There’s a lot of talk about the ukulele making the world a better place. But one person who is really walking the walk is Laurie Kallevig. She set up and runs the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band which works with survivors of human trafficking in India.

They’re currently Kickstarting a CD. The Kickstarter ends on the 2nd October and at the time of writing they’ve raised $6,400 of the $8,500 they need. If they don’t hit the goal they don’t get any of the money. So please do back them here if you can.

I caught up with Laurie to find out more about the project.

UPDATE: I just got this message from Laurie: “Just in, an anonymous donor will match all new and increased pledges on survivor girl ukulele band — the cd kickstarter up to $1000!!!” So if you get in quick any amount you pledge is going to be doubled.

What inspired you to start the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band Project?

Years ago I was traveling in Nepal and learned that each year thousands of rural village girls are tricked into leaving home with promises of a good job in India only to whisked across the border, sold into a brothel, and forced into prostitution.

This really bothered me, but I didn’t have any way to get involved. Years passed but often I thought of those girls. Then in the middle of the night I woke up with the words “rescue and restore” in my head, and I knew I had to get involved.

I went to India and volunteered in the communications department of a number of organizations. And then one day I brought a guitar out to the field. What a blast! We sang a few songs and then the girls rushed up to hold the guitar, to strum it, and to ask how it works.

I knew I couldn’t teach those small girls how to play a big guitar. So I decided to get a ukulele, learn how to play it, and then bring a bunch of ukuleles back to India and start a survivor girl ukulele band. And that’s what I did!!

My main goal is to show these girls love. And ukulele is a great vehicle for that love.

Can you tell us a little about the problem of human trafficking in the area and what the girls have been through?

The average age of a trafficked girl is thirteen. And the numbers are staggering in India, where an estimated 500,000 underage girls have been forced into the commercial sex trade. There are many ways girls are tricked and forced into prostitution. Often they sold by family member or friend.

The most vulnerable come from poverty and have very little education. Some girls have been abandoned or orphaned. Some girls are HIV positive. Some girls are aggressive. But they all need love and opportunity.

One student said to me, “In my life, nothing good has ever happened to me. And then you came. Why didn’t you come sooner?”

What impact does learning ukulele have on the girls?

There are so many positives in learning ukulele. They learn how to keep a beat, how to play with a partner, and to play in a group. All the while, they are learning how to learn.

And these girls, who are often seen as the bottom of their society — when they learn something new, and practice and practice, and then get to perform it for an audience, wow! it’s so uplifting and empowering. After a big performance, one of the girls said, “I’m not alone anymore. I’m part of a band!”

Where can we learn more about your project?

There are some great stories and photos at my blog, workingdraft.me, and there’s a lovely article written by Audrey Colemen in the Winter 2016 issue Ukulele Magazine.

What are your plans and wishes for the future of SGUB?

I’d love to have ukulele people from around the world learn about Survivor Girl Ukuele Band Project — and join the baaand!

Right now I’m focusing on “Survivor Girl Ukulele Band — the CD”, and have brought about fifteen of my students in to the recording studio in Kolkata to record ukulele and vocals for four original songs. Sounds simple enough, but it was really really a challenge on so many levels. And so if we can get that funded and completed — it will serve as a huge accomplishment for the girls who have participated and also as a major inspiration for new students.

In addition, this last spring, I hired a former student to expand Survivor Girl Ukulele Band Project to two small shelter homes in Kolkata. This is her first real job, and she’s my first employee! And next year I hope to expand the project to another large shelter home in Kolkata and maybe hire another former student.

I’d love to keep expanding the project through former students who then become teachers. My plans and wishes include launching girls who have almost no education into dignified and creative and fun careers — bringing restoration and hope to other survivor girls through the healing power of music and love. Wouldn’t that be awesome?!

You can find out more about the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band at SGUB.org and, even more importantly, help them out and back their Kickstarter here.

Charles Bradley – Dusty Blue (Tab)

I had to make a change to the scheduled chord post to pay tribute to the incredible soul singer Charles Bradley who died last week. Bradley spent most of his life in complete obscurity as the singer in a James Brown tribute act until the incomparable Daptone Records picked him up and released his debut album in 2011 at the age of 62. The album contained some of the most powerful and heartfelt soul music of the decade and made him an almost instant soul legend.

