Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – December 20, 2016
Tonight was a wonderful reminder of how many great people it takes to make the Vancouver Ukulele hum (or is that strum?). Whether it’s the Ed who gets the songbooks printed or the Rogue Folk volunteers who set up the room, Wendy who does the website, Kathryn and Aletha helping people with questions at the door and merch sales, Rich on sound, and all the song contributors who give of their talent and sense of fun.
I’m feeling very appreciative of all that right now.
I said there was going to be a big announcement tonight… and there was! At the end of January I will be heading back to Yorkshire, England to help my aging parents. How long I’ll be gone for is unknown. I will definitely be back here in June when I return to do my ukulele cruise to Alaska (btw. tell your friends about that – it’s a great gift idea!) but other than that I could be gone for a while – or not – depending on circumstances.
The Vancouver Ukulele Circle will continue in my absence! Kathryn will be here to hold the fort and organize the evenings and Steve Edge with the Rogue Folk Club will continue to contribute in their various wonderful ways with the room and food/drink sales. I am also very pleased to tell you that when I invited Tom Saunders to lead the evenings in my place he agreed without hesitation. That made me feel very good, because Tom is a most accomplished musician. He’s also a kind and funny person and an all round good guy. And I’m sure he’ll continue to involve others of you who already often step up to lead songs and perform. I’m thinking of Jennifer, Ronin, Craig, Gary and…? The more the merrier!
So I’m heading off on a new journey in life – for a while at least – and the Ukulele Circle will also undergo a change in energy which is also an exciting thing. I thank you all most sincerely for your continued support.
As for tonight we had some cool new Yuletide songs. Daphne Roubini helped out with Baby It’s Cold Outside, Craig and Alan led Mr Grinch; Jennifer, Tomi and Craig led Coventry Carol and Ronin and Jennifer took us through the Fairytale of New York.
Such a varied performance time tonight too. Ron (the obituary guy) sang I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake of Emerson Lake and Palmer who passed away December 7. It contains a tricky little interlude by Prokofiev that Ron played on ukulele and finally on his set of bells. He never got it perfect but that didn’t seem to matter – it was all so lovably entertaining!
Sharee (sp.) came up and sang No Christmas For Me. What a fine voice she has. It’s always such a surprise when you see a fairly new player who just happens to already be an exquisite singer.
Our friend Ed continues to teach and lead small groups of players and this time he roped in his friends and workmates (Angela, Bessie and Wan-Li), and his grandson Andy to play Jubilate Deo. A lovely piece and well played by those guys.
Boaz sang a song by Australia’s super talented Tim Minchin. The song called White Wine in the Sun manages to be thoughtful and critical without becoming cynical, very funny and also moving enough to make you bawl like a Wallaby that’s lost its boomerang. We heard it nicely done by Boaz tonight.
Craig then took us out into left field by singing Glad to Be Gay – a hit for the 1970’s Tom Robinson Band. But not so inappropriate in a way. If you think of how King Herod persecuted one area of the population it kind of makes sense to remember that this is a time of love for your fellow man and how we all need to pay close attention to keep that spirit of love alive for everyone at all times. Still it was slightly odd that he should pick that song for a Christmas party! So it was something of a antidote when Tomi and Jennifer (with Craig doing harmony) sang a very traditional 3-part rendition of The Holly and the Ivy.
Ronin ended the performances with an original tune called Snow. It was obviously Jake-inspired and thrilling to hear.
That was a fantastic night and I want to thank each and every one of you who approached me to wish me luck with my life choice. I feel very supported and will go to England with a warm feeling of the people and memories in Vancouver.
My last uke circle for a while will be Tuesday January 17 so I hope to see you then. Please come!
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!
Ralph Shaw
Come with me on a Ukulele Cruise to Alaska!
June 28 – July 5 2017
Book your place on the cruise with Eleni (at Omega Travel): [email protected]
Details: http://ralphshaw.ca/alaska-cruise-with-ralph-shaw/
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – November 15, 2016
Well that was a success!
I was interested to see how the shorter amount of playing time (8 performers
instead of 12) would go. And tonight at any rate it worked well. There were
7 signups and the timing from my perspective was much more comfortable than
having 12 performers. (I always feel the pressure of wondering if all the
performances will fit in the time available.)
Jennifer did an excellent job of teaching and leading Feeling Good and I
hope she’ll bring along more songs to lead in the future. And others of you
may do the same!
I really enjoyed the Leonard Cohen songs – it was good to pay tribute to the
great man’s music in our small ukulele way.
