Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday December 17, 2013

Ralph’s Blog
Ralph Shaw, our Illustrious Leader, writes:

My purpose in starting this uke-log of the meetings and activities of the Vancouver Ukulele Circle is to give those people who are unable to be at the a meetings a chance to get a flavour of what they missed. I can tell you now that not all the information will be entirely accurate. As I sit down to update this uke-log in the days after any given meeting I will be sure to have forgotten some key moments and one or two worthy performances and I hope that feelings won’t be hurt. I will do my best but if you notice any omissions or major inaccuracies please feel free to email them toWendy Cutler so that corrections can be made.

Note from Wendy: Ralph has been keeping this blog since the very first meeting in September, 2000. The full set of previous years’ entries is available in the 
Blog Archives.

And another note from Wendy: Hansol Kim has been documenting the events in photos. Many of the photos on the page are his, but not all of his are shown here. You can find all the ones he’s posted in Hansol’s Vancouver Ukulele Circle collection on flickr.

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday December 17, 2013

I admit our ukulele nights do tend to get a bit insane. And the December Christmas party is, well – only more so. This year was no exception. A prominent mention in the latest ‘Common Ground’ Magazine ensured a few extra attendees and all the tables, pews and even the balcony were well stocked. Which could not be said of the bar. Unfortunately the liquor license didn’t get renewed in time and it was indeed a “dry” Christmas without beer or wine. But our hearts were bursting to overflowing with the spiritual eggnog of communal music and our souls imbibed the ethereal liquors of seasonal joy that good fellowship brings. Mind you, a Guinness to wash it all down with would have been nice too!

The quiz was a riot. I can’t divulge the questions because I may need to use some of them again in future years but take my word for it – it was a blast! The winning team was ‘Team Elf’ which consisted of more kids than any other team. They won themselves some ukulele books, my new CDs: Love and Laughter and my book: The Ukulele Entertainer (also available on Kindle!!!) Their win followed a tense tie-break situation.

Special mention should be made of the losing team who each won real, live Christmas trees. Six of them. And I hope those winners had as much fun getting them home as I had bringing them to the venue.

I started the evening off with Mr Sandman and We Three Senators of Ottawa Are: an amusing take on what our Politicos have been getting up to. And I finished that off with another very new song: Rob Ford is Comin’ to Town! But Performance-time proper began with Brenda (1st time performer) and Ron singing a hilarious songs about dealing with everyone’s food concerns at the Christmas dinner table. Trisch, another 1st timer, sang the lovely Christmas Waltz. Darryl sang All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth – and showed us why it’s such a big hit with the under-fives (it’s the lispy sound he makes when he sings.) Russ, along with several comrades including Tom, Ron and a woman I didn’t the name of sang the duet: Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Jill, our ever-lovely songstress of gore brought her pal Andrew along to sing Walking in a Zombie Wonderland. I think you can picture what all that was about. Last year Ed made it a resolution to sing a song every month at the uke circle and today was his last song. Congrats to Ed for making his goal! He did his own blues version of All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. He changed the melody of the song. And he changed the words too. In my book that would amount to a different song but I’ll let Ed make the final decision on that.

Daphne, who was actually in fine physical shape, was unable to sing because her voice was not in quite the same form as the rest of her body. At least that’s what I think she was trying to croak to me. And we hope to hear her next time! Wade did a brief and very much appreciated Let It Be – the line about “mother Mary comes to me” is what makes it a Christmas song apparently. Speaking of unseasonal songs, Boaz had some justification for singing the Byrds song: Turn Turn Turn. Whatever it was I didn’t quite catch it but the rendition that he and Tom played was truly splendid.

Craig and Vanessa sang a song called Gabriel’s Message which sounded old but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. Keegan did an instrumental of Go Tell It On the Mountain backed up by myself on harmonica (in ‘G’ – Keegan would want you to know that!) and Jesse on shaker (in no particular key.) Martin sang his Christmas Birthday Lament, an original song with a very cool chorus that goes, “Maybe that’s your lot, Maybe that’s your luck., But one thing’s for certain Christmas birthday’s suck.” It should be a Christmas classic I say.

The performances ended with Roan – of the golden voice, she only just turned 17 but has a surprisingly mature voice. She sang I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm. She also presented me with a beautiful picture she drew of me.

Thanks to everyone who came – including Pedro, here on holiday and who tells me I’m famous in Brazil! He learns ukulele from my DVDs and his friends there all watch me on Youtube! Hey and if you don’t believe me here’s one of my old videos where I do Viva Las Vegas on a banjo-uke + backing band – it kicks ass I tell ya:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQZbusMO9WU

It’s been an awesome year and our move to The St James Hall with the help of the Rogue Folk Club has been a great success. Special thanks to Marnie Jamieson for making that happen.