But most pertinent here is the ukulele track Dusty Blue from his second album with the Menahan Street Band (a track that later popped up on Suits). It’s one of the few ukulele-led soul tracks out there. If you watch careful you can see the studio ukulele in the Charles Bradley documentary Soul of America.

I recorded a version of Dusty Blue a few years ago but never got around to posting the tab. So here, at last, it is.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More soul tabs and chords

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

More sad news, I’m afraid. Singer and ukulelist with Those Darlins, Jessi Zazu has died of cervical cancer at the age of 28.

New Releases
– Wilfried Welti has just released a new tab ebook of tunes by Renaissance composer Tielman Susato.
– Phredd has another barrel-of-fun kids’ album out Ukulele Awesomesauce.
– The Burning Glass Happiness is Egg Shaped.

Kickstarting
– Tyrone and Leslie are raising funds for a new album Optimism.
– The Survivor Girl Ukulele Band is an excellent charity teaching ukulele to young survivors of human trafficking in India. You can back the Kickstarter for their album.

Burning Man had its own emergency ukulele station with a familiar looking logo (via Ukulelia).

Continuing this week’s Kitty Lux tributes with a live UOGB favourite: The Dam Busters March by Eric Coates. This isn’t a direct tab of their version but is heavily influenced by it.

I’ve divided up the duties in the piece so that each ukulele part has a different skill level. If you’ve got more players in your group you can divide these up further or devise your own complementary parts.

Lead Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Lead Tab)

A load of tricky sections in this part (yet somehow it was the easy section at the end I managed to screw up in the video). The hardest section are the rapid-fire notes and moves up and down the neck in bars 40-44. But all the way through the first half there are bits that might trip you up. Luckily, things are much more stately in the second half.

I’m using fingerpicking to play this part. But it’s arranged in more of a UOGB than my usual style so it’s easier to play with a pick.

If, like me, you have no friends here’s a backing track to play this part along with:

Backing Track (MP3)

Baritone Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Baritone Tab)

The baritone tone is a little easier than the lead part. It’s mainly a simplified version of the lead part played an octave lower. The biggest challenges are the descending runs in bars 13 – 16 and bars 40-44.

Again, I’m playing this with my fingers but it’s arranged so it’s easy to play with a pick too.

Rhythm Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Rhythm Tab)

I’ve kept this part as simple as possible. It’s all played with down-strums and it’s almost all beginner level chords.

There are a couple of slightly unusual sections where I’m just playing the top three strings. I’m playing these by strumming down with my thumb to give them a softer, rounder sound. But you don’t have to do that. And if you want to play all the strings it happens to be the second fret on the g-string that’s missing in every case.

Guitar/Bass

Dam Busters March (Guitar/Bass Tab)

I’m playing this part on guitar but I’ve only used the bottom four strings so you can transfer it directly to bass if you prefer.

Here you’re playing staccato quarter notes almost all the way through. The one challenge is the descending run in bars 13-16.

Links

Buy the UOGB version
More UOGB tabs and chords

The death of founding Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain member Kitty Lux leaves a huge hole in the ukulele world. The UOGB set the template for the current ukulele revival 25 years before it started. As well as establishing the ukulele as a sociable, group instrument they expanded the uke’s repertoire to include everything from classical to funk. As well as carrying on the tradition of the likes of Ukulele Ike and George Formby by combining a respect for musicianship with keen sense of the ridiculous.

Lux’s music career started when she was art student in Leeds. She was a member of various punk bands including Sheeny and the Goys (whose song Ever Such Pretty Girls the UOGB recorded for their album of punk covers) and the excellently named Severed Head and the Neck Fuckers. And went on to post-punk band Really with original UOGB bassist Dave Bowie (not that one) and later UOGB co-founder George Hinchliffe.

When Lux and Hinchliffe formed the UOGB 1985 the ukulele was as far from popularity as it would get. When Marty McFly travelled back to 1955 he’d be able to watch Arthur Godfrey teaching ukulele on primetime TV. When he went forward to 2015 he could walk into a pub and seen a room of people Johnny B Goode-ing it up on the uke and find the ukulele LaserDiscs piled high out back. But in 1985 the only ukulele was barely known outside of Hawaii and the George Formby Society.

