Ralph’s Blog Archives – 2007
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 to Wendy Cutler so that corrections can be made.
These are the write-ups from previous years. Current year entries are on
Ralph’s Blog page.
Other years: see Blog Archives
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday December 18, 2007
And what a merry Christmas it was tonight. Well I ask you – how can there be anything but joyous tidings when those tidings are being delivered by about 30 ukulele players. A fine turnout despite inclement weather. We began by singing a medley of Let It Snow and Singin’ in the Rain which suited today’s meteorological status rather well. A great early Christmas gift for me was to see a few faces that haven’t been to Uke circle for a few years and have finally made it back. The two Annes: Ann Foster and Anne Fleming showed up like mysterious wise people from the East (Kelowna to be exact) and Karen, who hasn’t been around much since moving to the Sunshine Coast, also came by. Busy night tonight what with all our carol singing as well as the Christmas/Ukulele Quiz – my now famous quiz which combines those 2 genres of questions sometimes quite cleverly – check this one out: Q: “in the Dickens story ‘A Christmas Carol’ Tiny Tim says God Bless Us Every One but where would you find the words God Bless Tiny Tim?” A: On a record sleeve – it was the name of his first album in 1968.
We had awesome prizes donated for the quiz (thanks Marie Gold for knitting the Santa hat and thanks Sarah and Joe for the other prizes. The winning team consisting of Wendy, Sarah and Ronin won by 1/8th of a point thanks to Wendy’s vociferous defence of her plum pudding answer. (You had to be there..)
Performance time began with Rock singing 2 Elvis numbers On a Snowy Christmas Night and Blue Christmas, Boswell did Greensleeves with Marion and Good King Wenceslas with me which he did clawhammer style. I joined him on harmonica only to realise that I didn’t know the song very well and so I sang it with him instead. New people Karen and Laurie sang a lovely Silent Night with Rock playing uke. Ann Foster sang her hilariously dreary “oh Well” (as opposed to Noel) with updated lyrics featuring recent news events that really aren’t funny unless you hear them in an Ann Foster song! Ronin once again lifted the rafters with O Holy Night and Jesus Christ Superstar, I did Formby’s Sitting on the Ice in the Ice Rink, Cynthia sang Dean Martin’s Christmas Blues and Marion gave us a fiddle solo of the Jim Reeves song Memory of an Old Christmas Card. There was more group singing before we lifted our collars high around our necks and trudged with a lighter step out into the bright midwinter city.
Its been a great night and a wonderful year. Take care all and we’ll do lots more in 2008.
Cheers,
Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday November 20, 2007
Clear skies and frosty nights is what we have right now but a warm glow it was that emanated from Our Town Café for the November uke circle meeting. Nice big turnout including 3 kids under the age of 6 who were there to soak up the music and fun and strum their ukes in their own fashion. Lots of fine performances too so lets get straight on with them. Gary Cyr took the stage and did 2 Hawaiian numbers (Beautiful Kauai and Maui Girl) as only he knows how. I don’t think I have ever heard a non-Hawaiian put as much Aloha into his sound as Gary does. I can’t wait to hear his band when he finally puts one together!
Don Harder got up on stage and told us what a great time he had at the Eugene, Oregon Uke Fest recently and then sang All My Lovin’ with everyone playing along. The tempo got a little bit out of sync at one point – we think he was too far from the microphone. Honestly you would think that a CBC sound technician would know better! Steve (still the youngest player ever to have performed onstage at the VUC) sang Nowhere Man by The Beatles. He only learned it yesterday but we couldn’t tell – honestly Steve we couldn’t! Pat did a cool version of a Jack Johnson song ‘Breakdown’ is it? Whatever it is called it was right on the money.
Ronin did an Elvis tribute to celebrate (if that is the right word) the 30th anniversary of his death. Elvis’s that is – not Ronin’s. Ronin was obviously alive and well as his high note finale clearly testified. He did Heartbreak Hotel and a medley of patriotic Elvis songs that I for one didn’t know he had recorded but I can imagine that he could have. Rock, inspired by Gary’s Kauai song, got up and sang a very nice song that he had written about Kauai. All this made Wendy yearn all the more for the Islands as she just arrived in frostbitten Vancouver this morning after being on sunny Kauai for 2 weeks (Comment from Wendy: actually, the first week was on the big island, at a Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele festival). Boswell did something rather noteworthy this evening he chose not to perform. Ha ha just kidding of course he performed BUT he didn’t play his kazoo in either of the songs. And if you weren’t there well I guess you missed it….He did a beautiful rendition of Shadow of Your Smile thanks to the legendary harmonica player: ‘Toots’ Shaw backing him up with hardly any wrong notes at all.