Whatever your plans may be I want to wish each and every one a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Keep on plonking!!!

Your ukulele pal,
Ralph Shaw ~ King of the Ukulele
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday November 19, 2013

’twas a chilly ukevember evening

And guess what?!! The Vancouver Ukulele Circle had its biggest turnout ever. Over 140 strummers were in the St James Hall this evening. Even the balcony had a merry showing of happy waving people.

Speaking of merry: next month, December 17 is going to be our Jingelele night where we’ll be singing all manner of seasonal ditties. As well there’ll be a Xmas/Ukulele quiz with WONDERFUL prizes. Gasp!! More about that in another email. First, tonight – oh what a night it was!

Ron, our stalwart bass player, reached new heights of technical brilliance. He brought along a projector and screen and sang the song: Dumb Ways to Die while showing an animated video of the song on the screen. What was particularly clever about this is that not being able to see the screen you’d wonder how he was able to keep in sync with the video. Well, and I hope he doesn’t mind me giving away his techie secrets here, he had the song playing in his Bluetooth earpiece and was actually singing along with the song from the video. That’s right. He was lip-sync-singing without anyone knowing!!

Next came Craig who sang Paul McCartney’s Too Many People, a song written to put down John Lennon. Then Ed did a singalong blues number: Hey Me, Hey Mama. Kathy Francis of the Georgia Straight Guitar School was next. Some of you may remember a few months ago that a woman was looking for someone to teach a uke course at Cap College. Well they found someone: Kathy Francis! Kathy sang a medley of Heart of My Heart and Side By side. What’s cool for me is that she learned uke in one of the first ukulele classes I ever taught, way back in 2001. It’s so neat to see things come around like that!

Abbotsford Ken sang Baby Please Don’t Go and did so without the aid of a chair! (He got himself a strap for his uke and can now play while standing. Yaay!) Then came Bill (also from Abbotsford) who sang one from his niche song collection of original skiing songs. The title pretty well tells you the entire song, it’s called: I Didn’t Know She Didn’t Know How To Ski. Hilarious.

Keegan came next with an instrumental Ode to Joy accompanied by myself on chromatic harmonica. Boaz sang Ringo Starr’s No No Song. A song about saying no to drugs and drink. And if you think the theme of Boaz’s presentation might have had something to do with Mayor Rob Ford’s recent antics, you’d be right! Russ sang Clapton’s Change The World with Tom on backing uke.

And then Tom stayed onstage for an awesome show closer. If you’ve been coming to uke circle for a while you’ll know that about every two years Tom takes a relatively happy and upbeat song and turns it into a hysterically miserable Leonard Cohen style dirge. Tonight was probably his best ever. He did the song that you’ll hear in every Seniors Centre and Group Care Home from now until kingdom come: the song is You Are My Sunshine. But done EXACTLY as Leonard would sing it. It was brilliant. I tried adding to the general brilliance of it all by being one of Mr Cohen’s sexy backup singers. I’m not sure if that quite worked, but nevertheless Tom as Leonard has to be seen to be believed. I think he could do a whole show of happy singalong numbers all done in Leonard Cohen style. The Arts Club Theatre should really consider taking that on!

That’s it for now. See you December 17 for Jingelele at the St James Hall. Details about how to download the Xmas songbook will come in the next couple of weeks or so and did I mention? There’ll be WONDERFUL PRIZES!!!!

Ralph Shaw Entertainer
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday October 15, 2013

October 15 is kind of early to be having a Halloween ukulele party but St James Hall was turned into a veritable demonic grotto. There were costumes aplenty including: a cow, a cowboy, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, a guy wearing St Patrick’s gear and a kilt made of ferns, a guy with afro and massive beard, a character from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Madame Ruth (from the Love Potion #9 song) and more! And I was a scarecrow. Btw. Did you notice my very baggy trousers? They were Jean Paul Gauthier, believe it or not. I found them in a free bin yesterday!

A real highlight was a visit by Chalmers Doane. He treated us to a couple of songs and a short sermon on what is possible with the ukulele if you practice every day. He recommends even 1 minute a day will help you improve. He then sat down in a chair and played clarinet and ukulele solos with our songs for 45 minutes. By the way, I went to Long and McQuade today to buy a couple of clarinet reeds for Chalmers to use. When the guy at the counter heard who they were for he gave me three complimentary reeds. How nice! It shows how far Chalmers’ fame has traveled.

