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 to Wendy 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 18, 2012
And so this was Christmas…
…and what did we do? Read on to review or re-live the festivities!
But before I tell you about tonight’s fun-filled spectacle of ukulele
joy I’d like to give one last plug for next Sunday’s show covering songs
by the Clash. It’s a star-studded line-up in aid of the Foodbank:
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_
Vancouver Calling! A Tribute To The Clash – At The Electric Owl
A Benefit for Vancouver’s Food Bank.
The Electric Owl – 928 Main Street.
Sun. Dec 23rd 8PM, Doors at 6PM – come early for food and good seats!
Tickets in advance at 604-990-7810
or at the door (if there’s any left!!)
Featuring: Jim Byrnes, CR Avery, Colin James, Ralph Shaw, Craig Northey
(Odds), Steve Dawson, Colleen Rennison (No Sinner), Rich Hope, Shaun
Verreault, all backed by The Black Hen House Band!
A brand new Larivee guitar will also be raffled off that night, worth
$2000!
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* _*_*_*_*_*
Alright here we go…A splendid evening was had by many, especially me!
We followed the usual festive format where we sang seasonal songs and
then I introduced the annual Christmas/Ukulele Quiz. There were 17
questions all on the subject of Christmas, ukuleles or both (as in:
Question:- I am something that people eat at Christmastime but also a
vital part of a ukulele. What am I? Answer= A Nut, or, as others
suggested, a neck as in turkey neck; and not, as Ron suggested, a tuner,
as in fish. Nice try Ron.)
We had fabulous prizes. The top team won a selection of ukulele books
and a Black Gardenia CD kindly donated by Daphne Roubini of Ruby’s Ukes.
The second prize winners won Our Town travel mugs (each stuffed with a
lei, macadamia nuts and a pen) donated by Henry the owner of Our Town
Cafe. The losing team won ukulele fridge magnets and a special pez that
has a Norman Rockwell Ukulele picture on it. Then after that came
Christmas performance time.
I started things off with a song I wrote about Tiger Woods to the tune
of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. I call it Tiger the Billionaire
Golf-Pro. Ed, with Russ on rhythm uke, did some nice soloing work on a
blues song called Jolly Old St Nicolas. Jessica and Jill did a very
funny song by a duo called Garfunkel and Oates. The song is a response
to those annoying year-end letters that people send out; and I’ve done
it too, where you hear all about other people’s fabulous yet boring
lives. Paul sang The Pogues’ Fairy Tale of New York: one of the most
popular modern Christmas songs. He came a little unstuck on a lyric here
and there, and there’s a lot of words in this one, but his playing was
really something. I’m sure the lyrics will be good and sunk in by next
year.
I don’t know where to begin with Jeff’s version of Winter Wonderland.
After telling us that if we ever go to Honolulu we must seek out a Cuban
musician who is always there he went on to sing the song albeit in a
quite different timing to the usual way we hear it. So far so good. But
then he pulled out his iphone (or similar) and continued the song with
lyrics, that he’d downloaded, by William Shatner that mentioned
investment scammer Bernie Madoff, Scooby Doo and gluten-free pancakes
amongst other things. All very surreal in a jolly sort of way.
In stark contrast to the above Matt played baritone ukulele while his
daughter Sinead sang O Holy Night. It was their first time and she has a
beautiful, and I’d have to say, a somewhat ethereal voice that charmed
the crowd. And then, speaking of ethereal voices, but in a different way
than Sinead, Roan sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas which was
also a joy to listen to.
Craig gave us Lennon’s Happy Christmas War is Over and had us all
singing the “War is over” part. This is a song that reminds me of those
affirmations that we continue to say to ourselves over and over even
though there’s no evidence of them actually working: “I have 10 million
dollars in my bank account and a seaside villa in Bermuda” being an
example of an affirmation that somehow just never quite seems to
manifest. Hmmm.
