Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele – Love Song 2009 (Chords)
November 19, 2009
Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele – Love Song 2009 (Chords)
You have to be comfortable with a very high level of camp to play a cowboy Fluke. I think Dent May is the man for that job.
Requested by Fiona.
Dent May, Craig Chee, Sebi: Saturday UkeTube
November 7, 2009
Fewer videos than usual this week. Must be down to me being in a bad mood. I wasn’t even keen on Sophie Madeleine’s new one at first (it grew on me). And I dragged down the average by uploading five videos of my own.
If you want you fill-up of music, here are a few excellent non-uke videos:
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears – Bobby Booshay
Lindi Ortega – I Never Loved a Man…
Tripping Lily – The Little Black Dress
[Read more]
Ken Middleton, Jake Wildwood: Friday Links
June 5, 2009
Ken Middleton has released his first ukulele ebook: 12 Tunes for Bluegrass Ukulele. If you’ve been following his videos and his tabs, you’ll know he makes great arrangements and this ebook is definitely no exception.
Last chance to sign up for my How to Play Fingerpicking Ukulele mini-course – it’ll be taken down tomorrow (Saturday).
Jake Wildwood has a new album out and you can download it for free on his website.
The London Uke Festival people are keeping tight-lipped about who’s on the bill. They have a couple of acts listed here. My team of private investigators reveal the expected presence of The Bobby McGee’s, Joe Brown, The Re-Entrants, The Sugarsnap Sister (including Tricity Vogue and Cousin Alice) and a “smattering” of the UOGB. But the most interesting part for me is that I’ve always felt there’s a big disconnection between the London ukulele scene and the online ukulele scene. So it’d be nice to get together and be one big family. Or, failing that, have a Sharks-vs-Jets style dance-fight. If you’re feeling generous, you can sponsor my part in the festival here.
If you missed Dent May’s debut EP first time around, you’ve got a second chance to download it here. And you can watch a performance and interview from SXSW.
Armelle’s fascinating trip around the world of ukulele languages continues with Girls Aloud in Latin and a trip to Oceania. You can catch up with the full list here.
At the risk of starting a bidding war between Emily and Zoe, last week’s moustache ukulele is available to buy here.
This new uke website has popped up. Not much there yet but thought I better mention it before I forget.
Build your own ukulele speakerdog (via Ukulelia).
KDUS has animals doing people things – including playing the uke.
I usually only link to photos I can say something droll about. But I’m linking to these because they’re rather beautiful and they give me a light boner*: You might sleep, but you’ll never dream, Untitled, Ukulele.
*Yes, that link is safe for work. What’s going on in your head?
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Meet Me in the Garden (Chords)
February 19, 2009
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Meet Me in the Garden (Chords)
Looks like I’m going to be doing a Beirut on the Dent May album, The Good Feeling Music of….
The album version of Meet Me in the Garden has the uke turned down and guitar and Gainsbourg-ness turned up compared to the demo version but with the 6th and major 7 chords it still keeps a very island theme.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
For the Eb6 and B7M chords:
d – x u d – x u x u x u d u d u
The x’s are chnks (bring the underside of your strumming hand down on the strings to mute them).
For ‘Out by the pond…’:
d – x – u d u
for Eb6 and F6 and just d u d u … for the G.
Ukulelinks: Ukulele MP3s
February 13, 2009
Lots of ukulele MP3s: Pitchfork has a track from the tUnE-YaRdS (you can pick up the album on a ‘pay what you like’ basis here – it’s very good) and Dent May’s new video. A new instrumental from Bosco and Honey with Gensblue. New EP from Existential Hero (aka Steven Ray Morris of Foggy Ruins of Time). The Obama ukulele songs keep coming, this time from Jon Braman. Masters of Song Fu #3 features uke songs from Molly ’sweetafton23′ Lewis, Mike Bordet and Jutze Schult (and a non-uke track from Garfunkel and Oates). If the thought of four years worth of Beatles covers on the ukulele doesn’t make you want to punch your ears into your brain, check out this blog.
Bette Midler strums out on Loose Women (Warning: may contain traces of Leslie Garrett). And, no, I wasn’t watching this live. And anyone who tells you that I was because Loose Women is my favourite show and I’ve been in the audience three times is lying.
Send your valentine a ukulele ecard and subtly hint they should be more loose with their wallet and less loose with their tongue.