I want to acknowledge Wendy for getting us a new website: www.vanukes.ca It
looks fantastic. However she asked me to mention that the “Members” page
features several people that don’t come anymore. So we’re going to delete
the Member profiles of people who haven’t been for a year or more. But we
need new ones to replace them. So – if you’d like to be seen on our website
as a Member of the uke circle please contact Wendy.
Send a blurb about the length of the other entries. See the page at
www.vanukes.ca/members and include a photo. Send to [email protected] Your
blurb can be anything about yourself (not necessarily uke related).
Performances tonight began with Wendy and Virginia singing/playing 2
Hawaiian lullabyes that even featured some basic hula done by Virginia. So
cool to see Virginia. She lives in Toronto now but she was the one who
talked me into starting my ukulele circle idea back in the year 2000.
After her came Marguie. She has booked herself to be on my ukulele cruise
next June. And she sang her funny song Leavin’ On a Cruise Ship to the tune
of Leavin’ On a Jet Plane. Next came Tom who is USA by birth but now
Canadian by choice. Like many he was quite dismayed by the recent election
and his choice of song, Lotus Blossom, was altered somewhat to reflect what
he thought of things in the US. His instrumental playing was, as usual, very
well done.
Johnny sang Cohen’s Winter Lady with his baritone uke and then Geoff gave us
a lively and upbeat version of Suzanne that was very different from the more
morose original.
I was delighted to learn that Boaz has spent the last couple of months
growing a full and very Russian looking beard simply to perform his one song
at uke circle. It was Tom Lehrer’s Lobachevsky – a very funny song about
someone plagiarizing mathematical works from a Russian genius. Now that he
has sung the song he gets to shave his beard off immediately.
Tom and Ed with Boaz on banjo-uke ended the performances with Hello Stranger
from The Carter Family.
Next meeting will be December 20 and we’ll do all Seasonal/Christmas/Winter
songs. I’ll be posting the pdf of the Christmas songbook as we won’t be
using our regular book. We’ll have more time for playing together and
performing too as there is no Christmas/Ukulele quiz this time around.
Congrats again to Steve Edge for getting the Unsung Hero award at the CFMAs.
We gave him a rousing version of King of the Rogue using his name in place
of all the lyrics. He’s sure not unsung at the Vancouver Ukulele Circle!
Happy Strumming!!
Ralph Shaw
New Book: The Art of Ukulele
www.ralphshaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – October 18, 2016
Okay any of you Strummers who didn’t come tonight – here’s what ya missed:
Yes there were costumes. we had Jean Paul Sartre, an Orang Utang, Talullah
from Transylvania (actually she’s from Nanaimo via New Zealand), a cat, a
barbershop singer and more! The 3 winners each received a pumpkin, a bag of
home picked organic dried apple and pear slices (made by Kathryn) and a
bottle of Wychwood Brewing’s Disturbingly Dark Halloween beer.
Performances tonight began with Jordan and Jessica’s very pleasing voices
singing Wake Up When It’s Over in harmony. After them came Talullah from
Transylvania with a uke instrumental of the Stones’ Paint It Black. We then
had a new fellow called Ken who said he’s been thinking of coming to Uke
Circle for two years or so. Boy are we glad he finally decided to show up.
He did an utterly kickass rendition of The Who’s Boris the Spider.
Johnny sang The Snake, a song by 1960s black activist Oscar Brown Junior.
This story, with a moral, has been used by Donald Trump. He twisted it back
to front and give the lyrics the opposite meaning to those intended. That’s
pretty clever to do that. So it’s no wonder that out of a country of 300
million Americans it turns out he’s one of the top two!
Ron our fab bass player sang the theme to The Addams Family complete with
finger snaps. Ed gave us his take on Witchy Woman. Jennifer and Tomi did a
very cool and well sung mashup called The Wolf. They made a point of saying
it’s a mashup of two songs by MEN: Bad Things by Jace Everett (from True
Blood the HBO Vampire series) and Little Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and
the Pharaohs.
My dear friend Roan: the girl with the golden voice as I call her, just
keeps getting better. She sings like she’s been lifted from a 1940’s movie
musical. I told her she should be permanently in black and white but
thinking about it more I think she would be equally well suited to Glorious
Technicolour. Her song was The Headless Horseman – one of Bing Crosby’s.
Ronin sang All of Me. Not the tin-pan-alley song from way back but instead a
song by John Legend. Boaz gave us Lullaby. Anyone who has had to deal with a
crying baby may have had thoughts of muffling it in ways that should not be
said out loud and this funny song takes that concept to the extreme.
