Lars Larsson’s Ukulele Video Showcase: Swedes on Ukes

Rigk Sauer’s Quickie Version of Swedish Ukulele Festival in Gothenberg

Jens Lekman
A man walks into a bar
You are the Light
Jens Lekman at “Ukulele-festivalen” Part 1

Bengt Nordfors
Net med ukulele I
Som folk g
Net med Josefssoon
Ode to Brother Anders
Bengt Nordfors on Swedish Nyckleharpa Keyed Harp(Old Swedish Instrument, for the curious):
Nyckelharpa á la Napoli
Bach on Nyckelharpa

Grushagen Bros
“Jag stÃ¥r över lagen” – I’m above the law
“AvgÃ¥!” — &mode=related&search=
The Fuglesang Song (Swedens first astronaut Christer Fuglesang is scheduled to go into space with the next space shuttle in december 2006. The Grushagen brothers wonder why. What has he done that is so bad? They can think of a lot of people they’d rather send into space, with a one way ticket.

Thomas Allander
AKA “ukulelemannen” ( The Ukulele Man) demonstrates a few of his rather special ukuleles at the Ukulele Festival in Stockholm 2007

The Ukulele Conspiracy in Helsinki 2007
Folsom Prison Blues

Swedish Art Video with ukulele background music
Andra Världskriget – Sanningen

Sweden Videos
Lappland (A German video of Northern Sweden)
Sweden (from Lappland in the North to Skane in the South)

And Finally…

News from the opposite end of the globe. New Zealand holds its first Ukulele Festival today. Players include James Hill, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, and Sione Aleki. You can watch a video of Hill and Aleki playing with, event organiser, Kevin Fogarty here.

Thanks to Tegan for the heads up on this one.

Friday Links

A series of video tutorials on strumming in French – but you’ll get the idea (thanks to Jeff for the heads up).

Midnight Ukulele Disco has come up with another winner this week with a session from Hailey Wojcik.

John Harris continues The Guardian’s championing of the ukulele. Apparently, Morrissey was a big fan of George Formby and The Smiths edition of The South Bank Show kicked off with Formby (and Morrissey is officially the only man ever to be more northern than George Formby).

Harris’ article also mentions the View whose lead singer, Kyle Falconer, this week turned up with uke. He arrived onstage to fill Amy Winehouse’s high-heeled shoes to sing Valerie with Mark Ronson. You can watch the whole performance here (the uke makes an entrance at about 1 hour 10 mins).

The ‘ukulele kills the recorder’ story trundled on and even made it onto Have I Got News For You.

Grab an mp3 of Jens Lekman doing a ukulele version of Your Arms Around Me (as well as other tracks) on False 45th.

Check out the completed Hula Girl and her tiny uke on Leeward Lounge.

Princess Maxima of the Netherlands gets the gift of uke (click on ‘NA’ for the big action).

No one will ever know.

A panda playing the ukulele.

U is for ukulele.

Monday Exposure: Jens Lekman

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Jens Lekman – La Strada Nel Bosco (mp3)
Jens Lekman – Tammy (mp3)
Jens Lekman – Run Away With Me (mp3) via jenslekman.com

The other day Jeff asked me about the Swedish uke scene and, after a brief period wondering if IKEA made ukuleles, I decided I had to feature Jens Lekman today.

The ukulele is big enough in Sweden to have a it’s own festival – which saw appearances by Lekman and James Hill – but Jens Lekman is Sweden’s biggest uke star by some distance. He has released two albums (When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog and Oh You’re So Silent Jens) which have launched him to indie darlingness. But it’s his E.P.s that are the real treat for uke fans. They are far more uke heavy than the albums and, better still, you can download a number of tracks for free from his website.

His latest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, has already been released in Sweden. But those of us elsewhere on the globe will have to content ourselves with the jaunty lead-off single Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo (possibly inspired by his two day spell as a bingo caller after he ‘retired’ from making music) until the album gets a global release in early October.

I’m working on a couple of Swedish folk tunes for the uke so stay tuned if that’s your bag.

Download even more tracks from Secretly Canadian

Pre-order Night Falls Over Kortedala US UK

Friday Links

400 kids and Jack Johnson attempt to break the record for most ukuleles played at once. See the video evidence here. The record may not last long. From what I can make out, the Yokohama Hawai’i Festival are planning to have 1,000 people ukeing at once this weekend. Someone should tell the San Diego Ukulele Festival – they’re attempting to break the same record but only had about 300 visitors last year.

Oscar Schmidt (Washburn) are releasing six new ukuleles including this reproduction of the 1920s bell ukulele.

A review of Beyond the Break (7 Dances for Ukulele) which features music from Jake Shimabukuro. The ukulele outshines the dancing. “For though plenty of excitement came out of the speakers, there was little fizz in the dancing. Make that no fizz. “While Shimabukuro was tearing up his tiny strings… the eight dancers in assorted slacker-wear moped about in a laconic fog.”

whiteboydancefloor has a track from the forthcoming album by Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala and a cover of Agnetha ‘ABBA’ Faltskog.

Join the campaign to get a Hollywood star for Ukulele Ike.

Hear a 13-tone equal-temperament ukulele i.e. the octave is divided into thirteen equal frets rather than twelve.

Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra has three new computer game related tracks.

Ukulele brings politicians together.

Transsexual escort’s tale of new ukulele acquisition.