Buke, UKEit and Ukulele Hero T-Shirts
July 18, 2008
The baritone ukulele site Buke has been shut down. It did have a note saying it was for copyright reasons (which makes me nervous). I tried to email Roger to find out more, but his email wasn’t working. It’s a real shame to see it go. Anyone know any more?
With the recent UKEit festival, it’s clear good things are happening with the ukulele in Italy. You can pick up a CD of Italian ukulele acts. And there’s an Italian blog with uke chords here including Pink Martini and Hank Williams (don’t scroll too far down if you want to keep things entirely work safe).
A batch of Bluegrass ukulele tabs on Uker Tabs from Ken Middleton.
Treat yourself to a Ukulele Hero T-Shirt (or a Kazoo Hero T-Shirt if that’s more your speed).
UPDATE: Thanks to Jan for pointing out you can get a 25% discount if you sign up on this page (plenty more ‘Hero’ style tees on there too).
Nellie McKay plays her ukulele for TED (Thanks to Paul, Garatth and Catherine from SUJ).
Friend of Uke Hunt, Heather will be hosting a ukulele special on her show on CJSR tonight at 6 p.m., MST. You can listen live here or listen again here (find Q Transmissions).
Hoosierhiver tells you why your ukulele won’t stay in tune.
Mirah’s new album, The Old Days Feeling, is more than a little bit brilliant. There are three uke tracks (Dreamboat, Take Me Out Riding and Birthday Present) and you can download Lone Star free on Amazon.
Map of Bosko and Honey’s Ukulele Safari.
Mike McCready (of Pearl Jam) has a page of ukulele tabs on his site including Soon Forget and The Who’s Blue, Red, Grey. (Thanks to Daniel)
Cool Hand Uke’s iPhone ringtones.
MP3s: New track, Megaman 9, from Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra, Allo, Darlin on Indietracks, Herohill has Jon and Roy’s High on a Hill.
This might be the reason God made sure there was plenty of distance between Hawaii and Australia.
Ukulele Evangelist, Chord Diagrams and other Ukulelinks
July 11, 2008
Friend of Uke Hunt, Todd’s new blog Ukulele Evangelist is off to a cracking start with posts on mid-priced ukuleles and an interview with the world’s handsomest ukulele blogger.
Mike debates the graphical representation of ukulele chords.
Langley Ukulele Ensemble visit Hawaii.
Amber ‘Ukebucket‘ Nash was featured in two newspaper articles this week. This is press intrusion of the worst kind. Let her have a life.
Ukulele MP3s: Linguistic Banter on Foggy ruins of Time.
Life on Mars on Uker Tabs.
Get ukulele chords on your Blackberry.
These dolls really are creepy.
Ukulele Links: Irish Uke Gathering, Julia Nunes Inspires Molly Ringwald
July 4, 2008
Last call for entries to the win a Kala Pineapple competition. It ends on Sunday.
Ireland will be having its first ukulele gathering in Dublin on August 9/10. Guest of honour will be Dan ‘Cool Hand Uke‘ Scanlan. If you’d like more info contact Tony Boland.
Italy’s first ukulele festival kicks off today with appearances by Bosco and Honey and James Hill.
Aldrine Guerrero releases his debut CD.
The Ten Commandments of Uke (via Ukulelia). And now that straps are verbotten, here’s the Catholic solution to a slipping ukulele.
Molly Ringwald was inspired to take up the ukulele by Julia Nunes (Noo-nez). That might be my favourite bit of news ever. Skip ahead to around 4:20. (Props to Uni for finding it).
Soldier’s Joy on Uker Tabs (Thanks Ken).
The Barnkickers are the deserving winners of Ukewarehouse’s video competition.
You really should be following Ukulele Hero. Half the news here has already been on there.
The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton writing their next album on ukulele.
Get yourself a free ukulele by having your YouTube videos sponsored. OK, that guy’s not much of a uke player, but I think that’s a pretty good idea for people whose videos get plenty of views. Bushman are the Bentley of ukuleles? I’d say they’re more the Ford Taurus of ukuleles.
The Independent on Sunday’s style guide favours the MJ Hibbett spelling of ‘ukelele’.
Ain’t nothing but a G thing. Who plays the G chord like that?
Re-entrant tuned guitar. I love Soukous, but I never realised some of them replace the D-string on the guitar with a high E-string tuned to D - giving it a ‘my dog has fleas’ style tuning. Diblooooooooooooooo!
Ukulele Orchestra on Radio 4 and more Links
June 27, 2008
Ukulele Tonya covers the Portland Ukulele Festival.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain interviewed on Radio 4 and written about in the Daily Express.