We now guarantee a standing ovation to every first-time performer on our stage and today’s recipient of that wild acclaim went to David Aiken who got up and sang When You’re Smiling. He has only been learning to play ukulele since this summer (I know this for a fact because it was I that sold him his uke) and he did jolly well! Tom finished off performance night with a fairly obscure song which was used during the credits of That 70’s Show called (something like) Hello Its Me and then gave us his Werewolves of London – only 3 chords and incredibly fun to play along with. So that’s it until our Christmas/Seasonal get together on December 18th. The consensus was that we would have a more mellow session of playing Xmas songs plus a quiz and yuletide inspired performance time rather than the song contest. More on that as we move closer to mid-December. Meanwhile I am still trying vainly to avert my eyes whenever I see a Christmas tree in a store window. Its too soon…too soon.
Till next time then – Keep on smiling while you strum!!
Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday October 16, 2007
A rainy fall evening and the songs seemed to reflect the mood of both the season and the weather. We sang Me and My Shadow, Lullaby of the the Leaves, Streets of London and other songs that border on the melancholy.
New people included Masako, Erin, Emily (all the way from Victoria) and my friend David. Performance time seemed to have a surreal tinge to it. When doesn’t it? But tonight’s showing was especially unusual because of Zack who got up and sang Hey Mr. Tambourine Man. Zack’s ukulele performance was unique in that he didn’t use a ukulele and he only knew the first 2 lines of the song. He began by juggling and quickly dropping 3 balls and without hesitation went straight into the song using a banjo made from a blue ‘Regatta’ cookie tin which, I am guessing, he is still learning to play and then ended with his tambourine all the while repeating the first 2 lines. His performance was quite brief but perfectly executed (and so was the song Ha Ha). He promises to be back next time with a ukulele!
More memorable tonight for their actual musical ability rather than their unusual entertainment talents were: Joe – On Top of Spaghetti, Rock – Hawaiian Love Song and My Best Friends Girl, Pam did Neil Young’s Like a Hurricane (using a harmonica to simulate the hurricane – very clever – if you closed your eyes you could almost hear bits of trailer park debris soaring through the stratosphere), Boswell did Jonny Mercer’s It Had to Be You followed by Fly Me to the Moon with me backing him up on harmonica. Both songs included those overlong verses that Boswell loves to resurrect which go on forever before the ‘real’ song starts. I’m glad he does them even if its just so that we can discover first hand why hardly anyone sings them anymore Hee Hee – just kidding Boswell. Then there was Zack (see earlier) and then I sang the Inkspots’ hit We Three (My Echo, my Shadow and Me). I held the last note for about half an hour. Several audience members made the mistake of holding their breath at the same time and had to be treated for the side effects of asphyxiation. Well that last bit wasn’t true but the rest WAS!!! So if you don’t want to miss the madness keep on coming out.
When I was in California I really enjoyed the sunshine and heat but I have to say that Vancouver in the fall is really lovely.
Keep Strumming!
Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday September 18, 2007
Can you believe it??!!! We have been proudly plonking, plinking, noodling, twanging, thrashing, tweaking, thrumming, belting and strumming for exactly 7 years. What started as a small rag tag group of wannabe ukulele players is now a large and forceful band of seasoned wannabe ukulele players. What was especially great tonight was how many new players showed up to the meeting for their first time. I was ecstatic to see my friend CB whom I have known since I first came to Vancouver and she brought two friends along. Welcome all you new ukers – Tuku, CB, Jean, Arnaldo, Jeremy, Scott and Jennifer, Claus, Elena and Cathy, Karen, Charles, Jesse and Wes. We began with the usual good old sing-along.
