you come to pick up the ukulele?
I randomly got a ukulele while in Hawaii (I thought it fitting), but I completely fell in love with it, and it is now one of my favorite instruments.
Your songs are very individual and original. Who are your inspirations?
Thank you! I am inspired by a lot of artists – both musical and otherwise – so it is hard to pick. I try to be as omnivorous as possible. Literature and film often inspire my songwriting; some of the songs on the record reflect this (“Holden Caulfield“; “Samsa Morning” – referring to Gregor Samsa from The Metamorphosis). While working on the record I was reading Infinite Jest and a lot of other David Foster Wallace stuff – I’m not so sure that’s reflected at all in the music, but maybe on the next record! I’ve been listening to a lot of Mountain Goats and Neko Case lately. I’m also a huge fan of Jack White (and Meg White!), and I find I can always go back to artists like Tom Waits and Patti Smith. I’m always trying to compose a Top Five Songwriters of All Time list in my head, but I can never quite get myself to agree on anything.
What’s in your ukulele collection? You had a fantastic banjolele on Midnight Ukulele Disco.
I play an Oscar Schmidt at shows and on the record… I also have a Lanikai and a beautiful old banjolele from the ’20s.
What plans have you got for the future? Any plans to resurrect the dinosaur outfit?
I am playing with a band now – collectively we are Hailey Wojcik and Her Imaginary Friends – and we are planning a tour at the moment, as well as a music video, so keep an eye out for that… The dinosaur outfit is on an indefinite hiatus, but I am a girl who loves costumes, so you can be sure there is more where that came from. My band now incorporates some animal masks into our live show for the song “Raised in a Zoo”.
You can buy Diorama on CDBaby, visit her website and friend her up on MySpace.
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