Martin sang a song he wrote about those poor people who have to buy
double presents for people who have birthdays near Christmas. Ron sang
the Don Williams song I Believe ably backed up by Russ on uke and Andy
on guitar. BTW, all evening it was great to have Andy, Russ and Ron up
onstage with me. We’re quite a kickass band when we get going 🙂
Remember Keegan? For his end of the world song last month he sang My Dog
Rover. Well for his Christmas song he sang My Dog Rover because: Rover
was born in December. And so we have firmly established now that My Dog
Rover is the ultimate all-purpose song for all occasions. And I’m sure
we’ll hear it again…in 2013/14/15/ and so on!
Wherever you are and wherever you’re going please be happy and safe and
I look forward to strumming with you again soon.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Ralph.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday November 20, 2012
…we did it!!! Two and a half rollicking hours of apocalyptic ukulele music. Who knew it could be so much fun.
It struck me, as we played the songs in the book, how many of these perfectly normal songs take on a completely different meaning when looked at in terms of the end of the world. People really got into the theme too. My last minute suggestion to dress as pirates and nerds was taken up by quite a few people although, since most uke players are kind of nerdy anyway, it was kinda hard to know who had made a special effort. ha haa.
Performance was chock-a-block with great performances. Natalie and Lisa (first timers to our stage) did a fabulous harmonized rendition of All My Loving by the Beatles and then Don, in a kilt and adamant that it’s the Scots, not Nerds nor Pirates, who will be the ones to survive cataclysmic disaster, sang The End from the Beatles Abbey Road album (which I’ve never listened to, if you can believe it.) Ken was up next singing I Like the Way She Walks since he reckons those are the sort of thoughts that will be on his mind when the end comes to all of us. Hmm, could be, but I guess that would depend on what form the final disaster takes.
Jill, true to form, used the opportunity to sing one of her highly original originals: Zombie Apocalypse–A Love Story. Ron told how he met Bill Gates in 1986, had a gin and tonic with him and then missed a unique opportunity to buy Microsoft shares for only $20 a pop. What that had to do with the ultimate denouement I have no idea but it was a good story. He then sang Green Fields Are Gone Now (Ron sang, not Bill Gates.) Keegan sang his original song My Dog Rover; always a crowd pleaser and it came with a dueling harmonicas solo plus lots of barking.
Ed sang I’m a Stranger There. This was from a group called The Five Man Electrical Band. He used two voices to sing it, but not at the same time. Now that would have been cool. Tom provided us with What the world Needs Now is Love (one of those songs that everyone knows but no-one has any idea who made it famous). Bill sang a calypso ditty to greet the great inferno, a truly Canadian lament that wonders where will we ski once the snow has melted. It even had a sympathetic line for the girl who reads the snow reports. Anne, in perfect keeping with the on-going theme, sang When the Sun Goes Nova. Boaz managed to dig out a Tom Lehrer song on this subject: We Will All Go Together When We Go, which had not only hilarious words but more key changes than any song has a right to.
It was good that such a dreary theme as the end of everything still managed to be mostly uplifting. Such great songs. Craig sang Politic by Coldplay and Russ finished the night off with The End of the World (another of those well known songs that everyone has heard but no-one seems to know who originally did it.)
We had a prize of a 2012 book (there’s a whole lot of books on that theme in the remaindered section at Banyen Books now if you’re interested.)And it was won by Jill for her stirring tale of love during the last Zombie battle to win the earth.
Christmas is coming!! Next month we’ll be singing from our Print-It-Yourself Christmas Songbook which you can download and print from the “Files” section on the Vanukes website. We may also have a few copies for people to buy on the night (comment added by Wendy: they will sell for $5 each, not a good deal).
Also, Josh announced tonight: If you’re interested in being part of a Christmas Carol Ukulele Singalong on Saturday December 8th at 3pm then head on over to the Arts and Crafts show and sale at 301-4438 Juneau Street, Burnaby (1 block from Brentwood Mall Skytrain.)
Thanks to all you uke players for making the End of the World so much damn fun. And thanks to Ron (on Bass) for suggesting it.
Keep smiling and strumming!!
Ralph.
The King of the Ukulele!!