Tonight’s performances had an extra edge, what with them all being Halloween related. Several people performed in costume. Ed did I Put a Spell On You. Then Craig (as the hairy professor) sang O Fortuna. It has Latin words with music by Carl Orff – possibly one of the most unexpected songs to be played on a ukulele: it was the theme from the movie The Omen. Wade, as Dracula, plugged in his electric uke and played Purple Haze. I have to say, the wood floor of the Hall makes for perfect foot-stomping accompaniment.

Keegan, with face and fingernails garishly painted, played Vermillion by heavy metal band Slipknot. Ronin sang Bad Things from the TV show True Blood. Don played an instrumental Every Breath You Take by The Police. Matt sang an olde English folk song called The Unquiet Grave. Ron, in his Spinal Tap style headbanger wig, sang Spooky – the only song he could find that uses both the words Halloween and groovy.

Roan appeared with a wet newspaper on her head and a rain-streaked face and sang Over At the Frankenstein Place. It’s one of the hits from the Rocky Horror Picture Show and our girl with the golden voice, as usual, did an utterly splendid rendition. Geoff, Tom, myself and Ron played David Bowie’s Space Oddity and, naturally enough, this was followed by Boaz playing Ashes to Ashes (funk to funky, you know Major Tom’s a junkie…) The last performance was Tom, as a very convincing 7 foot tall Frankenstein’s Monster, singing Werewolves of London (just 3 chords folks!)

There were prizes for best costumes and a great time was had when George and Craig (and a certain French maid) did the Monster Mash.

The whole evening was a total and utter blast but I’m kind of looking forward to our next meeting, November 19, when there’ll be no theme, no costumes, no prizes; in fact nothing but plain good old music and fun. So until then,

Keep on Strumming and Smiling!!

Ralph Shaw
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

P.S. Here’s something for the 55+ uke players: “Are you or someone you know over 55 years of age and interested in joining our new Seniors Ukulele Choir?!

If so, the Sarah McLachlan School of Music has a new program at no cost, where you and your friends will learn to sing and strum your favourite songs on the Ukulele!

Weekly lessons will be held at the School of Music on Thursdays 1pm-2pm, and all instruments will be provided.

For any enquiries please email Craig at [email protected] or 604.709.4415

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday September 17, 2013

Vancouver Ukulele Circle’s 13th Anniversary
That’s right. Tonight was our lucky 13th!!! Highlights for me included: having my daughter Aletha join me onstage to sing Iko Iko before she heads off next week to travel around SE Asia and India; playing an instrument made by Paul Joaquin [email protected] who is quickly proving himself to be a top notch luthier; some great song leading by Craig, Peter and Gary. And then of course there were the amazing performances.but before I tell you about those here’s what’s happening next month:

The SPOOKulele Ball!!! Thats what. October 15 is our Halloween event and we’re going to make it memorable. Actually it’ll be pretty much like every other month **except we’re inviting you to come in costume** You don’t have to come in costume but if you do it’ll BE MORE FUN and there are *wonderful prizes* for best costumes in several categories. I’ll let you know more details later. And performance time will be all Halloween/Spooky songs (however you wish to interpret that.)

Even without an official theme you guys always manage to put some thought into the songs you pick. We’re in St James Church so we had Craig play REM’s Losing My Religion and Ed sang St. James Infirmary ably backed up by Boaz. In honour of September Keegan sang Greenday’s When September Ends with myself on Chromatic Harmonica and Jess on shaker. It actually went really well – and no one was more surprised about that than I!

Duncan is moving to Australia and for his last uke circle he gave us Hit Me Baby One More Time, Boaz sang Pink Floyd’s Goodbye Blue Sky (it could have been written for him – it suits his style perfectly.) I myself played a rare, for me, instrumental: a tune from my Love album called The One Thing You Can count On reprise.

Geoff sang Tragically Hip’s Wheat Kings and there was some truly fabulous singing from: Roan who did Johnny Mercer’s I Remember You, Gary who sang Pat Boone’s Moody River and Super who did a lovely rendition of Tonight You Belong to Me from The Jerk. All terrific stuff. Paul, the aforementioned luthier, sang Kiss the Girl from Disney’s The Little Mermaid just to show that he can play and sing as well as craft damn fine instruments.

Our trusty bass player Ron sang Enjoy Yourself It’s Later Than You Think. He and a few others from Vancouver had a terrific time at the Port Townsend Uke Camp in Washington which is where organizer (and good friend of mine) Marianne Brogan got officially married to Anne, her long-time partner of 30 years. They were then able to head to their home state of Oregon officially married in the eyes of US law even though same sex couples can’t actually marry in their own state. It seems like the world gets crazier as our systems try to keep pace with the expansion of human consciousness. It makes for some pretty wild and nonsensical situations of which we’re going to see a lot more before we’re done. Just keep strumming that uke and smile as the world continues to go mad all around you!