The Orchestra’s membership shifted around through the 80s and 90s as the group developed a repertoire of covers and original material. You can hear many Lux/Hincliffe originals on the 1989 album Hearts of Oak. Including some revealing in the Uke's artsy side like the slide ukulele and poetry number Anything is Beautiful Which.

But it’s for their covers that they UOGB are best know. Kitty described what made a good song for the Ukes like this:

We say that the ukulele is a good bullshit detector, if a song is weak then the ukulele reveals this. A bad song can be dressed up and made to seem good with lots of effects and a big production but the ‘stripped down’ ukulele treatment let’s you know if the song is good musically or not.

As the band’s lineup settled in the 90s their popularity increased and they were soon performing all over the world. Culminating in record-quick sell-out performance at the Albert Hall as part of the usually high-brow and serious Proms. A performance Lux gave only shortly after receiving a kidney transplant.

In a band often known for its comedic moments, Lux’s performances provided a beautiful counterpoint with her warm, earnest singing. She particularly shone on traditional songs such as those on the much underrated collection of traditional songs The Keeper.

The ukulele has benefited from the support a long line of women musicians. From Queen Lili’uokalani, through Mae Singhi Breen and Tessie O’Shea. Kitty Lux joins these legends with her contribution to reminding people of the music that can be made on the uke and the fun that can be had with it.

In tribute to Kitty Lux, this week is going to be dedicated to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Starting with the live favourite: Lou Reed’s Satellite of Love.

For this write-up I used the version on their Live in London #1 album.

Suggested Strumming

For the main strum you can use:

d – d u – u d u

Intro: Once for each chord. Like this:

Strum 1

Verse: Same as the intro in the first two lines. Then on Em play:

d – d u d –

One down strum on D. Then back to the main strum.

Strum 2

Chorus: One strum pattern for each chord. Then on the last line one down strum per chord.

Middle: Play d – d u once for each chord. Except the G at the end of the second and fourth lines where you can play d – d u d u d u.

Twiddly Bits

At the end of each G-A7-C-D progression there’s a very clever pair of interlocking lines. One rising and one falling. I think the rising line is played using George’s mandolin tuning and falling line is played on baritone. But here’s my take on it using two standard tuned ukes.

Lick

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More UOGB tabs and chords

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

Founding member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Kitty Lux has died at the age of 59. Kitty made a huge contribution to the ukulele world and the current scene wouldn’t be the same without her. I’m sure all ukers will join me in sending love to her family and to her bandmates.

Videos

– Adam Savage records a ukulele song at Jack White’s Third Man Records.
– Deaf ukulelist, Mandy Harvey has made it to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent.
– Martin 5K assessed on Kentucky Collectibles.
– The Game of Thrones band.

Ukes
– The Art on a Ukulele project has revealed all the ukes that will be up for auction to aid The Hepatitis C Trust. I got myself a plectrum painted by Andrew Galbraith.
– RIGuitars ’85 BC Rich ukulele.

With there already being plenty of Beatles ukulele material around, I tend to avoid adding to the pile. But I couldn’t resist having a go at adapting the gorgeous picking of Blackbird for ukulele. I love the rising and falling lines. Particularly the chromatic rise and fall on the E-string in bars 5-8 of the tab.

It’s a challenging piece to play on the uke. There’s plenty of movement up and down the neck and some tricky picking. There are also loads of time signature changes in the song. But none of them are jarring. So if you know the song well they’re going to feel natural.

My arrangement uses thumb and two finger picking almost all the way through. There are two main patterns:

– The pattern in bar 1 alternating index and middle fingers (picking the E- and A-strings respectively) and the thumb picking the g-string.
– The pattern in bar 2 where the thumb alternates between the g- and C-strings.

There are 2 big exceptions. One is the picking is in bars 6 and 21. For those I’m alternating by thumb between the g- and E-strings. the other is bars 32-34 where I switch to strumming.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More Beatles tabs and chords