Performance time got off to a great start with something one doesn’t see every day – a male hula dancer who is really good and not drunk. His name is Paul and he and Maria are leaving us to go and live in London. Gary and I sang Tiny Bubbles while he danced – it was awesome!! Thanks guys – have a great time in London and we’ll never forget your farewell dance!! Then Gary stayed on stage to sing Love potion #9 and Dream Lover. Wendy, Don and Ralph reprised Handel’s Water Music from last month and did it twice (the piece is so short that when we played it last month several people didn’t even realise we were playing until near the very end). Cynthia did Frim Fram Sauce followed by Peggy Lee’s I Don’t Know Enough About You (This song got off to several false starts – she started in the wrong key until she removed the capo and then couldn’t find the correct key or indeed any key for a while and when she finally did that was when the sound system decided to feed-back horribly. Lesser players might have given up but good old Cynth ended up doing a really lovely job of a fine song).
Rock sang Buddy Holly’s It Doesn’t Matter Anymore and Cliff Richard’s Travelling Light. Several of the lyrics from both songs were notable by their absence and yet Rock still managed to sound cool and groovy – nice one. Ronin ended his tribute to the summer of love for this year by singing I’m a Believer and the song that they said would not work on a ukulele and that is – Steppenwolf’s anthemic Born to Be Wild. Whether or not it ‘works’ on a ukulele really depends on your definition of ‘works’ so I’ll let you, dear listener, be the judge. I thought it kicked ass myself!! Jeremy – one of our first timers got up and did San Antonio Rose, Ralph sang Kiss Me Once and Kiss Me Twice to CB who blushed bright red (hee hee). Boswell showed up in the nick of time to perform I Love A Ukulele and a thoroughly overlong version of Blue Moon. I’m just kidding Boswell – What made it seem long was the fact that he sang the little-known verse at the beginning of the song which went on for quite a while before he even got into the part of the song that we all know and love. I especially enjoyed making him crack up during his profound and enigmatic kazoo solo.
Right, that’s it folks. Thanks again to all the helpers: Marion on fiddle, Ron on Bass and Wendy doing her stuff. Happy 7th anniversary and spare a thought for Virginia who, got me going on all this, is in Toronto and missed her first ever anniversary party!! See you next month on Oct 16th
Yours Strumfully, Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday August 21, 2007
And what a great night its been!
This is Ralph here reporting on the monthly uke circle meeting. Special guests and new people included Barb from Edmonton and Bill from New Zealand – a charming couple who delighted us with their playing and dancing. Great to see Carmen with us tonight and Jerry and a special welcome to Richard who happened to drop in for a cappuccino but was held in the thrall of our ukulele spell and by the time he left he had purchased my tuition DVD and the song book and is looking forward to starting his new hobby-Ukulele Playing! Nice one.
We need to get the second songbook happening and I have officially put out the call to find a volunteer (or group of folks) to do this. Its not hard, just a matter of deciding on 100 or so songs in various styles that are reasonably well known and then put them together using Word to make a book similar to what we already have. Let me know if you want to do this or help out with it.
Performances tonight were phenomenal as usual. Let me see if I get this right. Pam got things going with On a Slow Boat to China, Gary did the Beatles You’ve got to Hide Your Love Away, Wendy, Don and Ralph did Handel’s Water Music (as learned from James Hill in Portland in June), Boswell (in an unusually romantic mood) sang The Nearness of You and I Wish You Love (also inspired by the Portland Ukulele Festival after hearing Lyle Ritz there), Joe now has a banjo tuned like a uke and he used it to good effect on Frankie and Johnny, Rock sang Que Sera Sera and another one that was really good but I can’t remember what it was. sorry Rock, Guido who now has a new baby daughter brought his Jumpin Jim’s Beach Party Book and sang Love Letters in the Sand and Under the Boardwalk. Tom played The Warmth of the Sun (it was written on the day that Kennedy was shot so I guess he never got to hear it but we enjoyed it) and another great summer song- Have Fun in the Summertime. Bill from New Zealand did a very nice job of Blue Hawaiian Moonlight while Barb did a lovely hula to it. They came back later and sang a couple of New Zealand songs and a cowboy song (sorry I didn’t get the titles for all of them I was too busy enjoying the music!), I finished things off with Formby’s Talking to the Moon About You.
Thanks as always to Ron on Bass and sound system and to Gary for leading some of the songs and to Wendy for everything that she does!
Next month will be the 7th anniversary of this wacky get together we call The Vancouver Ukulele Circle so see you then!!!
