Yes, I’m supposed to be on holiday. But I took some time out from the Pig-in-a-Poke intinerary of slapping Germans, flirting with French girls and performing 80s dress-up montages to pass on some important news. And the news involes Dr John (I don’t just throw these things together).

Killian Mansfield has just released his album Somewhere Else.

For the few of you who don’t memorize everything I write, Killian is a 15 year old uker who is currently battling cancer and has recorded an album featuring the likes of Dr John, John Sebastian and Kate Pierson (off of The B-52s) to benefit the children’s cancer charity Hope and Heroes.

You can pick up the CD on Amazon and listen and download on iTunes. And the tracks you really must grab are: Express Yourself, Scratch My Back (with Dr John), Kiss and Fire in My Pocket (with Levon Helm).

Get your arse to iTunes.

Must be off. Eric Idle won’t run himself over. Toodles.

Time for a bit of a blog-break. No more posts until 21st August.

No complaining unless you’ve mastered all of these:

How to Play Ukulele Strums
The pentatonic scale
How to Play Blues Ukulele
Naked As We Came
Neal Paisley’s Gossip
Sweet Child o’ Mine
Everything on Ukulele Dav

You can keep up to date with the latest uke news on Ukulelia and the latest uke videos on UkeToob.

Love ya, bye!

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Last in the series of Not Guitar Riffs for Ukulele and it’s a corker. I’m not sure it works on ukulele quite as well as some of the others. But still. Hot stuff.

If you’re feeling adventurous. You could do a prebend on the E string at the third fret and release it for the first two notes of the last bar.

Looks like Hollywood has rediscovered the uke. Appearances this week from Kate Micucci and William H Macy (plugging their new film Bart Got A Room) and Adrian Grenier and Ari Gold come over all Pub Landlord (I know Iain’s going to love that link) with Amanda Palmer.

Also this week: I give Sebi the kiss of death by declaring him the obvious winner of the Go 90s contest (if you like his style, he’s done a post on how he does the fancy multiscreen video thing), The Waifs with – invisible as always – Josh Cunningham doing great work on the uke, Ken Middleton singing a song I have to stop before the end because the last line cuts me up too much, The Pyles is officially world’s sexiest uker and more videos than I usually let myself include. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of Tahitian ukuleles up this week. The most impressive is this one carved into the shape of a bird. There’s also this soprano Tahitian ukulele – which you don’t see very often.

The Stagg Electric ukuleles I mentioned a while back are up for sale. Intended as Strat and Les Paul copies. They don’t quite pull it off.

The recession must really be hitting the uke collectors. Every week there seem to be more Martin ukuleles for sale. This Martin 2K obviously isn’t from a collector, but it’s very nice.

Two great photos I wish I knew the story behind:

– “Can you guide me in?” “Sure I’ll just put down my uke.”
– I don’t know what those girls are doing to that poor guy, but I want to hang out with them anyway.

It was only a matter of time: Obama ukulele dashboard figurine.

Rogaine: Makes dogs hump your leg.

The LA Times discusses the ukulele revival. But I’m not sure how Hester and Kitty would react to the UOGB being described as, “eight men in tuxedos.”

A video of an entire James Hill performance.

You can now get UkeFarm’s chord sheets on your iPhone.

J-Hob covers ukulele acts at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Argyle Smile’s Every Song on Uker Tabs.

I think this is the best repurposing of a ukulele I’ve seen. And she has some magnificent trophy fruit (which sounds like innuendo but isn’t).

Daily Growl has a couple of MP3s from The Second Hand Marching Band.

The ukulele bit on House.

Keith Moon ukulele.

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Another glorious slice of 80s cheese. The second single I ever bought was by Valen Halen (although it was Hagar era Halen). Which was something of departure from my first ever single: Chas ‘n Dave’s Snooker Loopy. If anyone thinks they’ve got me beat in the embarrassing-first-single stakes (or CD or download if you want to make me feel old), leave a comment.

Keep the chord stabs nice and short. In this example I add chnks on the beats to keep the rhythm going.

I’ve been promising these for a long time and you may well have seen a few of them crop up on various ukers. To be honest, the whole thing has been a nightmare. I’ve been looking at companies that print t-shirts and deliver them. And I’ve found that most of them are terrible. That’s why today is only half a launch of the t-shirts.

If you find yourself in North America, you can buy the shirts on Spreadshirt.

There are two designs: The Under-Bear and The Ukulele Hooters both designed by Art Grootfontein. As modelled by the delectable Jodi Mathews and the gorgeous Todd Baio.

They’re both available as skinny fit and relaxed fit. If you’re going for the skinny fit (by American Apparel) make sure you’re very generous with the size you select.

That’s the good news. The bad news is for anyone outside North America. The shipping from Spreadshirt will cost more than the shirt and that, in my opinion, makes them not worth getting. I’ve tried a number of other companies with no luck. The European Spreadshirt finds it impossible to print designs on a coloured T-shirt. Red Bubble took more than a month to deliver the shirts and the quality wasn’t good enough.

If anyone knows of a reliable service in Europe that will print T-shirts and handle orders and delivery, please, please, please let me know about it. Until I find something, you’ll just have to walk around topless.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand… I’m currently testing out Comboutique for the shirts in Europe. I can’t say whether they’re any good or not. But if you want to take a chance, you can buy them here.

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As you might have guess, there’s going to be a fair proportion of 80s cheese in the keyboard riffs for ukulele series. And it doesn’t come much more 80s than the theme tune to Beverley Hills Cop. The 80s must be the only time in pop music history that it was fashionable to be German.

Keep the notes in this one short and muted by resting the underside of you picking hand just in front of the bridge.

Kym Campbell – Back to You (MP3) via MP3.com.au
Kym Campbell – Rolls That Way (MP3) via Triple J

Australia has become a bit of a hub with folky singer-songwriters such as Angus and Julia Stone, The Waifs and Missy Higgins. And Kym Campbell very much fits in with that sound. Which is perhaps why she moved to Australia from Seattle before kicking off her music career. And, armed with a few ukulele songs, she seems to be doing well over there.

Visit KymCampbell.com