Lily Allen’s The Fear on Uker Tabs.
Jake does an informercial for Analysis Plus cables (and he isn’t kidding about them being “pretty pricey”: Holy crap!).
Tripping Lily’s Monica Rizzio officially uke crush #1
The DEA try to prosecute ukuleles on trumped up charges. “INTELLIGENCE ALERT – COCAINE IN A UKELELE” (about halfway down the page). May I refer the court to Photos 15 and 16 which clearly show a charango. Case dismissed.
Dr J does some interesting audio-nerd analysis on the Grammys. Apparently, Taylor Swift wins at microphones. She obviously knows a thing or two about sound quality; she’s a uker.
The always fiercely contested ukuleles and homemade flower-trousers round of Mr Tahiti.
Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele – You Can’t Force A Dance Party (Chords)
February 12, 2009
Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele – You Can’t Force A Dance Party (Chords)
I’ve been enjoying The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele (despite a bit of demoitis one some of the tracks). Some very welcome straight-faced ukulele pop to pass the time while Stephin Merritt plays other instruments. Particularly good is the album’s standout track is You Can’t Force A Dance Party.
Nothing much to worry about with the chords.
Strumming Pattern Suggestion
Once the song gets going, here’s a strum that will get you through:
d – d – - u d u
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Oh, Paris! (Chords)
January 18, 2009
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Oh, Paris! (Chords)
Awards season is upon us and time for scatter-shot awards for my favourite things from last year with a category structure loosely based on that of the Smash Hits Poll Winners’ Party.
This years winner of the 2008 Noah & the Whale ‘God are you only getting into them now? I was into them aaaaaages ago’ Award for Breakthrough Uke Act is Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele. The MP3 blogs have been getting their dingles in a tizzy over him the last few months, but us ukers have been loving him since 2007.
So, after a long wait, Dent’s debut album The Good Feeling Sound of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele is coming out in February and it’s sure to be a smash hit.
Friday Ukulelinks
October 17, 2008
A big thanks to everyone who’s written to me saying nice things about How to Play Blues Ukulele. I’m completely knocked out by how well it’s been received. There was one small hitch, a couple of the examples got lost somewhere. If you bought the ebook – you should have an email from me. If not, you can download them here:
That caused a bit of a mix up with a few of the track titles as well (the file names are correct but Examples 15 – 33 had the wrong names in the MP3). Sorry for any confusion caused.
On to the real uke news…
The US version of the ad for Wii ukulele. Just as bad as Wii ukulele ad #1.
Ukulele Tonya has a write up of the Wine Country Ukulele Festival and Uke Gal has one in the works. A few videos of the festival have cropped up and James Hill and Ralph Shaw’s unusual duet is my favourite so far.
Chord charts for those weird people who are either left-handed or play baritone (or both).
Songsheet Generator: I couldn’t get the chord shapes to show in ukulele mode, but you might be more successful.
Buy an Amy Crehore t-shirt between now and Halloween and get a signed drawing – dang, wish I’d have waited.
Peter Delaney’s EP Duck Egg Blue is now available outside of Ireland and Oslo. You can pick it up on his MySpace (which I’ve just done).
Strange ukuleles all over the place in this photo.
Lock your doors, the ukulele killer is on the loose.
Dent May’s debut album announced.
Learn CSS with the ukulele. Everybody now, “H1 curly bracket property colon value semi-colon curly bracket…“
James Hill, Dent May, Erin Lang and More Videos
February 16, 2008
James Hill and his imaginary friends, Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele, bolomusic and his two necks and plenty more.
[Read more]
Monday Exposure: Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele
October 8, 2007
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Meet Me In The Garden (mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – When You Were Mine (Prince Cover)(mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Howard (mp3) via MySpace
‘Magnificent Ukulele’ is no idle boast; Dent May is my new favourite ukulele songwriter.
Irresistible 60’s melodies and harmonies, 80’s ‘bumblebee in jam jar’ keyboards, a uke strumming away and a MySpace plastered with Jacques-Henri Lartigue photos. There’s nothing about him I don’t love.
Except his website consists of one line of Times New Roman. But that’s promised to change as he’s going to be giving away his EP A Brush With Velvet. I’m going to be checking back there regularly and I suggest you do the same.
Update: You can download Dent May’s EP, A Brush With Velvet, from his MySpace.