Yours forever in joyful syncopation,
Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday July 17, 2007
Before I let you know what happened at tonight’s ukulele circle meeting I want to remind you that the Vancouver Ukulele Circle is really a collection of people who happen to share an interest in the glorious ukulele. With this in mind I want you to feel comfortable organizing your own ukulele-related events. This came up because a few people told me that they enjoyed our beach get together on July 3rd and wondered if there would be another one this year. I won’t be planning one but it is a very simple matter for you to just email the group and suggest a time, place, location and see who turns up. I do encourage you to do this at any time. The more music the better I say!! With regard to emails – it can be rather annoying when people send out a bunch of emails on the same subject because they didn’t get their facts right in the first place. So write your emails with care and make sure all the relevant info is on there. If you are not sure, you can send a copy to Wendy and she can double-check it for you.
On to tonight’s meeting. Great job by the way. To hear such wonderful and fine singing amidst uplifting talk and laughter made my heart soar. Lots of smiles all round. It is always special to see total newcomers walk in who have innocently popped by for a coffee only to discover the merry craziness that is the VUC.
Performances tonight began with Gary who did a trad Hawaiian song (but never mentioned the title) followed by a Paul McCartney newbie called Everybody Gonna Dance Tonight. Steve did Me and Bobby McGee and actually performed it much better than he thought he was doing. Great sense of rhythm and energy but I think he lost control of where the tune was so he quit while he was ahead. Cynthia on baritone uke sang Wahoo as learned from the Canote brothers in Portland; Rock sang Marie-Lena and Someone Else’s Girl; Joe changed the words to On Top of Old Smokey and vastly improved it by turning it into a BC hiking song called On Top of Mount Strachan with an instantly memorable sing along chorus. Great stuff. In fact – note to Joe: How about organising a ukulele hike where a bunch of us go off for the day and play our ukes on a mountain-top somewhere (and again in the pub at the end of the journey)!!! Boswell sang The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Then Pam, who was also emcee for tonight’s performances, sang the beautiful and slightly unsettling song by Melanie Kafka called Look What They’ve Done To My Song and then Has Anybody Seen My Girl. Ronin sang his Medley of the entire Sergeant Pepper album and newcomer Masumi sang Beyond the Reef accompanied by Gary on ukulele. Special thanks to Pam and Ronin for helping out and extra special thanks to Ron Usher for his sterling bass playing and for solving his way around a knackered sound system. Nice one Ron.
Till next time!!
Your Plonking Pal from Penistone (the town in Yorkshire where I’m from)
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday June 19, 2007
This entry was written by Ronin Wong, who has also just submitted an entry about himself for the Illustrious Members page.
Hello, fellow uke players! Our King and a few of our more prominent courtiers were away in Portland. So, Ralph asked me to help run the circle. He advised me to have around 20 songs ready. I thought it might be fun to try running through a group of songs in chronological order. I made up a tentative list and ran it by Pam who gave it the thumbs up.
The Circle itself was a great deal of fun! There were quite a number of new faces as well as some faces I hadn’t seen in a while. It was nice to have a good-sized crowd. We started out with our usual “Singing in the Rain.” Then, we went into “Farewell to Nova Scotia” as a traditional song to start things off. The program then moved on to a collection of songs in our songbook from the 1890s to 1950s. Ron rose to the challenge and delivered some truly inspired bass playing. Pam led a couple of songs to help me along. We even did one George Formby song, “Leaning on a Lamppost.”
Performance time brought a variety of acts. Pam launched the proceedings with her “Ragtime Betty” performance of “Sadie Green.” Then, Steve delivered another solid performance of “When I’m 64.” Next, Joe performed “Ali Bali Bee” on a mountain dulcimer using a pick he had made himself. It’s a fascinating instrument where 3 of the 4 strings are tuned to the same note. It was tough to mike because it is such a quiet instrument. Thanks for sharing this piece of history, Joe!
After Joe, a newcomer, Peter Leliebre performed “Stars Fell on Alabama.” Peter had recently turned 30 and this was number 13 of his 30 challenges. (Good for you, Peter!) This was followed by Peter Murphy who developed an inspired arrangement to “Rainbow Connection.” Next, Pam returned to the stage with Suzy, a visitor from the Taunton Ukulele Group in England. The two ladies performed “Pennies from Heaven.” Suzy was a very enthusiastic and welcome visitor. She even bought two of our songbooks. We managed to sell four more for a total of six!