Michael sang an original song: The Girl I’m waiting For. He tripped over the
words a couple of times which proves what I’ve often said, that original
songs are the hardest to memorize. I mention this in my Blog about
Songstoppers see: http://ralphshaw.ca/blog/
Tom Moody as Jean Paul Sartre finished performances off with Stanley
Holloway’s With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm. I’m really liking the
combination of Tom’s very deep and quietly expressive voice contrasted with
the tricky picking on his Flea ukulele – very cool I think.
Well I’m exhausted! I usually let myself lie-in after a Ukulele circle night
but in the morning I have to be at Granville Island by 8am to perform with
Montreal children’s entertainer Jennifer Gasoi. I hope the kids aren’t too
scared by the ghoulishly dark bags under my eyes. Oh well, it is
Halloween…
Enjoy the rest of the month and I’ll see you on Tuesday November 15. Mark
your calendar and plan to be part of the fun.
See you then and keep on Strumming!
Ralph Shaw
New Book: The Art of Ukulele
www.ralphshaw.ca
www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – September 20, 2016
Hello Strummers!
Indeed it is true. The Vancouver Ukulele Circle turned 16 years old today
and that fact totally slipped my mind. Oh well, maybe this is a good time to
mention that next month is October and that means Halloween and Spook-a-lele
so start thinking about your costume!
Tonight was one of those times when performers were harder to come by but we
did get 9 very entertaining spots in all. Starting with Willie and the Hand
Jive from John and Lynn visiting us from Winnipeg. First timers Stephanie
and Shastine sang a Pixar song about a lonely lovesick volcano called
Someone to Lava.
Tom Moody has a fondness for September songs. This year he sang (and played
beautifully) Try to Remember from The Fantastics. Johnny pulled out a Velvet
Underground song called Aftermath. But hearing it on a ukulele it actually
turned a dark song into a light ditty that sounded more like a children’s
song. I’m not sure Marshall McLuhan was thinking of ukuleles when he said,
“The medium is the message.” But he might have been.
Two original blues songs were next. First was Ed with Ron (bass), Boaz (lead
uke) and myself (harmonica) to play Ukulele Deathbed Blues. This was
followed by Jess and Ed who gave us The slippery Ukulele Blues, oh and I did
a slippery harmonica solo in that one too! After that there was time in the
program for me to sing a rare performance song so I sang I Just Wish I Was
In Love from my album Table For Two.
Because of the passing of Fred Hellerman (The Weavers) Ron sang their hit So
Long It’s Been Good to Know Yer. But he sang the original Woody Guthrie
lyrics which set the song in the dark and dirty days of the dustbowl decade.
Interestingly it happened that a good friend of Fred Hellerman’s son was
there tonight and knew the family well. Small world!
Tom Saunders and Boaz finished performance time off with a somewhat rare
Beatles song in ¾ time called Babies in Black. About once or twice a year I
hear a Beatles song I’ve never heard before and this was a new one for me.
I’m looking forward to seeing you on October 18 at Spook-a-lele night.
Costume is not obligatory – just fun if you can get that together!
Until then keep strumming and smiling!
Ralph Shaw
www.ralphshaw.ca
www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – August 16, 2016
It’s so interesting to me how every performance time at the Vancouver Ukulele Circle seems to have a flavor all its own. Last month I couldn’t get a full slate of people to perform. Then along comes this month and not only was there a full slate but it all seemed to be made up of supergroups and fabulous solo artists.
It was my informal book launch as my new book The Art of Ukulele went on sale. Thanks to all of you who bought copies and lined up for signatures. It’s available from www.RalphShaw.ca
We also had visits from great friends from around the globe. Jim D’Ville (USA), Mark Jackson and Jane Jelbart (Australia). It was personally very cool to meet these people who I’ve only ever met in faraway places and who I got to see right here in my home city.
A real highlight was to hear Tom Saunders sing and play Led Zeppelin’s Going to California. He totally captured the essence of the original song which is pretty amazing for one guy with a uke. The other solo acts included Alison singing the song Stronger Beer which offers funny comparisons between Canada and the USA. Tom Moody did a wonderfully understated rendition of It Might As Well Be Spring and Johnny gave us Cohen’s Tower of Song with his bari uke.