See you October 15th at the Spookulele Ball. Same time same place!!

I wish I could marry you all! But instead here’s a big kiss: Mwah!!

Ralph Shaw ~ Entertainer
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday August 20, 2013

It worked!! The feedback I’ve been getting is that our move to the St James
Hall was the right thing to do. We had an amazing crowd of people, for an
August event that is, as well as a full roster of performers. It was a
special night. I’d rewritten words to the song Hotel California – it’s now
called St. James Hall Vancouver. The Rogue Folk Club even had a cake for us
to enjoy at intermission! The Rogue Folk Club is a great place to take in
all kinds of acoustic music and they are offering a one year membership for
only $5 to uke circle members. They didn’t have that set up tonight but will
be ready next time for those who wish to take advantage of that.

And the performances were the usual chocolate box selection of tasty treats.
After Ed started us off with Key to the Highway Craig gave us an
unforgettable rendition of Led Zep’s Kashmir. Alison sang Cole Porter’s Miss
Otis Regrets (a song he wrote on a bet, while in a restaurant, that he could
write a song about the next thing he heard.)

Steve Sutton and Anna Lyman (the creators of the Nanaimo Ukulele Festival)
gave us Orbison’s Blue Bayou. And after Don had played a lovely chord melody
instrumental version of the song Wonderful World another Anna sang the doo
wop hit You Send Me dedicating it to Rock-a dear friend who passed away a
few years ago and is fondly remembered for his love of ’50s music. Jeff sang
a Barry Gibb song but he didn’t know what it was called and so I don’t know
either. [Note: Adam Abrams sent a note to the list: “I Just Want To Be Your
Everything!” One of my faves from the late 70’s era of golden Gibb pop hits”.]
After which Pam sang Five foot Two and roped me in to play the
Swanee Whistle (why it goes with the song is a mystery to me but it seemed
to work; that is in a random and tuneless sort of way.)

It was Amber’s first time with us. She is part Hawaiian and sat cross legged
on a chair in her flip flops to sing the Beatles’ I Wanna Hold Your Hand and
brought much Aloha to the song and the room in general. Keegan sang This
Little Light of Mine, Daphne and Andy sang Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies and
Boaz, with Tom, finished things off with Ringo Starr’s Photograph.

Thanks to Tom for leading some songs, to Andy for his great guitar
instrumentals, to Ron for setting up and working the sound and of course to
all of you that came along. Oh and we all sang Happy Birthday to Bryn who
will be one year old next week. He had a blast!!!

See you next time, same place: September 17.

Keep Strumming!

Ralph
[email protected] (new email address! please update your little black book)
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday July 16, 2013

It was a worthy evening of fun and music so epitomizing the many hours of joy that Our Town has brought us. As usual we had a capacity crowd to fill the place before we move to St. James Hall next month on Aug 20. It was a very special night. We saw some new faces plus some folks who haven’t made it for a while but who wanted to be there for our swan song. It’s been nearly 8 years that the uke circle has been located at Our Town.

Performance time began with an energetic performance of Marianne (the calypso song as opposed to Leonard Cohen) by first time performer: Wade. We then had an original (and funny) song called The Good Old Days by Alison a singing teacher. Next up was her singing student Rick and his friend Becky who is visiting all the way from Taiwan. They sang a beautiful song, in Chinese, called The Moon Represents My Heart. They had to contend with some background noise of dishwater and some mic-feedback but suddenly near the end of the song it all went quiet and the loveliness of their song really came through.

Keegan—of My Dog Rover fame—sang an original called changing style. All about changing his way of playing with the aim of getting better. It was funny, sincere, poignant and true all at the same time. Ronin—one of our players from way back—sang Love Hurts and it’s nice to hear his new uke although I fondly remember the red Mahalo that he played for so many years. He was followed by the irrepressible Ed who sang: Pants On the Ground, a song made famous by a 62 year old on American Idol. Sometimes you have to find the right song for your character and personality and tonight Ed found his. He was totally into it and the crowd was with him all the way. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that he had Carol and Anne doing the Pants On the Ground backing vocals all the way through.

Darryl (another first timer) sang the Rolf Harris hit: The Ladies of the Harem of the Court of King Caractacus to wild approval. Boaz reminded us that it is two years since his debut performance of a Bowie song that went so famously off the rails. Tonight he redeemed himself in every way possible with the opening number from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. He remembered every word!