Towards the end of performance time, Barb danced her charming hula dance to the backing of “Pearly Shells.” I concluded the session with my performance of “A Day and a Half in the Life.” It’s a medley of all the songs on the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album (in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the album’s release). It has everything from the sitar sounds to the record skip.
Then, onto the conclusion! After performance time, we went through the songbook for 6 more songs to bring us up to “Streets of London” (1975). I added two more songs: “Hurts So Good” and “Hero” to bring us into the current decade. Pam led one more performance of “Lullaby of the Leaves” and then we closed off the evening with “Vaya Con Dios.”
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday May 15, 2007
So I think we can say that the World’s First Ukulele Slam was an unmitigated success. Ivan Penaluna did an absolutely fantastic job of emceeing and making the whole thing work according to plan. The audience showed their support in every way possible and the singer/songwriters were awesome. We had 8 contestants in all (with one of them being a duo) and I think all will agree that every song was fantastic.
The judging format is a lot of fun as the judges have to spontaneously give points out on the spot and I’m sure you can imagine that with different judges or slightly different circumstances the outcomes could have been very different. Any of the songs last night could have been winners but let this not take away from the very deserving winners of our amazing prizes: In 4th place was Greg who won a ukulele mug and $10. In 3rd place was Tom whose hilarious song about the capuccino machine will have to be played on a regular basis and possibly added to the next song book! However Tom was let down by his second song (a Wikipedia Tribute to Don Ho) which went on for well over the maximum 5 minutes and although it garnered a deservedly high score several points were deducted for going over time. Suzy and Karly were very close for 1st and second. Suzy won the first round and Karly won the second but when the totals were combined Suzy came out in 1st place and Karly was 2nd. It was with great joy that I discovered at the end of night that Suzy and Karly have never attended Uke Circle on the same night and it turns out they are old friends from years spent at summer camp and this was the first time they had met since those far off days of singing Funky Chicken and Hacksaw Jack round the campfire. 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes included $40, $30 and $20 respectively plus the beautifully displayed Tiki prints made by artist Heather Watts http://www.heatherwatts.com/ Do check out her stuff at her website. Oh and you may see more of her. She mentioned something about maybe getting herself a ukulele!!
Other contenders included: Boswell, Peter, Mariegold and a lullaby written the night before by Toren and Joyce. As I said earlier every song was worthy of being a winner which is especially remarkable because a very high percentage of them seemed to have been written within about 48 hours of the contest and, in the case of Boswell, on the day of. It was a great night and I want to thank all of you for coming and contributing financially towards the prize money. Thanks also to the judges (always a tricky job) and to Ron who did the sound and to Wendy who does several jobs behind the scenes including driving me there every month. Sadly we are saying goodbye to 2 of our favourite Ukesters. Joe is heading off with his family to San Francisco and Virginia (who coerced me into starting the uke circle in the first place) is moving back to Toronto. I have never been to Toronto and I can only imagine that it must be a very very very nice place indeed. So goodbye to you both and keep the ukulele flag flying high wherever you may be.
All the best and take care,
Ralph
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday April 17, 2007
Following the sad news of Don Ho’s passing this weekend we named this the ‘Don Ho memorial meeting’. I offered that people could share their thoughts and anecdotes about the legendary Hawaiian entertainer but as it turned out none of us there really knew an awful lot about him so the event consisted of us playing Tiny Bubbles both at the beginning and end of the evening. I wore a lei during the song but Pam complained that it doesn’t go with a bow-tie. I’m still not sure if she’s right about that but I took it off anyway (the lei that is).
Nice turnout of about 30 people. I had returned from Cairo the day before after 24 hours of travelling and was slightly concerned as to whether I would stay awake through the entire proceedings but who could sleep through such a joyful noise as that which we made strumming cheerfully on our ukuleles!!
Performance time totally rocked. Ronin kicked things off with 2 Bee Gees songs: Words and then Nights on Broadway which he totally made into an anthem btw. William next did a couple of Irish numbers: Cockles and Mussels and Star of the County Down – he had handouts and so there is a good chance that these songs may appear in the next songbook. Keep the songs rolling in folks! Gary sang Margaritaville and then young Steve (still 12 years old I believe) got up and did a rocking version of Return to Sender (I tell you that boy is a born entertainer!).