Duos included Anna and Jess singing Lightfoot’s In the Early morning Rain. Australia’s Mark Jackson and Jane Jelbart did a hilarious and bluesy Do Right (Like Some Other Men Do) accompanied by Mark on a small cornet. Btw. They are touring USA and Canada with their Ukestration workshop where you learn to play different parts of a song on ukulele. If you want to sign up you can, but do it now! It’s tonight – Weds Aug 17 at Our Town Café. Signup and details here: https://www.thesumoftheparts.com.au/ukestration/
Craig and Jennifer sang Bleeding Heart show from the New Pornographers. They each have big voices and to hear them together was quite phenomenal. They made a big and beautiful sound. Wendy made a rare appearance onstage. She has been attending since the second meeting in October 2000 and performs only once every few years! Her beautiful and haunting song was learned at a uke camp, backed by Gary and was called Ka Pilina.
And then there were the super groups. One was led by Gary who sang Under the Moon of Love with a fabulous and tight combo of players. Gail fronted the same group to sing Lover Come Back with equally polished results. And tonight was goodbye to Vanessa night. She is off to work in California. It’s been a true delight to hear how much she has enjoyed making music at the uke circle and we’re going to miss her music and her talent. Tonight her group included Craig, Jennifer, Lisa, and Boaz and together they sang Cinnamon Girl. Ronin joined them at the end for the finale number Age of Aquarius.
It was a great show and it goes to show you that you just have to keep coming back because you never what’s going to happen next!
See you next month on Tuesday September 20.
Keep Strumming and Smiling!
Ralph Shaw
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – July 19, 2016
Hello Strummers!
It strikes me that for any event all you need to do is add the letters
a-lele onto the end and it immediately becomes an altogether more warm, more
friendly and more festive get together. Marnie of the Rogue Folk Club
certainly gets the concept. Whether it’s Rogue-a-lele, Valentine’s
Luv-a-lele or the Christmas Jinglelele she’s there to anoint the evening
with a fun name.
And tonight wasn’t just Alohalele – it was also BEER-a-lele!! The Vancouver
Ukulele Circle has been a “dry” event for nearly 3 years simply because of
the technicalities of BC’s strange liquor licensing laws. Nevertheless a way
has been found and Marnie was able to procure a beer license for tonight.
The fact that the license is only for beer (not wine, not cider.) is
somewhat hilarious. I didn’t know a license could be so beverage specific.
It got us thinking that for our August meeting we should get ourselves a
Mai-Tai license. Waddaya think of that?
In any case it was a success. Marnie’s beer sold briskly enough and for next
month she is thinking to expand the license to include wine and cider.
Lots of great work tonight from all concerned. Whether it was Rich (our
sound guy), Ron on bass, the Rogue Folk Club volunteers or the people who
showed up to simply play and sing. All contributed to making it a lot of
fun, for me at least! It was wonderful to see Gary Cyr again. His abilities
on ukulele and vocals add so much to our stage sound. He kicked off
performance time with the Hawaiian War Chant. Next up was Jordan who did his
first solo performance, a song called New Slang by The Shins. He has a very
pleasant yet understated voice that makes you want to hear more and I hope
we do.
Ron sang a song from a band called Up With People. He then told us the
remarkable story of how, as a teen in the early sixties, he played tenor sax
in this band, which he describes as “semi-cultish”. But it sounds like they
were very popular and Ron toured with them for many months. A good thing
about the group was that they were multi-racial despite this causing
difficulties when touring in the southern states. Ron picked the song What
Colour is God’s Skin as a timely thought regarding the racial problems we’re
seeing in the US right now. But a weird part of the story is that a 16 year
old Glenn Close was the lead singer of Up With People and wrote a large
portion of their repertoire. I told Ron he should do a TED talk on this – it
sounds fascinating!
Allison sang the Everly Brothers song Devoted to You. She is a lovely vocal
teacher with an incredible voice and her concert will be on August 9th in
her own back yard (she sent a poster through vanukes a couple of days ago).
Five years ago tonight Boaz did his first ever performance in front of
people when we were still at Our Town. It was Life on Mars and tonight he
celebrated his fifth anniversary with another Bowie song Drive-In Saturday.
Johnny sang the Nina Simone song Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood. It’s a very
powerful song and until tonight I didn’t realize that Nina Simone wrote it.
There weren’t too many tropical songs tonight but Tom Moody did his best to
remedy this with Bali Hai from South Pacific. His uke playing on this number
was terrific and the sound of his plugged-in uke had the perfect sound for
the song. The final song was another epic from Craig and Boaz and a gang of
female singers that included Tomi, Bonita, Magda, Vanessa, Jennifer and
Lisa. I closed my eyes and just let the harmonies wash over me. It was
stunning to have so many people singing so well. Oh yeah and Craig’s bass
and Boaz’s ukulele playing were pretty good too!
