Sophie Madeleine might have hit it big with The Beard Song, but I think this song is a really impressive piece of songwriting. There are quite a few ukulele songs around that could have been written on any instrument. But I think this one could only have come out of a ukulele.
There are a lot of traditional ukulele touches in the chord progression: the move from C to E7 (familiar from Five Foot Two), the use of diminished chords, the I7 chord (both of which are classic George Formby tricks). But it doesn’t sound dated and kitsch at all.
CLLCT is a great place to hunt around for interesting new uke acts. I’ve already spread the good word about Madeline Ava. And today it’s the turn of Tinyfolk. I caught up with Russ, Mr Tinyfolk, for the essential details.
What appeals to you about the baritone ukulele and how did you get started with it?
I really like the smallness of the instrument, it’s really easy to take with me to shows or wherever. The sound is also really great because it’s somewhere between a ukulele and a guitar, and I kind of feel like I get the best of both worlds there. It makes Tinyfolk sound different from other acoustic acts, for sure.
I started out with a cheapo soprano uke in 2005 and taught myself to play. I didn’t really know how to play any other instruments, I just thought ukulele seemed really pretty easy to pick up, so I did. And it was pretty easy.
You’ve got a big back catalogue. Where do you recommend people new to your music start?
I would recommend starting with Owling, which is what I call the “greatest” “hits” record, then decide which you like and listen to the full albums or EPs those songs are from. Tinyfolk is really all over the place, and not all of it’s ukulele, though the vast majority of it is. The songs without uke are probably all either electronic or classical guitar, though there might be an a capella number or two in there.
Is that a standard ukulele on Lost and Found? Do you play much re-entrant uke?
Yep. That’s my original soprano uke that I started out on. It’s broken apart and has been glued back together, but it works just great still, or as great as a thirty dollar ukulele can be expected to work after four years.
I generally play one song on the soprano per show, sometimes more if I’m in the mood. I don’t write songs on it as often, but I’d like to. I played it ad nauseum when I first got it, so by the time I got the baritone uke, I was tired of writing songs on the soprano. Now I like it again.
You give most of your music away for free on the net. How has the internet changed the way you make and release music?
I started making music in 2005, so the first thing I did when I first made the first song was to put it online. I quickly learned that when I made it free online it was a good way to get feedback from people, and I also quickly learned that I wasn’t going to make any money selling CDs, except for occasionally at shows. Thus, I put out an online-only EP with the now-defunct mp3 label/blog Bunch of Beatniks Riding a Rocket in 2005, then started putting out of print releases up there, then whenever 001collective (now CLLCT) was created, I just put everything up there. I haven’t been on tour in over a year now, so really promoting with free music online is the best way I have to let people hear what I’m doing.
Who are your favourite ukulele acts?
Ukulele Ike, Herman Dune (I was inspired to pick up the uke after seeing David-Ivar Herman Dune play a lovely little set on a soprano in Bloomington), Dennis Driscoll, Jens Lekman, Jacob Borshard, Ki(10)z and my friends bands like Watercolor Paintings, Madeline Ava, Your Yellow Dress and Blanketarms.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Well, I’m working on a barry uke album that will be out on the wonderful Swim Slowly records before the end of the year, and I’m working on a three-song split of electronic music that will be a benefit for We Heart Arts and will be out by the end of the summer. Maybe a tour after that. I’ll be on Shrimper Records 20th Anniversary 2 CD compilation alongside amazing lo-fi acts like The Mountain Goats, Herman Dune and Jad Fair, so that’s pretty exciting. I’m moving from central Indiana to Chicago by July, so who knows what wonders will await Tinyfolk in the big city.
Well, the new episodes of Red Dwarf stank to high heaven. Even the presence of Big Suze didn’t help. I do hope there’s some sort of Royal wipeout and we end up with Queen Big Suze.
As you might have noticed, I’ve done a video for this one for the first time in about two years. I think the low quality audio, weird light and facial gurnings should answer everyone who’s asked me why I don’t do videos more often. But it does serve to illustrate a few points in the tab.