Duncan has only been playing for 3 months and the uke is his first instrument. He played Bob Dylans’ Don’t think Twice It’s Alright and led the group in the singalong. Finally we had two originals specifically written for the Ukulele Circle and Our Town. Jill, of Zombie song fame gave us her Our Town Song; all about the familiar phenomenon of ukulele people descending on Our Town making it impossible for café patrons to be there for any reason other than ukulele. And Ron rewrote the words to Woody Guthrie’s So Long It’s Been Good to Know You to include the history of all three Ukulele Circle venues from the Pacific Heights Co-op common room (we moved because there was no bar) to Original Joe’s (we moved because hockey returned after the strike and pushed us out) to Our Town from whence we need to move because it’s just too darn small.

The Rogue Folk Club people are stoked to have us at the St. James Hall and myself, Ron, Wendy and the rest of us look forward to seeing you there from next month. Until then…

Keep strumming, smiling, picking and plonking. It’s a great summer.

Love Ralph
Ralph Shaw ~ Entertainer
[email protected] (new email address! please update your little black book)
http://www.ralphshaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday June 18, 2013

Hello Strummers,
It’s been a really busy week in the uke world and so there’s been a lot
of emails coming your way about all kinds of events. And here’s one
more!! This Saturday they are trying something new at The River Market
in New Westminster.

They are having me do my one-man-band performance from 12:30 to 1:30 and
then at 2 to 2:30pm I’m going to lead a public ukulele jam. It costs
nothing to join in. Bring a music stand + clothes pegs (stop wind
blowing your pages). It’s at 810 Quayside Drive, New Westminster. Pay
parking on either side. Weather permitting, we’ll be outside on the
patio-either outside of Donald’s or the Gelato shop. Bad weather, we’ll
be inside the food hall.

Now on to tonight’s performances: Craig and his friend Jessica (visiting
from India no less!) sang Bizarre Love Triangle. Boaz brought in his
slim travel uke (aren’t all ukes “travel ukes”?) to play Lindsey
Buckingham’s Never Going Back Again – some fancy picking there. Steve
played slide baritone ukulele and sang on a tragic song called Your
Heart is a Muscle (the size of a fist.)

Jill found a song that sounded like one she might have written herself
called Four Colour Love Story (by Metsciences) and then Ed my own
personal terminally cheerful one-man-peanut-gallery sang Music Music
Music – the one that goes, Put another nickel in la la la la etc. and,
like the mad fool that he is, he invited me to come in and play kazoo on
it. Hopefully I didn’t ruin his exquisite rendition too much!

There were two Jeffs tonight. Jeff-1 sang Ship That Passed and, as so
often happens to so many, he forgot the words when halfway through. So
he asked if he could sing a different song. I consulted my copy of
Brogan’s Guide to Running Ukulele Open Mics and ruled that he could sing
half of another song. Which he did, very successfully.

Matt sang “Ask” by The Smiths, it’s actually one of their less miserable
ditties! Anne sang Dumb Ways to Die and a whole lot of people sang
along. A popular song! Jeff-2 gave us Dylan’s Wagon Wheel. And I then
sang my song My Yodel Teacher Told Me. Lisa gave us the Carpenter’s song
Superstar and Tom sang the 1986 Canadian pop hit Patio Lanterns.

Roan ended the evening in such a classy way with the Gershwin’s song:
But Not for Me. The natural maturity of her voice belies her age (I
believe she’s still only 16) and she sings with such beauty and honesty.
It was really very lovely!

In fact everyone was very lovely. Thank you for being there and putting
your heart and soul into your music and I look forward to seeing you at
one or more of the many ukulele events going on around town. And it’s
July 16 for the next uke circle!

Here’s a link to the article about me that was in today’s Province:
http://www.theprovince.com/Ukulele+star+says+blessings+outweigh+curses/8537612/story.html

Keep Strumming!!
Ralph

CD Release Concert, Thursday June 20.
http://www.RalphShaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday May 21, 2013

(This is a guest blog by Ron in Ralph’s absence. Please send any correction or complaints to me – Ron that is…)  Ralph is on a tour in regard to his release of two new albums – Love and Laughter. The Vancouver launch will be at a Rogue Folk Club concert at St. James Hall on Thursday, June 20 at 8 PM)

Tom ably stepped in as our host and MC for the night. All night we had a succession of fine song leaders (Craig, Russ, Carol, Anne, Peter and Tom) that led us through a wonderful list of songs from the songbook. Thanks to everyone who “pitched” in!

Denis did an original tune of his called “Springtime in the City” [Recording]- capturing Vancouver at its finest.
Lisa and Fran sang “Jasper” by Adrian Knight. Ed got us all channeling Elvis with his rocking cover of “All Shook Up.”  Un-hu, Elvis was in the room!

