Monday Exposure: UKEit Volume Uno

Anyone who saw the clips from the UKEit Festival will know that Italy has a very healthy ukulele scene going on right now and it’s in no small part due to, radio and TV stars, Cappa & Drago. With their UKEit site, they’ve set out to, “create an original Italian ukulele scene, starting with those who have already mastered the instrument, working in the live scene and making records, as well as welcoming other artists from all sorts of musical backgrounds to experiment on the four strings.” And if the festival wasn’t enough to convince you they’ve really got something going on, then the CD UKEit Volume Uno should do they trick.

The album is packed with excellent performances. You might already be familiar with Veronica Sbergia and Max de Bernardi’s fantastic take on Se Stasera Sono Qui and, the Uncle Fester of the ukulele, Fabio Koryu Calabro. But there are also many acts on the CD that are completely new to me.

There’s a great variety of styles on the CD. Along with more traditional ukulele fare, there’s hip hop uke from Frankie Hi-NRG MC and Scampaforce sounding like Daft Punk’s long lost ukulele song. Other tandout tracks include Thomas Blackthorne’s cover of Tom Waits’s I Don’t Want To Grow Up (which, like all the tracks on the album, is sung in Italian), Cappo & Drago’s Paroxetina 20mg and
Enrico Farnedi’s Lena (which you can hear on his MySpace).

But highlight of the album is the incredible voice of Musica Nuda’s Petra Magoni covering Un Calpo Al Cuore (with Gaetano Cappa on uke duties) which, I should point out, isn’t anywhere near as far out as the performance in that video but just as wonderfully melodramatic.

I’m already looking forward to Volume Due.

Buy UKEit Volume Uno here.

If this is your first visit here, you can find the chords/tab in those posts by clicking on the song title in red.

Aldrine Guerrero, James Hill, Rachel Goodrich and more Videos

The boys and their fretboard wankery are back with avengeance this week with videos from James Hill, Aldrine Guerrero, Dominator, Takashi Nakamura and Bobby Tomei.

In other news, the Ukulele versus Major League Baseball campaign is gaining momentum.

Aldrine Guerrero - Bodysurfing

There are a bunch more UU tour videos here.

James Hill - Summertime

Aldrine, Ryan and Dominator - Reason

KokoKaina - The Meadow

Rachel Goodrich - If Your Mine

Takashi Nakamura - Spanish Guitar and Ukulele Battle

Ken Middleton - The Colosseum Hornpipe

Fabio Koryu Calabro - Zbylenka Tournée

Bobby Tomei - E Ku’u Morning Dew

Poopy Lungstuffing - Why Don’t You Do Right?

The Be Arthurs - Rock Your Body

UkeTubette

This week’s UkeTube is nothing but the girls (ah-ah-ah-ahh-ah-ah-ah). Including Anna Van Riel, Julia Nunes, Brittni Paiva and plenty more.

Click ‘more’ to watch them. [Read more]

Buke, UKEit and Ukulele Hero T-Shirts

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.