The Baritone ukulele group continues to get together and work hard and I’m
hoping we’ll hear something from them in August. So keep strumming and
smiling and see what next month brings!
Ralph Shaw
Next Meeting: Tuesday August 16
www.ralphshaw.ca
www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – June 21, 2016
Summer is officially here and with a full moon on the wane I notice some
wonderful summer madness in the June night air. Our usual variety show was
definitely not short on variety!
Btw. A shout out here to the two lovely women who drove all the way up here
from Hood River Oregon just to visit the Vancouver Ukulele Circle. We’re
nothing if not internationally known!
NEWSFLASH: Uncle Bob has been in talks with Tapestry Music at 3607
W.Broadway. The owner is giving all Vanukes members a 10% discount on all
ukulele related items (ukes, strings, books etc.) until the end of the
summer. That’s nice eh!
Performance time began with April singing Sympathy for the Devil. No not the
song by the Stones, a totally different one that was originally done by The
Indelicates. A young first timer called Nic had walked in the door and said
she’d like to perform. She did an awesome job of Rock Around the Clock (she
said it’s “an old song from the ’70s” I told her it’s twenty years older
than that my dear!) And how people can perform while reading lyrics from an
iphone is beyond me but she did it easily.
Brenda sang an Old Man Luedecke song called Early Days. A very touching song
about how quickly young children grow up. What was really neat was that she
learned it by listening to the recording and figured out the words and
chords herself. How often does that happen anymore! Johnny sang Bertolt
Brecht/Kurt Weill’s The Alabama Song. This darkly brooding yet tuneful song
about finding the next Whisky bar has been covered by Bowie, Marianne
Faithful and The Doors.
Craig, Vanessa and Ronin bravely took on The Beach Boys Good Vibrations.
Listen to that song and imagine 3 people doing it! It was wonderful to hear
the harmonies and the sounds and rhythm changes. They even vocalized the
ghostly refrain of the electronic Theremin. Wonderful stuff. I saw Marianne
Buechert and Steve perform as a warm up act at my Deep Cove concert recently
and it was lovely to welcome them to the VUC where they sang Temma Harbour a
1970 hit for Mary Hopkin (she’s the one who also did Those Were the Days).
Jennifer performed a medley of bluesy songs in the key of A. I don’t know
what the songs are because she made the unusual move of not giving an intro
– she just got straight on with singing. Hmmm refreshing! Boaz sang a
hilarious song called Inflatable You by Australian Tim Minchin. (I’m pretty
sure I heard the song while in Australia last year). It’s one of those
clever bits of wordplay that tackles a rather rude subject and does so with
humour and in a (more or less) family friendly way. Tom and Jason then did
an equally offbeat song they wrote for a friend of theirs who once worked as
a mascot called Bucky the Beaver who got attacked in a way that no animal
(or vegetable) ever should.
Ronin and Jennifer brought some sanity back to the concert with Leather and
Lace (Stevie Nicks and Don Henley). Tom Moody did a fabulous solo ukulele
instrumental of On Green Dolphin St., How High the Moon and The Man I Love.
We then went from the beautiful simplicity of a single uke to the big sound
of seven voices and 2 ukes. California Dreaming was sung by Vanessa, Tomi,
Bonita, Boaz, Karen, Magda and Craig. Taking on such a vocal number with all
those parts and people is a huge undertaking and it’s all too easy to notice
the occasional moments when it doesn’t quite work but there were many more
moments when the sound really came together and when it did you just went
Wow!
The work you did was so worth it and I hope you all keep doing it! It
thrills me that this uke circle I started so long ago continues to bring out
so much creativity in so many of you. I applaud you all. In fact, I’m
standing up right now: Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap
clap clap clap.
Keep Strumming and Smiling and I’ll see you in July.
Mark your calendar!
Ralph
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vanukes/
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – May 17, 2016
Hello Strummers,
It’s so neat when people travel halfway around the world and make a point of
dropping in to see us. We had two of those tonight and, while both are here
to take the Alaskan cruise, they made it their business to come and strum
with us at the St. James Hall:
Les from Australia is someone I met when I last played the Blue Mountains
Uke Club. He did a wonderful job of singing Plastic Jesus. And Beverley from
New Zealand (She teaches uke and performs on the North Island) sang a
beautiful Maori song called Hine e Hine. Her rendition of that song in its
original language was very moving.
Other performers included Rhona who, for her first time on the St James
stage sang Fever. (Note to nervous first-timers who are a little afraid of
the stage, the mics, the lights and all that jazz: Rhona came early (6pm) to
stand on the stage and try out the sound system right after soundcheck and
it gave her more confidence to perform. If you’re a 1st-timer who also wants
to do that, you can, but please let me know ahead of time).