Todd talks to GUGUG on Folkster’s Findings.
The Rip by Portishead on Uker Tabs.
MP3s: Dent May on Fantastic Avenue, Tada Tátá on Swedesplease, Ain’t Superstitious, But has George Harrison’s Rising Sun.
“lately all I do is talk about my ukulele, but I honestly love it more than life. sometimes I just hold it to my heart and sigh because I love it so. I think maybe I’ll be a good mother if I love an instrument this much?” Quote from probably the coolest girl on the planet.
Cecil Myers the dealer with a heart.
Competitions, Buy a Ukulele, Ukulele Hero
June 20, 2008
Technical difficulties abound: It looks like there are a few problems with the RSS feed updating. The emails and the feed itself seem to be fine. If you resubscribe by clicking here, it does return the latest posts (hopefully). Also, there was a problem with the tab and chords page in Internet Explorer and now all the tabs and chords are on one page.
Just one day left to enter Ukewarehouse’s contest to win a ukulele. But still plenty of time to enter my Review Your Ukulele competition to win a Kala Pineapple.
There’s still work to do on it, but as of now the Buy a Ukulele section of the site is officially open. It’s been prettified and has a load of reviews of various ukuleles (gosh, a lot of people have Lanikai ukuleles).
If you can’t wait until Friday for your ukulele news fix, you should follow Ukulele Hero. He covers everything ukulele related on the web (and I mean everything).
YouTube had a front page covered in ukulele videos earlier this week, along with Ukulala on the YouTube blog and Aldrine on the LA Times blog.
Join JoCo on stage in NYC and uke-out.
Rush’s Closer to the Heart on Uker Tabs.
MP3s: Frekvens has Thos Henley, Stop Okay Go has Mareva Galanter’s version of Bang, Bang, Hero Hill has The Burning Hell and Popsense has Mirah’s Engine Heart.
UOoGB on the Beeb next Tuesday and Saturday. (Thanks to both Garys for that).
Worst film review ever: “Mad Dog Time should be cut into free ukulele picks for the poor.”
Windy City Ukulele Festival, Play Well With Others
June 13, 2008
I’m back a little early. There’s news to be newsed. Over the break I had to take the fancy rotating banner off the front of the site. It was bringing the whole site crashing down every couple of weeks so it had to go. It was very pretty but a whole heap of trouble (like a few girls I could mention).
Windy City Ukulele Festival details.
I’ve had a few people ask me various questions about playing with others and in uke groups but - being an anti-social loner who avoids human contact at all costs - I’ve never been much help to them. Now I can point them towards Play Well With Others. It’s a book and website giving advice on jamming which boasts endorsements from Janet Klein, Jim Beloff and Lil Rev. It’s also a handsome looking site.
Amy Crehore is selling 50 signed prints of ‘The Creature’. You can pick up yours here.
Seeso and Clara Belle featured on Boing Boing (thanks for the mention, Seeso).
MP3s: I’ve mentioned foggy ruins of time many times in this section. The guy behind it has released an EP, under the name Existential Hero, featuring his bariuke. You can download the whole thing here. songs:illinois has Jenny Jenkins.
Uke chords on posters: officially a good idea. Shelley ‘Uke Box’ Rickey features Kokomo on her poster (and some not safe for work material - what is it with ukes and nudity?)
Paul McCartney reprises his ukulele version of Something at the Anfield gig plus a quick burst of When I’m Washing [sic] Windows.
Isaac was a little disappointed not to win Ukulele Review’s contest and came up with this (inspired by Cyanide and Happiness). Click to enlarge.
Vote for the song you want Fin Raucous to play in his shed.
Rebekulele: a cross between a ukulele and a rebec.
George Formby’s uke, Bosko and Honey and Others
May 30, 2008
George Formby’s Abbott Monarch “Little Strad” banjolele (as used for recording When I’m Cleaning Windows along with many others) is up for auction at Bonhams in London next month. The estimate is £45,000 (via BBC). Also up for sale is a Dallas E banjolele formerly owned by both Formby and George Harrison (via Uncut).
Bosko and Honey talk about their Ukulele Safari on Ukulele Spotlight (mp3 link).
After a bit of lull with the Tribute to REM season, Le Soir is back on top form with decent performances from famous people like Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly and The Wombats; and great sessions from people I’ve never heard of like Timesbold and Cocoon.
There’s still a little time to enter Ukulele Review’s logo contest and plenty of time to enter Uke Warehouse’s video contest.
St Matthew Passion on the Ukulele(MP3 link).*
Does the size of your ukulele stop you showing it to a girl? UPDATE: He should read the Dating Advice from Ukulele Players (includes Uke Hunt faves Jen Kwok and Sweet Soubrette).