Joe did a song called Chicken (a cautionary tale about young men daring each other to do dangerous things involving fast cars) and then sang Absolutely Free which was originally done by The Mothers of Invention. I really enjoyed this one because I have long been a Frank Zappa fan and know how unusual and difficult his songs can be to play. Joe did a sterling job and was very faithful to the original – or at least as faithful as one can be replacing an avant-garde 60s rock band with a ukulele! On a sad note Joe will be leaving us after the next meeting as he is moving with his family to San Francisco so don’t forget to wish him well next time you see him.
Boswell next on his new electric Risa ukes with More and More I Think About You Less and Less and followed by Funny Valentine. Shockingly he did this second song without the aid of a kazoo solo. One has to wonder if this portends the beginnings of a new direction for him…
Last month Joe had talked about the genre of: “Inappropriate Uke songs” and so Tom rose to the challenge and gave us a rendition of Wichita Lineman which, although it may be non-uke appropriate, still sounded damn good. He finished with Fixing a Hole to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Sgt Pepper album (Just a note here that I am much more familiar with the album “We’re Only in It for the Money” which featured Joe’s song ‘Absolutely Free’ by The Mothers of Invention and whose cover was a hilarious spoof of the Sgt Pepper cover and whose 40th anniversary will most probably go unnoticed).
Next month will witness the world’s first Grand Ukulele Slam Contest so see you there!!
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday March 20, 2007
Ralph is on a camel in Egypt or something and couldn’t be there this month, so this month’s blog entry was written by Wendy C, who thought she was just taking notes for Pam.
There were 35 people at the uke circle tonight, including eight new people (Paula, Miles, Glenn, Amber, Wendy K, Toren, Joyce and Martine), and every one of them asked for the songbook (which of course we didn’t have any of)!! And Mariegold wanted one too, as she came without Steve this time. Ron set up the cafe’s own equipment, and Glenn, a new guy, managed the mics very professionally.
We did the usual sing-along, which with so many voices sounded wonderful on most of the tunes. Pam had wanted us to be in a small circle, but of course we filled up the entire place, so sound was coming from everywhere. Pam got several people involved in leading the tunes.
Performance time: There were lots of performers tonight, many doing their tunes without notes. People seem to be getting the hang of the performance thing. Barbara started us off with a hula to wonderful singing by Gary, backed up by Ron. The tune was My Yellow Lei, and Barbara was dressed in a beautiful Hawaiian-looking outfit complete with yellow lei. Ron led the group singing Marezy Doats, for which he handed out the music. Joe Jordan sang Leaving of Liverpool and asked people to join along. Marion played for us to sing along: Five Foot Two, which is not in our songbook, to the surprise of many people who thought it should definitely be in the next book, and Sunny Side of the Street.
Cynthia sang La Vie en Rose, en français. Gary did Four Strong Winds as a sing-along, for which he provided the music. Tom gave us Breathe by Pink Floyd and Moonglow, and as a request from Pam for her sister-in-law, who was visiting from England, led us in singing a lovely rendition of I’ll See You In My Dreams. Mariegold sang I Love the Mountains, a tune from the Ukulele Course for Kids, to which she added a verse of her own. People seem to run into people at Our Town – Mariegold saw a former roommate of hers whom she hadn’t seen for years.
Rockin’ Ronin is into themes now; tonight’s was Doo Wop. He gave us Earth Angel from the Penguins, and then an amazing performance of Little Darlin’ by the Diamonds, in which he sang the parts from all four of the Diamonds (well, not at the same time), with many octaves between some of the parts. Miles, our new second-youngest member at 16 yrs old, did a tune as a sing-along, and then later performed a tune called Are you Lonely, which he wrote.
Joe has a contest with himself to come up with the most inappropriate song for the ukulele. Tonight’s entry was A Day in the Life of a Fool. He also did a Wayfaring Strangers song, Felt a Funeral in my Brain, which is based on Emily Dickenson poems. Liam started a Beatles tune in 12/8 but changed his mind and led Farewell to Nova Scotia. Pam ended the performance time with Tonight You Belong to Me.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday Feb 20, 2007
Before we even started with the singing tonight a few of us were treated to a look at Cynthia Nugent’s latest picture book. Written by Bill Richardson and illustrated by our scintillating Cynthia it is called The Aunts Come Marching and I would recommend it to anyone who has a young child in their life who enjoys being read to.