Visit http://www.RalphShaw.ca for Book, DVDs, CDs.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday October 16, 2012
So just to clarify again…the Vancouver Ukulele Circle is not coming to an end. According to certain interpretations of the Mayan calendar however it seems that the world itself is ending. But, you know what, it really isn’t and I’m willing to bet on that: any amount you suggest. But we’re having fun with this and so next month’s performance time will consist of songs for the Uke-pocalypse.
Performances tonight started with Lola and I apologize for I forgot what song she sang. But I do remember it was good! Then Ron got us into the apocalyptic spirit by singing Eve of Destruction. Roan (what a voice!) sang the Gorillaz song: To Binge.
This past weekend I was one of the teachers at Vivo! the Langley ukulele workshop. Ed was there too and he won a ukulele in the raffle from Empire Music. He’s just getting used to it right now but he did a fine job of the blues song Trouble in Mind. Boaz, always on the search for famous songs that no-one has ever heard, treated us to The Turn of a Friendly Card (parts 1 and 2) by The Alan Parson’s Project. Nice instrumental work, as usual.
Craig, who did a nice job of leading the shenanigins last month played Bowie’s Queen Bitch. Paul did a very nice version of the ubiquitous Gotye song: Somebody That I used to Know. The hypnotic movement of the chords works very well on uke as Paul demonstrated. It was cool that he did this song because it was a perfect set-up for the next act, how to describe this, hmmm. Well… Joanne was dressed like George Lucas attending a black bow-tie awards ceremony and Jill appeared from behind the Panini display as Darth Vader. With her mask and cape she looked very powerful, in fact she zapped me with “the Force” simply for reaching to get her dropped capo and left me for dead underneath the soup tureens. But I’m okay. They went on to sing a funny spoof of the Gotye song called: The Star Wars That I Used to Know which bitterly lamented what George Lucas did with his more recent Star Wars movies. Peter finished things off with a very funny song based on a viral video (that no-one present had seen) about what a cat and a dolphin might have said to each other after they became friends.
Nice help from songleaders: Peter, Lola, Paul and Gary. If anyone else wants to lead anytime just let me know!
Stay warm and dry and we’ll see each other again in November.
Keep plonking!
Ralph The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit http://www.RalphShaw.ca for Book, DVDs, CDs.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday September 18, 2012
It’s Wendy here, reporting in on the goings on at our 12-year anniversary! Maybe that’s why we had such an excited energetic group tonight. Or maybe it was Craig Stewart’s fine leading. Ralph seems to be in Toronto or somewhere, not here where the action was. The group was in good voice. Craig noted the chords of particular significance in the tunes. Tom helped out with the leading, and even did one number for beginners, Horse with No Name, with only two chords – Dm and the “nothing” chord (A6). There were 13 beginners tonight, and it sounded like they all got it. After the break, we got to have Andy (on guitar) joining Ron (bass) on back-up. It was so nice to have Andy back – it’s been too long since we’ve had him with us.
Tom kicked off performance time with Here, There and Everywhere, sounding like he was the one who’d recorded it (I think I always say that – he’s great at that). Ed’s getting better and better – tonight he did Key to the Highway, in the style of Little Walter, from 1958. Joanna sang Code Monkey, accompanied by Jill, a song that I think Jill wrote. Sounded sort of autobiographical. Jen and Joanna belted out Heebie-Jeebies in great harmony. The kazoo with megaphone attachment (is there a name for that thing?) was a nice touch and was very well-played. This was actually a promotion for the upcoming show Friday, September 21, 7:30, where their group, the Company B Jazz Band, will share the bill with Black Gardenia (Daphne and Andy’s group). Here’s the link for tickets (and the flyer).
Boaz said he was going decidedly mainstream with Eye in the Sky, an Alan Parsons Project tune. I don’t know about mainstream, but it was decidedly beautifully delivered. Boris was on the list to be next, because I was keeping the performers list and the email sign-up sheet and I got mixed up and put his name and email on the performers list. He told me later that he’ll write a song for next month with his email address as the title. So the real next up was Roan, a first-timer, who said she hoped she’d do ok – she’d been playing ukulele since last Wednesday. No way would we have known it was a new instrument for her. She sang On the Bus Mall, by the Decemberists.
