Rabbit Muse – Sixty Minute Man (mp3)

Rabbit Muse – Rocking Chair Blues (mp3) via Digital Library of Appalachia

The blues isn’t a genre you immediately associate with the ukulele but the popularity of the blues and the ukulele coincided in the 1930’s and a few, most notably Papa Charlie Jackson and Geeshie Wiley, picked up the instrument. Probably the foremost blues ukulele player was Lewis “Rabbit” Muse.

However, Muse’s music goes far beyond the blues incorporating folk, jazz and pure entertainment (including playing kazoo and tap-dancing) which came from his early inspiration of minstrelsy.

Muse, born 1908, learnt soprano ukulele from a childhood friend before transferring to baritone and setting out on a career that spanned seven decades. Despite this long career he recorded only two albums: Muse Blues in 1976 and Sixty Minute Man in ’77. Both these albums are, sadly, out of print and have never been released on CD. A couple of his earlier recordings appear on the compilation Western Piedmont Blues which also appears to be unavailable

Until the record industry comes to its senses we will have to content ourselves by downloading a few poorly recorded performances on the Digital Library of Appalachia. Unless anyone knows how to get hold of his recordings.

Read more on Rabbit here.

UPDATE: Ten years later and it’s a little easier to find Rabbit Muse tracks online. Stefan Wirz has uploaded a selection of them to YouTube (thanks to Howard for the heads-up).

Baby Elephant Walk Duet (Tab)

Baby Elephant Walk Duet (MIDI)

I know it’s starting to look like I’m tabbing the score to the entire 18 series of the Simpsons, but it’s only a coincidence. This tune was written by Henry Mancini for the film Hatari! to depict the lumbering and unsteady movements of large, unwieldy animal – so perhaps fitting that it was used to accompany Homer dancing.

In this arrangement, one uke takes the background riff. This is a fairly standard 12 bar blues pattern – if you slowed it down and gave it some swing it could be a Muddy Waters song. However, the spritely melody (played by the other ukulele) takes the tune a long way outside blues territory.

A quick word about the repeat signs for those of you unfamiliar with them. Play up to bar 16 where you’ll see a double line with two dots. These indicate that you should go back to the earlier set of double bars (or, if there weren’t any, to the beginning). Then play from there straight through the bar lines and on to where it says D.S. al coda – indicating to go back to the squiggle (bar 5) up to where it says Da coda. From there you jump straight to the mod-style target at bar 32 for the classic ‘and many moooooo-re‘ ending.

A very good week for ukulele performances. I usually try to restrict myself to four or five videos. Couldn’t do it this week.

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Jake Shimabukuro is to release a new EP entitled My Life. The tracklist includes Over The Rainbow, In My Life, Going to California and Time After Time. Via Honalulu Advertiser. Pre-order on Amazon.

La Blogotheque has a series of beautifully shot videos Daniella ‘Rio En Medio‘ Stech-Homsy singing and ukeing in the streets of Paris.

Musicguymic has the new and strangely shaped KoAloha Sceptre. Quite possibly the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.

MP3 Blogs: Not Quite Rocket Science offers up a podcast full of charming lo-fi uke songs from the likes of Magnetic Fields, Jakob Borshard and Beirut. While Songs:Illinois presents mp3s from occult banjolele playing psychic Madame Pamita and Cover Freak has a list of the top 5 ukulele cover versions.

Amy Crehore has produced her first art ukulele.

A collection of rare and unusual Flukes and Fleas.

Nellie McKay is to provide a ukulele version of PS I Love You for the forthcoming film of the same name.

Another picture in the Lewis Carroll machete series. (Thanks to Rufus).

The nominees for the Mercury Music Prize were announced yesterday and, despite the lack of ukuleles, it’s a strong line-up. It’s the only event in the year I gamble (and lose) on and this year my money is on Bat For Lashes.

Playing the harpsichord riff on the uke demonstrates just how useful the re-entrant tuning can be sometimes.

By giving each note it’s own string you can let the notes ring into each other recreating the sound of the original much more effectively.

Buy Fur & Gold US UK

Elephant Gun was annoying to work out as the original version is played on a uke tuned a semitone sharp (g#C#FA#). I decided to notate the chords as if the uke was in standard C-tuning. If you want to play along and don’t want to re-tune or use a capo, you can play along with this live version (or the many others on YouTube) which is in standard tuning.

To get the opening bars to sound right, start by strumming downwards twice, concentrating on the 3rd and 4th strings. Then strum upwards concentrating on the 1st and 2nd strings. Do this twice on the Am. Then, on the D7, strum in a similar way but hammering on from open strings on the first strum.

A quick aside, I’ve tweaked the tab (but not the chords) for Postcards from Italy. So if you grabbed it first time you might want to check back.

More Beirut on Uke Hunt

Buy Lon Gisland

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MIDIs: Duet, Ukulele 1, Ukulele 2

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve listened to this tune more than any other over the course of my life. Yet I didn’t even know what it was called until I started researching for this post. The tune is variously called Korobeiniki, Korobeyniki, Korobushka, The Peddlers and ‘that plinky-plonky Tetris music’. The lyrics of the song (written by one Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov in the 19th Century) tell of a young stable-boy who was obsessed with arranging different shaped straw bales as they dropped from the sky.

This duet divides the parts up fairly evenly. The first ukulele takes the main melody and the second plays a counter melody. I’d suggest that you repeat it more than is indicated in the tab, speeding up each time until you’re going at a frantic pace at the end.

“But,” I hear some of you cry, “I have no friends.” No worries. I’m working on a solo version so stay tuned.

Update: The solo tab is here: Tetris (solo)

Thieves of Kailua (mp3)

On The Waikiki (mp3) via Mill Pond Records

Thieves of Kailua MySpace

It’s a typical English summer; I’m up to my elbows in flood water. At times like this I grab my ukulele, close my eyes, put on some suitably tropical music and imagine I’m sat on a Hawaiian beach. My fantasy may be eased a little further next week by the release of Jason Holstrom’s Tiki-resurrecting solo project The Thieves of Kailua.

There’s precious little in Holstrom’s previous work to suggest he was a laid-back uke player. He was a founder member of United States of Electronica and a knob-twiddler for the likes of Aqueduct. But a trip to Hawaii with his future wife obviously woke something in him.

The record was made entirely by Holstrom over three years in his bedroom-studio. Which makes the clear harmonies, rumbling percussion and large sound all the more impressive. More than enough to keep me happy as I rust in the summer rain.

Buy Thieves of Kailua US UK

12th Street Rag (MIDI)

12th Street Rag has long been a uke favourite and it seems to be very popular at the moment. Gary at Ukulelia wants to learn the Lightnin’ Wells version (above) and a number of people wanting a simpler version on Ukulele Cosmos. So I decided to knock together a version of 12th Street Rag stripped to its bare minimum. The idea is not that you play it this way, but that you take this and give it your own twist. Read the rest of this entry »

The week’s best uke videos after the cut.

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