We had some fun with Tom Moody who sang Bring Me Sunshine. His uke picking
was fabulous but he came apart with the lyrics. Even though he’d brought
them onstage he couldn’t quite read them. His performance while trying to
rescue the song with half-remembered words was highly entertaining. Possibly
a lot more so than if he’d played flawlessly. It shows that even when the
worst happens it can still make for a great show. And that’s what it’s all
about I think. Thanks for the laughs Tom!
Craig is warmly welcomed back from Halifax and he sang Bowie’s Life on Mars.
As usual Ron did an ‘obit’ song (as he calls ’em) singing one of Prince’s
songs: I’ll Never Take the Place of Your Man (Ron was inspired by the
Wellington Uke Orchestra version). Johnny sang Ghost Riders in the Sky and
we all joined in with Yippie Hi Yo!!
Jennifer did a very touching performance of Little Bird by Jonathan Bird.
Maureen, who has become a regular performer, sang Blue Moon. Ronin and Tom
sang the Beatles’ We Can Work It Out. (btw. Earlier in the evening they
helped lead a kickass Hey Jude along with Craig and Vanessa).
Ed reworked Neil Young’s Heart of Gold and did a fine job of performing it.
And finally we were treated to a terrific finale by Boaz on clawhammer
banjo-uke along with: Tomi, Bonita, Vanessa and Tom. I’m a fan of vocal
harmony singing and what they did just blew my socks off. The song was Seven
Bridges Road by the Eagles and they really nailed the harmonies.
I love the fact that the Uke Circle allows and helps new players but it
gives me an even greater thrill to see how even experienced players are
developing their music and their sound. It’s a fabulous journey which I hope
you’ll take with us again soon!
Next meeting is June 21 – see you then and bring your friends!
Keep Strumming and Smiling,
Ralph Shaw
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
PS. And in case you didn’t hear….The St James Hall has been saved thanks
to the City of Vancouver and the United Church congregation, and is
guaranteed to keep on running for at least another 10 years. Good news for
all of us!!
Thanks to Ruth Raymond for these photos.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – April 19, 2016
Hello Strummers!
Before you all started to arrive this evening there was a bit of debate
among myself and some Rogue folk volunteers over whether the good weather
would make for a lower attendance. Well it didn’t. As always you managed to
pack the place with your great vibes and vibrant sounds.
Fabulous concert. It began with Jason who played the entire instrumental
version of Bohemian Rhapsody a la Jake Shimabukuro. Last month he did While
My Guitar – so it’s kinda hard to image what he’ll do from now on. Whatever
it is I’m sure it’ll be pretty good!
This was followed by another long song with lots of twists and turns. Adam
performed the ballad of Marty McFly which was essentially the Back to the
Future soundtrack with words added that related the story of the entire
movie. Extraordinary. See what you miss when you don’t come! Ha ha.
Tom M. sang Coney Island Washboard which was a pleasantly short 2 minutes
long. A nice change after the two epics that began the show. Maureen sang
Stand By Me which was notable in that she tackled the song very differently
to the way it is usually played. I found myself feeling unsure about it at
first until I gave up my prejudgment and settled into her unique style. Once
I did that it sounded very beautiful indeed. Interesting how the way we
choose to listen can affect what we hear.
Deryl sang the Answer to The Pub With No Beer. An Aussie ballad about how
“The Pub with No Beer” came to be in that predicament. Magda sang Ron
Sexsmith’s beautiful song Secret Heart and did so beautifully.
Boaz played a Leo Kottke song called Standing In My Shoes; and did so on
rip-snorting slide ukulele! April sang for us another epic of a song:
Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel #2. Again beautiful while being very different
to the way we usually hear it. Ron is always up on the obituaries and likes
to honour the songsters who pass away. So following this week’s death of
Merle Haggard Ron performed Okie From Muskokee.
Also this week I learned that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are being sued for
stealing some bits of Stairway to Heaven. This reminded me that I do a
version of this song as it might have been tackled if George Formby and Fred
Astaire had had a chance to sing it. So that’s what I did. And finally Tom
S. and Boaz closed off the night with the Everly Brothers hit Love Hurts.
Thanks to all of you who came out.
Hey, and think about leading a song next time! Everyone likes more voices on
the stage so please consider it!
See you next meeting on May 17. Mark your calendar!
Keep Strumming and Smiling!!!
Ralph
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday March 15, 2016
Aw Begorrah! Twas a fine night indeed!!
