The imminent arrival of Charlie Connelly‘s new book about Ireland has obviously got me excited as this week includes two Irish troubadours – Vertigo Smyth and Peter Delaney – displaying plenty of glum-fun.

Also this week: Katie Herzig (making very effective use of the dual ukes), some Indian/hair-rock fusion (*resists the temptation to comment on the Eleuke contest*) and any week Agathe and Fine make a new video it’s going to be my favourite of the week.

And do watch Gina&Stones if you haven’t yet. Even Lily Allen is tweeting about it.

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There’s a long history of ukulele makers putting famous people’s names on a ukulele in the hope of bumping sales from the Roy Smeck with Harmony and Arthur Godfrey with Vega to Jake Shimabukuro with Kamaka and Joe Brown with Kala. Connecting all these people is the fact that they are, or were, famous. aNueNue have gone down a different route and created signature ukuleles for people who, I think it’s safe to say, can safely walk down the street without constant boob-signing requests: Manitoba Hal, Gerald Ross, Steven Sproat and, most recently, The Re-entrants.

It’s an interesting tactic. As much as I like the Re-entrants, I’m not too keen on having a ukulele with either of their names emblazoned on it. With aNueNue being a new brand, I think the aim of it may be to increase awareness of them by associating them with some players well respected in the uke world rather than selling these particular ukes.

All of which raises a few questions for you to answer in the comments: Do these signature models make you more likely to buy an aNueNue? Who should aNueNue sign up? And, should aNueNue come a-knocking, what would your signature ukulele look like?

Some weeks there’s not much going on.

Gina&Stones will explode your brain with sexy. Games’s over, go home, they just won the internet.

Paul Smith designer ukulele. And here’s the man himself with it (thanks to Paul).

UOGBfrogsfan interview the UOGB.

Kate Micucci has landed another cute ukulele girl sitcom role.

Tally’s song about How I Met Your Mother is going to be on their DVD (and she should have asked for more money).

Pictures: Sous Bois Richealieu, Sib et son Martin Style 0, American Eagle, Joele..ed mio cappello, painted uke.

This is probably my favourite ukulele song from last year. And it’s an excellent song to start practising your fingerpicking. There are just two strings involved (E and A) and the rhythm is constant. Pluck the E string with your thumb and A string with your index finger. Other than that, just a lot of sliding around.

In bars 24 and 28 I really wanted to tab 7 – 9 – 7 – 9 rather than 7 – 8 – 7 – 8 because the 8 is very discordant. But I’m fairly sure that’s what she’s playing (it’s a noisy part of the song anyway so can get away with either).

You can download it for free on Amazon and buy their other stuff there too.

Download Podcast #2 here

Bossa has done another knock-out job with the podcast this month with tracks from very familiar people (the UOGB and Sebi) to people I’d never heard of. Highlight of the episode is a live session from knitter and ukulele-donker David Leach. And do listen to the end because the last track is a killer.

You can download the podcast above (you have to click through to the page) or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes by clicking here (or search iTunes for ‘uke hunt’). A big thanks to everyone who has rated and commented on the podcast. We really appreciate it.

You can also subscribe with the Podcast RSS feed by adding it to Google or adding it to My Yahoo!.

You can find a full list of the podcasts here.

Tracklist:

1. The Corner Laughers – For the Sake of the Cat

2. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Anything is Beautiful Which

3. The Moody Gowns – Treat Me As You Treat Your Wife

4. Sebi – Youtubers United!

5. Matt Griffo – Pandas Are Cute

6. Tiger Mendoza – Never Be the Same (Applejack Mix)

David Leach live session + interview:

7. Twenty Two

8. Forgotten Summer

9. Ready for It

Also check him out on Soundcloud & Etsy

10. Chonkinfeckle – Nothing Like That

11. Adriaen van der Moer – Ukulele Jam

12. The Love Leighs – Texas Woman Song

13. The Aposematics – Red Shoes

14. The Joker & the Thief – Primrose

15. Lemos – Alice

People who get things done sicken me. In the time I spend procrastinating over writing a short blog post, Cosmo Jarvis will have written and directed a short film, and composed and played the music for it and, I expect, have rustled up some galantine de faisan chaidfroid for the crew (check out He Only Goes Out on Tuesday). Handsome, talented bastard.

Job one for playing this song: tune down half a step to F# B Eb Ab.

Suggested Strumming

For the verse, d – d u – u d u. Once for the chords C to F and twice for G and Dm.

Then for the chorus throw in a chnk.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s my attempt and put the various recorder riffs onto two ukes. These ukes are also tuned down half a step.

Recorder Riffs

Buy it on iTunes

Requested by Fraser and Alissa.

Nickel Creek have always been too smooth and nicey-nicey for my tastes. So I’ve been a bit slow in picking up on Sara Watkins. But she is incredible. This song had me in tears.

Also up this week: Dala (who are being supported/blown off the stage by Ukulelezo in a couple of weeks), Nigel Burch and his banjolele (who may be unwelcome on the London Underground but are very welcome here) and plenty more.

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Kala have a new and very stylish wood and leather ukulele stand. A bit more expensive than your usual stand.

Prototype Mainland banjo-ukulele.

Some nice vintage ukuleles around this week: Weissenborn #10 concert ukulele, Ernest Kaai, Kumalae.

Boy and girl with ukuleles.

Banjoleles banned from the London Underground for being, “undesirable”.

Jimmy from the Bobby McGee’s proved the intellectual superiority of ukulele players when he appeared on the Weakest Link (watch it on iPlayer).

Abatab is an interesting new site where indie artists can sell tabs. It’s only been up a month so there’s not a great deal there yet. But you can buy stuff by Bess Rogers and pick up tab and an MP3 of Kelli Rae Powell’s Don’t Slow Down Zachary free.

Helen Arney leads a gathering of ukulele players at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Sophie Madeleine is raising money for her latest album. And you can get a snippet in the background of Spike Milligan’s home movie.

The Fake Ukulele Orchestra have put up their side of the story, “It has been said that we are advertising our orchestra by using their pictures and material. This is totally wrong and we refute this unequivocally.” But here is one of their dates being advertised as being the UOGB (hat-tip to minusuke on the Cosmos). On the upside, suspicions about the lead singer proved to be well founded.

787.89 – Ukuleles and the Dewey Decimal System.

For balance, Hot Boys with Ukuleles – much more challenging than the hot girls blog I’d wager.

Sam Fox on Beatles Complete on Ukulele.

Jimmy Fallon finds ukulele music annoying when you’re trying to get work done.

Simon Cowell has banned I’m Yours from X-Factor.

Ukuleles help kill the planet (via Bossa).

MP3: who the bloody hell are they? has Darren Hanlon’s All These Things.

Pictures: Sandy Low (from this page), bird ukuleles.

With the hat, the class, the relaxed air of mischief, if Top Cat had lived in the 30s he’d certainly have been a uke player. But he was around in the 60s when no-one played the uke – there’s not even one in the Hawaiian episode. Nevertheless, the theme tune is crying out for a ukulele arrangement. A lot of jazzy turns in there – which do make it quite tricky to play.

There’s a lot of switching between picking, melody strums and supporting strums (in brackets in the tab) – which is probably best picked up by watching the video.