Chords for Queen’s Dont Stop Me Now courtesy of Andy.
*I spent so long working this one out the moment has long gone, still…
Ukulele Contest, Ukulele Yes!, IndieTracks
May 23, 2008
The UkeWarehouse is slowly winding up and is selling off his stock as cheap as he’s allowed to. Jason has also announced a competition to win a Kala Brand Mahogany Tenor (or a Lehua Soprano if you prefer). You can find out how to enter right here. He himself wins the prize of first person to bribe me. He’s offered me some stuff from his site which I’ll be giving away (if I can bear to jump on the bandwagon). Stay tuned for details.
Another ukulele competition. GX9901 of Ukulele Ghetto is giving away his Pono. You can find details on the UU forum.
James Hill is launching a new e-zine called Ukulele, Yes!. You can sign up for it on Ukulele in the Classroom (although I haven’t been able to get it to work or get any reply to email).
I’m not much of a festival goer, but I’m in serious danger of going to this year’s IndieTracks festival. It features a bunch of my favourite uke acts: The Bobby McGees (download one of their tracks here), ‘Allo Darlin’ (formerly The Darlings), Darren Hayman and MJ Hibbett (who seems to have been barred from the festival itself but has found a work around). Also on are The Wedding Present, Ballboy, Los Campesinos and a whole mess of bands I’m nowhere near hip enough to have heard of.
Bob, the world’s most punk ukulele player, now has his own site: Uke Rock.
John Mayer’s Heart of Life on Uker Tabs. Thanks to Nelson.
Guess which song is being played on the uke by The Wikimen on Spicks and Specks.
Article on Ukuleles for Peace.
Other festival news: Latitude has Learn to Play Ukulele in Under an Hour. It’s a comedy sketch show/ukulele lesson with Sam Brown (not Sam Brown daughter of Joe Brown), Donal Coonan (This Is A Knife) and Sally Phillips (Green Wing, Smack the Pony). Ukuleles will be provided.
Ukulele mp3s: The Richwoods have a bunch of top ukulele mp3s on their listen page, a ukulele protest song over newsreader Wendy Chioji, Dr Forrest has the Rutles’ My Little Ukulele and Ivor Biggun’s Formby take off (click the dancing cheese).
KoAloha’s blog. Not much there as yet. And I have no idea why they went with blogspot.
Ukulele in Waking Life (thanks to Minamin).
Dominic Howard from Muse with uke.
Ukulele quiz… erm… in Norwegian.
The UK’s answer to Jason Castro.
A couple of non-uke links: Soviet b-boys and full album covers revealed.
Friday Ukulinklinks
May 16, 2008
A new chord site on me: Benefield has a wide variety of uke chords from The Clash to Reverend Gary Davis. And a new tab site: Nappr with a number of game themes for ukulele and more.
Two gorgeous videos of Rio en Medio on her baritone ukulele on MP3.com.
New website from Lanikai. Some cool stuff on the site including Jason Mraz with his Lanikai and a couple of basic instruction booklets for download.
Cyndi Lauper on her ukulele: “Oh, I love that thing. I found a ukulele in Australia that has a metal top. It’s really loud and kind of fabulous.” (Thanks to Carol for spotting that one).
Ukulele mp3s: Tullycraft have a ukulele cover of one of their own songs, Under The Rotunda has The Acorns’ Brokered Heart, Good Soul Department has the Ice Cream Shout remix of Sound of Arrows’ Danger! and foggy ruins of time puts up Foreign Loren’s Seaside, We Collide.
On Uker Tabs: Anyone Else but You from Juno. And if you like the ukulele and the Juno soundtrack, you might want to give I Think I Love U by The Polaroid a listen.
Will.I.Am from Black Eyed Peas on u.ku.lele.
Ukulele nail care from Dr Trey.
Make a maraca for your ukulele.
Ukulele Brand Consultants. I do hope they’re a company specialising in consultancy for ukulele brands. I think I’d be good at that job. Unfortunately, they’re not hiring.
Friday Ukulinklinks
May 9, 2008
Craig Robertson talks about and demonstrates the dark side of the ukulele.
Acoustic Guitar magazine has a player profile of Jake Shimabukuro (thanks Hughy).
UAS sufferers now have their own support group: the UAS Society.
Gary at Ukulelia on how he designed Warren Buffett’s ukulele.
Another chance to win a ukulele. This time by creating a logo for Ukulele Review.
Ukulele mp3s: Another uke playing Coulton fan Donna Maciocia (thanks to Graeme), weePOP has an mp3 from their latest signing Wonder for All (and many others), The Driftwood Singers Present Lyle Ritz.
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