I did Patti Page‘s 1950 #1 hit – “How much is that Doggie in the Window?” [Recording] The dog is never named in the song – so we went on to see that it answers the mystery of origin of that most famous of uke night dogs – “My Dog Rover” (this song by Keegan Chen is on Ralph’s new “laughter” album, by the way.,.)

Jen (sans usual duet partner Juhli) gave a fine version of “Ta-ha -u-a-la-a-wa” (The tune of which is almost certainly what I know as the “Hawaiian War Chant

Boaz gave us a wonderful rendition of “Baltimore Oriole”, a jazz classic by Hoagy Carmichael. We then got all tied up in “Chains” featuring Tom and Russ. Craig sang and strumed “My Art Teacher” by Rufus Wainwright.

Jeff (#1) sang and mugged his way through a show stopping rendition, in Spanish, of “Conejo Loco” – the crazy rabbit. Jeff (#2) gave us “Rocket Man” by Elton John.

Lisa and Tom concluded performance time with “Tonight you belong to me” – Tom credited the version of this song by Steven Martin with tweaking his interest in the ukulele. Lisa stayed on stage with Tom to sing a few more songs to start the 2nd set of group songs.

All in all a wonderful spring evening at Out Town. See you all next month on Tuesday, June 18 at 7:30.

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday April 16, 2013

Although Canadians are getting more adventurous with the way they look it’s pretty certain that when someone manages to look super stylish in an orange coat and orange hair they are probably European. Three beautiful young Croatians joined us at Our Town tonight and Tinka (the one in orange) was not shy when it came to joining me onstage to sing harmonies to Suspicious Minds and the Tide Is High. She’s an accordion/ukulele player as well as a lovely singer and obviously a lot of fun!

Thanks to all the people who got up to lead songs tonight: Peter, Tom, Carol, Anne and Steve and of course Ron for pumping out the bass all evening.

Before I tell you about the performances tonight I just want to clarify things about the vanukes email list. To prevent misuse please only email about events that involve a ukulele in some capacity or other. For example Adam (who is too new to know this rule) recently told us about his new play. That is only allowed if the play mentions the word ‘ukulele’ or if an actual ukulele appears in the play. Get the idea? Say “Yes Ralph!”

To unsubscribe: There is an unsubscribe link to click at the bottom of the emails and then the system sends you an email to complete the process (yeah I know it’s a clunky way to do it). If this still doesn’t work for you then just contact Wendy at [email protected] or via the vanukes website and she’ll do it for you.

Not too many performers tonight; which was kinda nice because it gave us more time to play together at the end. First, and because Fleetwood Mac will be in Vancouver this Month, Boaz and Bonita sang their song ‘The Chain’ (that’s the one that goes: If you don’t love me now etc….). It has different parts to it, and I imagine not easy to play and they did a great job.

Young Steve once again towed his drum kit to uke circle by bicycle. He sang a song that he recently wrote on a topic you don’t hear very often: the subject of sharing a joint with Jesus on a road trip. ‘Joints forJesus’ was a real winner as I’m sure you can imagine.

Ed skillfully played a very nice rendition of Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’ with instrumental parts he got from Aldrine Guerrero.

Ron sang John Prine’s ‘All the Best’ written after he got divorced from his wife, that is after John Prine got divorced, not Ron, but funnily enough he sang it at his ex-wife’s next wedding, that is John Prine’s ex-wife, not Ron’s. Jill on her Silvertone Baritone uke and her sassy friend Fairlith sang Jonathan Coulton’s song ‘Still Alive’ based on what the deceased character of a computer game called Portal might sing if she weren’t dead and could sing and wasn’t a now expired persona from a computer game (I’m so out of my depth with this stuff I hardly know where to begin.) Anyway, I describe Fairlith as ‘sassy’ because Steve, wearing  sweater, was making comments about what she was saying and she rebutted, “well aren’t you a little green peanut gallery.” It made me laugh, I wish I could think of things like that! sang a lovely song called ‘Safe and Sound’ by Hawksley Workman. I ended the set with my song Movie Stars, High Rollers and Big Shakers. a number from one of my two new CDs (produced by Steve Dawson) and, exciting news, I took delivery of the CDs today. Soon I’ll be letting you know how you can get them and all about my June 20th CD release concert!!Meanwhile I’m heading off to tour California in May and I’ll strum with you when I get back. Until then, keep on strummin’!!!

