Tracklist
Le Temps d’une étincelle – L’ Endroit d’ou? l’on Vient
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Greener
Sage Harrington – What'll I Do
Arya Dhayal – Margazhi poove to Hindolam
Olga Kochetova and Evgen Kurenko – Romance Via @hermanvdc
Victor Kozlovsky – Sweet Dolores
Annier Trio – Coquette
Lil Rev – Old Molly Hare
XTC – Love on a Farmboy’s Wages (Melody Tab)
I wasn’t familiar with XTC’s Love on a Farmboy’s Wages until it requested on Patreon. I immediately loved the acoustic riffs. They are challenging to play on uke, though. So I’ve split it into a duet with one uke covering the melody (tab above) and one covering the backing (below). The melody part is much easier to play.
Both parts are played with a capo on the 4th fret. Which puts them in the same key as the XTC version. But there’s nothing stopping you playing capo-less if you’re not playing along with the original.
Even by itself, I was having a hard time playing the riff consistently. So I have simplified it slightly. In each bar of the original there are two lots of three open E-string notes. But I’ve chopped the second lot and replaced them with a single note.
Backing Tab
XTC – Love on a Farmboy’s Wages (Backing Tab)
Here’s an MP3 backing track you can play the lead part along with.
Links
It’s award season and time to hand out the most coveted of them all The UkeHunties.
Ukulele Record of 2020: Hula Hi-Fi – The Isle of Forgotten Dreams
I love the mix of sounds on this “Hawaiian noir” album. Ukuleles and steal guitars are masterfully blended with dark electronica, moody vocals and lush orchestration from the Brno Philharmonic. It’s a real treat for the ears. And be sure to check out the covers they’ve been posting on Bandcamp recently.
Runners Up
Jake Shimabukuro – Trio
George Elmes – Soprano Ukulele
João Tostes – Live Ukulele Here, There & Everywhere
Ukulele Song of 2020: Charming Disaster – Baba Yaga
I’ve long been a fan of Charming Disaster’s darkly humorous songs and they knocked it out the park with this one.
Runners Up
Clem Snide & Scott Avett – Roger Ebert
Desirée Dawson – Hey Brother
Hula Hi-Fi – Crooked Hearts
B.S Roberts – Fairytale
Dani Joy & Daniel Ho – Strange World
Ukulele Death Squad – Let Me Down
Instrumental Performance of 2020: Vivian Kim – Sibelius Etude op.76 No.2
I don’t know anything about Vivian Kim but she’s been killing it with the classical ukulele covers this year. I highly recommend giving her YouTube channel a sub and listening to her version of Vivaldi’s Concerto For Lute in D Major.
Runners Up
Jake Shimabukuro – When The Masks Come Down
Annier Trio – Bistro Fada
Nicolas Fingerstyle Ukulele – Wave
U Can Uke & Vinícius Vivas – The Reason
Vinícius Vivas and Friends – There Will Be Some Changes Made
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Limehouse Blues
Ukulele Cover 2020: Zoë Bestel – Teardrop
Zoe’s weekly live streams on her YouTube channel have been an oasis of loveliness in the grimness of lockdown. And her cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop is a regular favourite.
Runners Up
Tricity Vogue & All Girl Swing Band – Rasputin
Claire Hastings and Grant Dinwoodie – Wild Mountain Thyme
Dani Joy – There, There
Bobby Alu – Lavalava Samoa
Walk off the Earth – Thunderstruck
Favourite Song Tabbed: The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
With the very generous support of the Uke Hunt Patreons, I’ve been able to more than double the amount of tabs I’ve been putting out. And this one was a Patreon request. Which made me wonder why I hadn’t done it earlier becsause it’s undoubtedly one of the greatest songs of all time.
Runners Up
Pixies – Where Is My Mind?
Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us Part II Theme
Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine
Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now
Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Kanye West – All of the Lights/Violent Crimes
The Parting Glass
Best Non-Ukulele Record of 2020: Sylvan Esso – Free Love
I have been in floods of tears over this album multiple times this year. It’s so beautiful and poignant I can’t handle it. You can check out my uke arrangement of Rooftop Dancing here.
And if you’re more into folky stuff than electro-pop, check out (Sylvan Esso vocalist) Amelia Meath’s other band Mountain Man.
Runners Up
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Andrianne Lenker – songs
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Happy Xmas (War is Over)(Tabs)
This is my favourite of the post-Beatle Christmas songs. Easily beating out Ding Dong, Ding Dong and Wonderful Christmastime (which has the worst guitar solo ever committed to vinyl).