Jeff sang Ain’t No Sunshine, a Bill Withers tune. He invited us to help him count to 18. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. There might have been a few more.
Did we know Paul makes ukuleles? Unrelated to that, he told a story about being at some gathering where he and his buddies were asked to sing a Canadian song. The one they came up with was what he performed tonight – Call Me Maybe, as performed by Carly Rae Jepsen. He has such a good sense of rhythm that everyone started clapping along. OK, I’ve just watched the CRJ video – Paul does that so much better! Daphne and Andy tried out a tune supposedly new to them – This Can’t Be Love. Daphne said she hasn’t learned the chords yet, so she played the melody. Andy said he hasn’t learned the chords yet, so he played the chords. Or maybe he played very fancy chords so we couldn’t figure out that he didn’t know them. Really, what does it mean when Andy says he doesn’t know the chords?
Ron introduced his tune with a very funny story about his new wife’s making the acquaintance of his first wife, who had walked out on him 30 years ago, and the new wife, not knowing that, bringing her back to meet him and their friends at their vacation cabin. He said it was a little awkward. His song was Tom Paxton’s The Last Thing on my Mind, with the line “Are you going away with no word of farewell?”. Travis, another first-timer, was excited to be here. He’d been home watching the telly when his girlfriend called him to say she was watching 50 people all playing away at their ukes and he should get over here. He thought we could use an uplifting song at this point, which was Me and Julio Down by the School Yard. It sounded like he’d been practicing it all month because he knew he’d be performing it tonight. Martin closed the show saying we were getting too happy and could use something a little more depressing (was that really what he said?), so he played us a great bluesy lament that he wrote called Coming Home.
That’s it. I hope I didn’t forget to mention anything. Happy anniversary!
Wendy
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday August 21, 2012
Hello fellow ukulele Fiends!!!
Performance time always amazes me. The surprises and the quality of what we get to see is always a treat. But tonight there was a special edge. Hard to put my finger on exactly what it was but I think it has something to do with the fact that the first duo, Els and Lise, did a medley of Leonard Cohen’s Tower of Song with Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues, played on ukulele and Viola da Gamba (a 17th century upright viol with 6 strings–basically a cross between guitar and cello) and featured a ripping recorder solo. It totally set the bar and everyone else kept up the standard.
When Denis told me he had written a song in “the Cole Porter style” I thought to myself ‘good luck to even come close buddy’. However, it turned out that his songwriting was shockingly good, and of such maturity that it could easily have passed for a Cole Porter number, amazing. Anna, all the way from Toronto, did a great job of Black Magic Woman. Ed had us all singing along to a song called Oom Pa Pa. Alison then followed up with No-one Needs to Know. She is a singing teacher and her classes are starting soon. Hey Alison! I invite you to send a note to the group to let folks know about your classes.
Craig stepped up to the challenge of songleading for the first time tonight and he led three songs. For his performance he did a most excellent version of BNL’s song Boxed Set. Russ then a sang a song called This Guy’s in Love With You and if you were to ask me what was special about his piece I’d say it was the feeling that he put across. He really created a beautiful mood. BUT he also made the obvious mistake of saying out loud to the ukulele crowd that he wished he had a Herb Alpert style horn section. What he got instead was a kazoo and two harmonicas. All well and good; except the kazoo didn’t stop. It continued to play, punctuating his reverie with perfectly timed comic rasps. I found the effect of this to be completely hilarious.
Boaz played and sang Go Insane by Lindsay Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist). His melody and chord playing was no less than sensational. After him came two new ladies: Cheryn and Aneeta. They sang Dream a Little Dream of Me. And this is where I discovered the wielders of the cheeky kazoos. For it was they. Their instrumental for the song was the delightful rasp of not one but TWO kazoos played in harmony. You don’t hear that every day.
Paul sang Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. He forgot the words and bailed on the song. But, as Wendy commented to me later, the quality of Paul’s performance is so good that even when he screws up it’s still beautiful to listen to. Last time Tim was here was two years ago when he sang Tie a Yellow Ribbon. This time he sang John Mayer’s No Such Thing. Real nice singing there. Jeff sang Bad Day by Patrick Watson, a somewhat meditative song. Jen helped to get the energy rising up again with Bye Bye Blackbird–including the rarely heard but beautiful–introductory verse.