Ralph: http://theukuleleentertainer.blogspot.ca/
For Book, DVDs, CDs: http://www.RalphShaw.ca
Blog: http://theukuleleentertainer.blogspot.ca/

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday March  19, 2013

Hey ukers, here’s the March report:

Wendy began performance time by not doing a performance but she did lead
the song Easter Bonnet. And she wants everyone to know that you’re
welcome to join the Vancouver Walkers Meetup Group for a day! Help Wendy
kick off the Cherry Blossom Easter Parade by singing Easter Parade with
your ukulele. 1:55pm March 31 at Burrard Skytrain Station. Let Wendy
know if you’ll be there – [email protected].

Eric did an instrumental he wrote for a movie called Clerks 2 that
doesn’t exist. Shame really because it was a nice tune. Craig and
Vanessa sang Beatles song We Can Work it Out. Steve, who joined us on
bass last time, showed up with drums that he brought through the rain on
his bike. What dedication. I was a little nervous that drums might mess
things up but it seemed to go pretty well. A sensitive drummer – nice.
Ken sang Baby Please Don’t Go.

Stompin’ Ed Dorosh gave us Stompin’ Tom Connors’ song Rubberhead in
memory of the great singer who passed away March 6. Then we all played
along with Keegan’s “Jam Song”. Bill sang Princess Pupuli Has Plenty
Papaya and She Loves to Give It Away. Adam, dressed in an incredible
pink suit and red tie, sang the Joe Jackson hit Is She Really going Out
With Him. Jeff sang Tree by the River (Iron and Wine).

Our first newbies tonight were Nadine and Melanie who earned a (deserved
actually) standing ovation for their medley of Ho Hey and Fly. Boaz and
Bonita sang a very funny John Prine song In Spite of Ourselves and then
Tom and myself finished things off with the classic anti-discrimination
song Short People. We even managed to incorporate the My Dog Rover theme
into the Song by ending it with: Oh Short People, people are great,
people are great etc hee hee.

Thanks to those who helped lead songs. It’s the 2nd anniversary of our
songbook. And Peter gave us four of his favourites and Tom, Craig, Carol
and Anne also jumped in to lead some songs. Faves included: Creep, My
Way, Mr Bojangles, Over The Rainbow, Amazing Grace and Love or Leave Me.
Tom got an awesome funk groove happening with Feelin’ Alright towards
the end and I danced my ass off. One or two pretty fine moves there
though I say so myself.

Now we’re collecting songs for the next book so start collecting and
sending ’em!!

Ralph
www.RalphShaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday February 19, 2013

I know it’s supposed to be March Madness but we got an early start at
Our town tonight. Before I begin – there’s some info about the Vancouver
Ukulele Festival opening concert (Friday 22nd) at the end of this email.
There are still tickets left (I’m in the show so it’ll be nice to see
you there if you can make it.)

I was proud to be playing my new 8-string taro-patch ukulele. It’s its first
time in public. And we were honoured to have luthier Yusuke Kawakami
join us. It took him nearly 5 years to build my uke and I’ll be telling
the story in one of my upcoming newsletters (which you have to sign up
for on my website if you haven’t already.)

Steve’s back! Some of you who’ve been around for a while will remember
Steve. He’s been coming to Our Town since the age of twelve. He and his
mom were regulars. He’s now 18, lives independently and did a kickass
song that he wrote about the sort of food he’s eating these days. Song
is called Eating Like a College Kid. But the best part was that he
brought his bass (he has a punk band) and while Ron was keeping things
rock steady with his Kala bass Steve’s distorted bass thrummed around
the melody to songs like Lovely Hula Hands and My Blue Heaven. Cool!

Our Town was packed to the rafters once again: great energy and good
laughs all night long.

Ken started performance time with an original called Christy Taylor, a
Leonard Cohen type of ditty I thought. Craig and Vanessa did a medley of
Abbey Road songs with harmonies. Craig also did a nice job of
songleading with a mostly two chord Rolling Stones number: You Can’t
Always Get What You Want.

Wren got onstage for the first time and sang Dream a Little Dream and
got a heartfelt standing ovation. Adam, who enjoys watching TV with his
two year old, sang the theme tune to Mighty Machines. Cool song,
especially if you have the inner age of a 2 year old (like me.) Boaz did
the Ringo Starr song: It Don’t come Easy with some nice picking as
always.

Russ, backed by Tom, sang: We’re All Alone. I’m not sure who did it
originally but The Carpenters comes to mind. Keegan went next with a
BRAND NEW SONG. Called The Jam Song. It begins with a short lyric (I
like to jam, It brings people together) and after that you just jam to
the 12 bar blues! Which is what we did.