It really was. The new songs were all enjoyable but it was the call and
response fun of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor (only 2 chords)
that really kicked some serious butt. I want to thank people for jumping up
and leading other songs too: Ronin especially did a bunch of helping and
harmonizing and then there was Anne, Uncle Bob and Ed and a gang of folks
for Hallelujah right at the end that included April and James. Lotsa fun!
Performances were all outstanding and the big surprise for me was the high
quality of all three first-timers. Maureen, who sings out at Seniors homes
but rarely sings solo, delivered a beautiful, quietly sincere rendition of
The Green Green Grass of Home. Very different from the belting of Tom Jones.
Then April sang Creep in a clear high voice that made the song both moving
and plaintive. Michael, our last first-timer to the stage, sang Beyond the
Reef and as soon as he started to sing you just knew he could nail the
Hawaiian vocal sound. It’s one of those voices where you feel warm and
tanned just by listening to it.
Deryl, sporting a handsome green beard (he’s already had two showers and the
green is just not fading), sang a ditty about a strong and well-rounded
woman called Agricultural Irish Girl. Tom Moody sang Allan Sherman’s Shake
Hands With Your Uncle Max – a Jewish comic song sung to a traditional Irish
tune. Tom feels perfectly qualified to sing this since he has both Irish and
Jewish roots.
Ed, in a bluesy mood, sang Key to the Highway with Ronin and Myself helping
solo on uke and harmonica respectively. Ronin sang an original song called
Take Me With You-a World Premier of his lovely song that has never before
had an audience until tonight!
The last act was a wonderful mash-up of I’ll Fly Away, Will the Circle Be
Unbroken and You Are My Sunshine called “I’ll Circle Sunshine Away”. It was
sung with spirited harmonies by Anne, Bonita and Erin with Boaz supplying
5-string banjo-uke plus male vocal.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the evening: Ron, Wendy, the Rogue
Folk Club volunteers and to everyone who managed to find something green to
wear. That’s no easy feat if your wardrobe is anything like mine – ie. not a
green thing in there!
Keep strumming and smiling and we’ll play ukes together again next month!
See ya next time!!!
Ralph Shaw
PS. Sunday March 20th 2-4pm will be a celebration of Saving the St James
Hall (3214 W.10th, Vancouver). Everyone is invited to attended. The great
news is that the City has bought the land and has leased the st James Hall
to the community for a minimum of 20 years. That makes 240 ukulele circles
we’re good for! So head out there and join in the festivity.
PPS. Also Sunday March 20 is International Happiness Day which is being
celebrated on Granville Island. So if anyone feels like organizing a ukulele
flash mob, that would be a great day to do it!
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday February 16, 2016
Hello Strummers – Here’s my Luv-a-Lele Report!!
Love was in the air for sure. It was nice to meet some “old flames” who I
haven’t seen in a while: long time uke circle strummers, Cynthia and Ruth
blessed me with their beautiful presences.
We had a much longer 1st half than usual. This was totally my fault as I had
too much fun and let the time run away – no problem though. And the big news
tonight was Steve Edge’s announcement that the St. James Hall is definitely
saved!!! I didn’t quite catch the details (so don’t pass this on word for
word) but I gather that the United Church congregation was awesome in voting
that the St James property should remain a community-use building. And it
sounds like the City of Vancouver has bought the property and will be
leasing it to the St. James Society for years to come. That may not be exact
but the main point is, we ukulele players get to strum there for the
foreseeable future!
Performance time began with Ron singing Arthur Godfrey’s Ukulele song (which
uses GCEA as its main melody). Then Jason, a first-timer, who has owned a
uke for only 3 weeks, played the Jake Shimabukoru version of While My Guitar
Gently Weeps on Ukulele. Yeah, I know! Something told me he may have
acquired some previous expertise on guitar before trying ukulele. It was so
good. a tough act to follow, but follow Deryl did, and he followed it
sideways with a song called Crabs Walk Sideways.
Ed sang the British Isles folk song the Gypsy Rover. Johnny sang P.S. I Love
You, Tom sang and played Dos Gardenias in Spanish (or Portuguese? – I forgot
to ask). In case you didn’t catch the lyrics here’s a partial translation of
this unusual song that begins with a man giving his loved one two Gardenias
and ends like this: “But if one sundown the gardenias of my love [happen to]
die, it’s because they have divined that your love has betrayed me because
there exists another love.”
I’ll tell you what, if my “loved one” gave me a gift like that, I’d be
somewhat concerned!