Last month I mentioned how great our overall sound was and indeed it was good. This month we had a lot of fun. At least I hope it was as much fun for everyone as it was for me. There were “lovely” renditions of Slow Poke, When I’m 64, With a Little Help from my Friends, Brother Can you Spare a Dime, Yellow Bird…and tonight’s Formby song was When I’m Cleaning Windows plus so much more.
At the end of the evening Wendy told me that her mum passed away yesterday after a long illness and that much of the repertoire consisted of songs she used to sing to her mum at her bedside. You might say this is another fine example of Ukechronicity in action.
Performances tonight were stirring and tear jerking and some of them were almost painful but such is art. The willing contributors consisted of: William singing Farewell to Nova Scotia, Joe (I Don’t Know Enough About You and In the Cool Cool of the Evening- with the celebrated rhyming of the words Jackass with Fracas), Ron helped us celebrate Shrove Tuesday aka. Mardi Gras with a song about a collision of Carnival Floats (Iko Iko), Ronin took us back to the land of Motown with My Girl and then to the province of 60’s folk with Leaving on a Jet Plane (with extra applause for attempting a dangerous key change without the use of a net) , Pam gave us Four Strong Winds but recovered quickly and even managed to sing a song ….oh, right that was the song. Steve got up and sang Over the Rainbow. He preceded the song by saying that the lyrics don’t make sense and if you think about it indeed they don’t but nevertheless this song was voted by the people of Britain to be the greatest song of the 20th Century. Hmmmm What can it all mean? Gary and I had practiced a couple of songs (Hawaiian Super Man and Hene hene – For You And I) and Wendy wanted me to tell you that we SMILED while we sang – what a concept!!! Try it sometime J.
And Keep Smiling!!!
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday Jan 16, 2007
What was especially notable about tonight’s meeting was the high quality of musical sound that the twenty of us managed to produce. This is completely accidental because it has come about without any group effort and if there is any credit due it is to all of you who have been individually improving your playing and singing to the point where it makes everyone sound good. I was also happy with the sound from my amplifier this evening. There were several performances where the sound just came through beautifully – the tone of Brad’s exquisite clawhammer banjo-uke on Big Rock Candy Mountain came through magnificently I thought.
The moment where we all sat up and said, “Hey we sound really good!” was right after Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter – just great harmonies and backing vocals. Performances tonight kicked off with a reading from an old book from the 1930s called Music in England where the author, Eric Blom, mentions that the tuning of the Elizabethan citterne is similar to that of the “modern ukelele”.
The songs got started with Joe singing Windmills of your Mind (inspired by a Hollywood headshot from the movie that had that song in it which hangs behind the stage), Joe also did an astounding version of an Andy Williams song that would have brought us to our knees if we hadn’t already been sitting down. Tom and Ronin had put their heads together for a few minutes and came up with a very passable Everly Brothers ‘Bye Bye Love’. Ronin stayed on and played Elvis’ Alright Mama. Gary (who we are beginning to suspect is a reincarnation of one of Queen Liliuokalani’s offspring) did a couple of beautiful songs – at least I think he did 2 but one that I can remember for sure was the White Sandy Beach of Hawaii. Boswell (the official fool of the Royal Vancouver Ukulele Circle) joined forces with Ralph to play Formby’s Why Don’t Women Like Me (one reason could be the ridiculous hats we were wearing). Boswell then caused great hilarity by introducing Bei Mir bist Du Schoen saying, “I found this song really easy to learn” and then after about 4 words he forgot the rest of the lyrics – which I think is a record even for him!
Joe Jordan brings a flavour of the history of BC whenever he gets on stage which is different to what we usually hear and is a delight to listen to. Tonight he sang a song he had written called There’s a River Way Out in the West (about the Fraser River during the Gold Rush) which for all the world sounded like it had been written 150 years ago. Pam aka. Ragtime Betty gave us Blue Moon in that stirring vibrato of hers. Fred sang Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You that I think would have delighted Joni if she could have heard it and he finished with a Jesse Winchester song. Greg entertained us with a very nice Somebody Loves You and we all enjoyed the comic interlude in the middle of the song when he had to stop playing to get the kazoo out of his top pocket. We are always looking for new songs for the next songbook and Tom passed out copies of that ukulele classic: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head which we played together and we encouraged Tom to stay on for another song which he did and we were treated to George Harrison’s When We Were Fab. The real highlight of the song was his sitar solo at the end – who knew a ukulele could sound like that!