Roan sang: I Don’t Mind. She sings with such poise and lovely vocal
control it’s no wonder she got herself a standing ‘O’ even though it
wasn’t her first time. Way to go Roan!! Ed sang an original blues song,
one of the contenders for the Ruby’s Ukes video contest. It’s called The
Sad Hat Blues and was played while wearing a hat featuring a frowny face
on the front. All about the dilemmas involved in wearing a sad hat. Yep,
we’ve all been there and ain’t it the truth

Tom gave us The Littlest Hobo theme song: Maybe Tomorrow. Being that I’m
from the UK I have never heard this song and it was quite something to
see the audience nearly weeping with nostalgia. Tom even wrote his own
verse for non-hoboists like myself to explain who he was: Tom described
the dog as being like a Navy Seal but with Mother Theresa’s heart. Isn’t
that great! Tom even managed to lever the My Dog Rover melody in there
too.

Jody, another first timer, finished things off awesomely by singing
Sarah Jaffe’s song Clementine. After that Ron, Steve, Tom, Russ and
myself performed Wild Thing in honour (although that could be the wrong
word in our particular case) of Reg Presley of the Troggs who passed
away recently.

Here’s this weekend’s uke fest Concert info:
Friday February 22nd ~ For full info visit Ruby’s Ukes website:
http://www.rubysukes.vpweb.ca/ (scroll halfway down)

The Vancouver Ukulele Festival opening Concert ~ 7pm
St James Hall,3214 W 10th Ave Vancouver, BC V6K 2L2
Tickets available $18 in advance or $25 on the door.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: I looked really spiffy tonight 😀

Keep strumming and smiling and we’ll do it all again very soon my
friends.
Ralph Shaw

The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit http://www.RalphShaw.ca

Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday January 15, 2013

After a night like tonight it’s fun for me to think back to the first
two years of ukulele circle when almost nobody performed. A dozen of us
would literally sit in a circle and play songs together. And sometimes
we’d have a spcial guest like a very youthful James Hill or Bruce
Bissell (Tiny Tim’s Road Manager) come to visit. What energy we have
now, what fun, what a crazy bunch you turned out to be!

I’m actually a little embarassed by my performance tonight. I’m doing
some major recording on my two new albums this weekend so I put new
strings on my uke this afternoon and then brought it to lead the uke
circle; mistake! My instrument just wouldn’t stay in tune. And I should
know better. So my rendition of The Clash’s ‘Hateful’ was out of tune,
very “punk” and somewhat humbling. (If you want to see a much better
version of me playing it you can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhDjdk5IR2g )

Ken did Heard It Through the Grapevine with all of us doing backup.
Keegan departed from singing his soon to be hit: My Dog Rover and gave
us Old Lang Syne instead – blues style with Eric on blues harp. Next up
we had an all-girl group called The Ukalovelies. Tiffany was their lead
singer/uke player and the other three: Nataly, Dasha and Aletha (my own
daughter) did backup support on You Always Hurt the Ones You Love.

Ed did an awesome Blue Suede Shoes (with me on harmonica) plus 2 dancing
ukalovelies. He now wants to be known as Edvis!
Peter sang Alone by the group Heart. And for a guy singing a ‘chick’
song did a highly admirable job. Then Craig got up and sang Come On
Eileen (Dexy’s Midnight Runners) which, in a fit of nostalgia, took me
to the lawn behind the 6th form building where we hung out during our
school exams. Ahh my youth!

Ron Kushner, all the way from New York, was in town and loves the circle
and played piano with us all night so we let him do a song by himself.
What else but New York New York. Matt, wearing a lovely shirt decorated
with lobsters, sang You Must Be Out of Your Mind by Magnetic Fields. 2
facts about lobsters: 1) when they reach their teenage period they are
awkward and gawky. 2) Older lobsters lead younger lobsters around by
holding their claws.

Tom and Russ deserve special mention for their awesome duet of Paint It
Black. Russ brought his amp which has some cool effects; and their song
rocked! Then, in a move that was kinda pre-planned, I got the audience
to demand a second song – which turned out to be: My Dog Rover. The
biggest delight for me was to see the utter delight on Keegan’s face as
he heard his song being sung by someone else. Priceless!

Boaz’s instrumental stylings keep getting better and better. But what’s
really neat are the mischievous looks that he gives to the audience
while he plays. A highly entertaining instrumentalist – you don’t see a
lot of those! He sang too.

Lisa, reading the tiny lyrics from her friends iphone, sang White Winter
Hymnal by the Fleet Foxes. And Eric finsihed off the show with another
Clash song: I Fought the Law and the Law Won. We had a Clash sandwich!

It was a long show; only time for 3 more playalongs after all that. But
my god it was worth it! I look forward to seeing you in February.

Till then keep strumming and stay warm,
Ralph

Help me create Love and Laughter here:
http://www.ralphshaw.ca/Love_n_Laughter