My favourite aspect of War is Over is the usual way it uses key changes. Most commonly, you find key changes near the end of the song e.g. in Penny Lane. But here there’s a key change before the first chorus (in this arrangement change from F in the first verse to Bb in the second). But this wasn’t the first time Lennon pulled off an early key change. If I Fell starts in Db before switching to D for the first verse.
Links
Tracklist
Abe Lagrimas Jr. – Jitterbug Waltz
Adrien Janiak – Aux Lacs d'Ambin
Arya Dhayal – King of My Kind
The Prettiots – Sunday
Vinícius Vivas – Eureka
Johnny Nash and Arthur Godfrey – Swing Low Sweet Chariot Via @ukeist
Xiao Case ft. Feng E – Pride and Joy
Donald Bousted – Il ne fe trouve en amytie
– The Black Friday sale on my tab ebooks is running. With up to 70% off until 2nd December.
– Tyrone & Lesley are crowdfunding their new record Have No Words.
– Lil Rev is doing ukulele Zoom lessons. Next up on Monday is 1950s Chicago blues style playing.
– Warren Buffett tells Goldman Sachs, “I can just say that, as my number of ukeleles has gone up, my net worth has gone up.”
– Adam Savage builds a ukulele kit (The missing audio at the start is on his end, not yours).
– Making a cassette player ukulele.
– Northampton pub-goers band together to replace stolen antique ukulele
– Poppy-themed ukulele raises funds for Royal British Legion
– Auction of a ukulele signed by Jake Shimabukuro, John Cruz and Jack Johnson to raise money for Guitars in the Classroom.
Patreon
A massive thanks to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running. And double thanks go to November’s Tenor backers:
– Alina Morosanu.
– Arthur Foley.
– Colleen Petticrew.
– Dan.
– Douglas.
– Elizabeth Beardsley.
– Fiona Keane.
– Joseph Freeman.
– Katherine Penney.
– Kie77.
– Lisa Johnson.
– Mr Daniel Barclay.
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis.
– Pat Weikle.
– Pauline LeBlanc.
– Sandi Clement.
– Thorsten Neff.
– Trevor Mccravy.
Joni Mitchell – A Case of You (Tab)
A tab to celebrate the recent release of long-lost demos of a young Joni Mitchell apparently playing ukulele.
I think this is the first time I’ve transferred a song from dulcimer to ukulele. And it works nicely. I just transposed the original down half a step and it fitted perfectly.
What didn’t transfer so easily were the vocal lines. The vocals tumble out of her unpredictably. Which matches the meaning of the song perfectly, but is a pain in the arse to play. So I’ve taken a few liberties and played the song as it felt right to me. I recommend you do the same rather than sticking rigidly to the original or the tab.
In the repeat of bars 35 and 36, I did a little run up the neck. Rather than write the whole thing out again, I’ve included tab for just those bars at the end.
Links
Goo Goo Dolls – Iris (Tab)
I was inspired to knock this one up after hearing Phoebe Bridgers’ recent cover. Which partly explains why it’s in the same key as that version (i.e. F).
It’s a very simple arrangement. It’s all played in the first position. The picking is one-finger-per-string everywhere but the solo section (which is strummed). The one weirdness is the change in the time signature from 4/4 in the intro and solo to 6/8 in the rest of the song.
The only tricky bit is the fast picking in the intro. If you don’t want to tackle that, you can just strum it so it’s the same as the solo.
Links
Tracklist
B.S Roberts – Fairytale
Vivian Kim – Sibelius Etude op.76 No.2
Aline Kelly – My Favorite Things
Jack Tracy – A Change is Gonna Come
Harry Jans And Harold Whalen – Soft Shoe Routine From 1929 Via @ukeist
Laura Anglade and Virginia MacDonald – Weaver Of Dreams
Ukulele Nick – Moonlight in Vermont
Vinícius Vivas – Everybody Loves Saturday Night
Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter (Tab)
While I was tabbing the Frankie Valli track the line, “Can’t take my eyes off you,” kept reminding me of this track. And it’s not the only familiar part of this song. The bridge is a dead-ringer for No Surprises.
The arrangement uses a mixture of picking and strumming. As a rule of thumb, if it’s just one note it’s picked. And if it’s more than one, it’s strummed. Don’t worry about hitting exactly the same strings as are tabbed. As long as you’re holding down the right chord it’ll sound good.
The original is in the key of E. So I’ve moved it up into the more uke-friendly key of G. Plus there’s a key change in the bridge to A. Which carries though into the final chorus making it two frets higher than the earlier choruses.
Having dragged my keyboard out of its dank cave earlier this week, I threw a bit of cello on this track. The arrangement works fine without it though.