February is Black History Month (which evolved from National Brotherhood
Week) and Boaz sang the hilarious Tom Lehrer song titled National
Brotherhood Week and is essentially a song about how everyone hates everyone
else except for that one week a year! Geoff sang Hooked on a Feeling. Tom
played Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and did this, not so much in tribute to Bowie,
as it was to Tom’s good friend Russ MacKay with whom he used to play this
song. Gary sang Cupid Draw Back Your Bow. Ronin gave us Desperado for the
late Glen Fry of The Eagles.
The whole night ended with a massive finale featuring: Tom, Gary, Boaz,
Gayle, Cynthia, Ronin, Ed and myself singing Put a Little Love in Your
Heart. It’s one we’re going to sing at Russ’s memorial later this month and
was also a perfect song for St Valentines Day.
Thanks to everyone who came out and participated in leading songs. I’m
thinking about Daphne Roubini (Ruby’s Ukes) who helped me with Baby it’s
Cold Outside and Carol McAusland and her young daughter Kai who did a
beautiful job of leading I’m Yours that even included a rap!!
A wonderful night. Thanks for coming out and making it what it is. You guys
are really a pleasure to work for. And I mean that! Please keep coming!!
Keep Strumming and smiling and I’ll see you next month on Tuesday March 15!
Ralph Shaw
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday January 19, 2016
We had songs tonight that celebrated 2 great humans who passed away
recently. They are the world famous David Bowie and the Uke-Circle famous
Russ Mackay. Although there was a bit of sadness there it didn’t spoil the
fun and laughter of another splendid night that Russ would have been tickled
pink to enjoy had he been there.
I took some chances tonight in getting a few unexpected people to lead some
songs. It’s always bothered me a little that the male voices tend to
predominate in leading songs and I was pleased to coerce Vanessa, Carol and
Nicole to do some song leading. And boy did that pay off! I’m making it my
new year’s resolution to invite the women among us to come up and sing more
on stage. They’re not quite so pushy like the guys so I’m going to keep
inviting, cajoling and even begging if necessary. We’ve got some fine women
singers and I want to hear more!!
Performance time tonight began with Vivian (her 1st time on stage) who sang
Java (a song that got to about 129 in the charts in the mid-’60s!) She was
followed by a stage full of harmony in the form of: Tomi, Vanessa, Bonita,
Magda, Erin, Karen and Boaz, who all did a heart-warming rendition of Graham
Nash’s Teach Your Children Well. It was a hard act to follow but Derryl
stepped up to the plate to sing Georgie Fame’s The Ballad of Bonnie and
Clyde. How could you not love the part where he mimed being gunned down
while making the rat-a-tat sound effect on his banjo-uke. Splendid!
Another 1st-timer, Michael, did a nice version of Sea of Love that is
different to the one in our songbook and I think I like his better. Nice one
Michael! Johnny sang Bowie’s Space Oddity – a gesture that was much
appreciated by the crowd. Boaz played an instrumental tribute to Russ called
Standard Candles. Geoff sang Waimanalo Blues, a Hawaiian song by Liko Martin
and Thor Wold.
Ed sang Robert Johnson’s Crossroads and was backed up by Boaz and Ronin
(btw. Ron was also backing this song plus several others on bass, I don’t
mention his contributions nearly enough!) They played similar to the Clapton
version and what can I say…it kicked @$$!!! A well-deserved standing
ovation even though there were no first timers involved, ha ha.
Tom Moody rewrote the song Alfie as, you guessed it, Ralphie!! A lovely and
endearing tribute to ME!!! Thanks Tom. As well as the kind and funny
sentiments in the song he even made and brought (on transit) a huge bowtie
made of colourful paper that measured about 4 feet across. At the moment
that he sang, “Sure as there’s a bowtie up above Ralphie” it was my proud
duty to dangle the bowtie over his head (suspended from a long stick.) It
was a ridiculous amount of effort for one cheap gag in a song; and it was
hugely appreciated! The bow tie made a reappearance at the end of the night
when walked round the room flying it above everybody’s head. Tom wants you
to notice that if you take the ‘t’ out of Bowtie you get Bowie….now if
that isn’t just a little spooky…
Ronin ended the session with the Beatles’ Golden Slumbers (again for Russ.)
I look forward to seeing you next time which is February 16 – mark your
calendar now. It’s Valentines so there’ll be some serious uke-lovin’ going
on and we’re anticipating an official announcement of what is to become of
our lovely venue the st. James Hall.
See you there!!!
Keep Strumming and smiling!!!
Ralph Shaw
http://www.ralphshaw.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ralphshawmusic
The full set of previous years’ entries is available in the Blog Archives.