The intro is played campanela i.e. letting the notes ring into each other as much as possible. The trickiest bit is getting the end of the first phrase to sustain over the echo part (I did a much better job of making it sound like an echo in the mp3).
I considered arranging the vocal version of the tune but I couldn’t resist the tasteless guitar-widdling version (it’s a trick the piece’s composer Howard Goodall also used in the titles for Blackadder II.
The trickiest part of this section is bar 11. I did try playing it like this for a while:
Which is much easier to play but sounds too wimpy.
In the ‘fun, fun, fun’ bit (someone should make that into a ukulele song) I’m using my favourite triplet strum: down with middle and index fingers, up with index, up with middle.
One thing I struggle with in this tab is the time signature. There are parts that don’t seem quite right. I looked at some guitar tab and they had it in 12/8. But that makes even less sense to me.
Requested by Jimmy (so long ago he’s probably forgotten by now).
I haven’t been paying as much attention as usual over my break, so I’ve probably missed something. But what I did find is excellent. The most exciting discover came when I went to see Peggy Sue (and the Pirates). I like them so much I did a Monday Exposure on them even though they didn’t play ukulele. But now they do – as you can see in a fairly badly recorded video.
This week’s must have is one – oh, what the hell – both of these Kaumalae ukuleles: Kumalae 1, Kumalae 2.
It seems like there are an increasing number of ukes around with inlays on the soundboard. The most stylish has to be the Ana’ole. Ohana go for a floral design. This bocote wood ukulele keeps it’s show piece for the back. And this one is an all out cheese-fest.
LOCALS ukulele is a new name on me. They’re Hawaiian made and solid koa. They also claim to be the same quality as Kamaka and Martin at half the price. Hmmm…
If the name Tombo Ukulet isn’t reason enough to buy this, it also looks great.
If you want your Kala archtop to look even more like a Gretsch, get yourself one of these pickguards.
The London Uke Festival 2009 will be held on 20th June. They’ll be attempting to break the world record for most ukuleles played at the same time. You can read more about it in this PDF and register on their website.
More festival news: the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival will include Victoria Vox, The Fabulous Heftones, Boulder Acoustic Society and Lil Rev.
I’m taking a blog break and I’ll be back on the 8th May.
I’ll be trying to get How to Play Ukulele Strumming written. So far it’s been an absolute nightmare. I have to get it done because if I don’t Armelle will kill me. Hopefully a couple of weeks focusing on it will get me somewhere.
If you are missing me already, you can read an interview I did for Live ‘Ukulele. I hope you like it more than they did. Btw, I would never write, “an ‘ukulele,” (unless it’s preceded by the words, “I would never write…”).
Videos this week include Black Kids doing a ukulele session for KEXP (not as spunky as the full-on version but enough to feed my craving for songs with girls shouting numbers), Ukulele Loki, a particularly fine version of St James Infirmary, WS64 ripping through a couple of rock and roll classics (now go la-da-dow) and Kalei Gamiao getting smooth. Read the rest of this entry »
Oscar Schmidt go one louder with the OU7. It looks cool, but if they’re going to keep jacking up the price they’ll have to switch to solid ukes pretty soon.
A ‘deluxe’ and ‘limited edition’ Ohana TK-70CG. Sexy cutaway, but not sure about the pink tuners (and I usually love pink).
One uke that might want to think about adding a cutaway is this Mike Chock Mango ukulele. What’s the point of 23 frets if you can only reach 12 of them? But I do quite like the pear shape.
Every time a vintage Martin 5K crops up on eBay I do a quick ‘pros and cons’ list of selling one of the kids. And in this case the uke has a lovely battered case – making the list dangerously close to even.
We’ve been total idiots. Practicing when all we had to do was learn to play the ukulele subliminally.
Uketopia is an excellent new(ish) ukulele podcast with songs, instrument reviews, interviews and various uke chatter. And there’s also the Stretchlinks Podcast from “America’s haymakers of jocularity.”