And finally Keegan, what can I say. He loves coming along to uke circle and boy did he make a meal of singing the Blues song Crossroads. I backed him up on rhythm ukulele, Ron was thumping the bass and Lise was invited to totally rock-out on her recorder once again; which she did. I hope it was fun for you. I know that Keegan and I had a blast. Good time!
I’m heading off on my tour of Ontario ukulele clubs soon. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!
But don’t stop strumming and singing and smiling and strumming and singing!!
Yours Strumcerely,
Ralph Shaw
The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers Visithttp://www.RalphShaw.ca for Book, DVDs, CDs.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday July 17, 2012
Hello strummers!!
It was indeed a hot evening but fortunately there were several
strategically fans to blow soothing cool air through our strings and
into the gaping sound holes of our ukuleles…Aaaah.
First of all, workshops: Next Wednesday, July 25th at 7:30pm sees Australians
Mark Jackson and Jane Jelbart coming to Our Town Cafe to teach a drop-in
class. They are great people. I met them in Oz this spring and saw
first-hand the results of their dynamic teaching work. Cost is $10
I will teaching a couple of local workshops too. My “Secret to Infinite
Strums” workshop is sold out but for those of you who couldn’t get in
we’re going to run it, and another workshop, in August and September.
I’ll let you know! However there should be one or two spots left at my
Beginners workshop this Friday. It’ll be at Gandharva Loka world music
store on Granville Island at 8pm. Call 604 683 7733 or email them at
[email protected] to preregister. The cost is $15.
We had two coincidences tonight. The first happened when Ron commented
that Liam, our server, must be hot wearing a toque in this weather. I
commented that one of the Monkees always wore a toque and he lived in
California (or Texas). but I couldn’t for the life of me remember his
name. An hour later Boaz came to give me his song for performance time
and said, “Mike Nesmith.”
I said, “that’s right! Did Ron ask you to tell me that?” Boaz looked at
me blankly–his usual look (ha ha haa)– and said, “No I’m doing a song
by Mike Nesmith”. Wow spooky! Towards the end as we were about to sing
We’ll Meet Again, Ken informed us that Dame Vera Lynn, the star who sang
that song in WWII, just passed away. So it became an unexpected tribute
to her.
Denis returned and started us off by singing Life is a Cabaret; which he
did last month also. But his time he did it in D, Wow…What a
Difference!!!!! no not really. Joanna sang a Katie Perry song (she of I
Kissed a Girl fame) called Hot and Cold. The song works remarkably well
on ukulele! Susan, who has only been playing since May, got up to sing
Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright. She got herself a well deserved
standing ovation. Alison sang Tell Him, a song that everyone knows but
no-one seems to be able to remember the artist. I can now Tell You that
it was The Exciters.
Paul Jeff and Magda sang the Pixies’ Here Comes Your Man. The fact that
both Jeff and Paul got a fit of the giggles every time they had to sing
“Here Comes Your Man” added greatly to the frivolity. Boaz sang Mike
Nesmith’s Different Drum (fyi also covered by Linda Ronstadt).
Don did something very interesting. He took a Greenday song, Good
Riddance Time of Your Life, and played it as a chord-melody piece. It
was nicely done and only briefly marred by some feedback as Ron wrestled
to keep the new amp under control. Ron then sang Donovan’s “Colours”. He
told us he’s been singing “Yellow is the colour of my true loves
hair…” at home, and his brunette wife has been nonplussed by this. His
marriage still survives so that’s good. Ya gotta be careful with ya
choice of song I tell ya.
Keegan, of “Oh My Dog Rover” fame sang a blues song. I don’t know what
it was called but he did a harmonica solo and uke solo and it was highly
fine. Finally I asked Johnny Sway to request a song from my album By
George! which he found in the local library today and so I sang Why
Don’t Women Like Me. One of my favourites. Nice request. Thanks Johnny.
Have a wonderful summer and remember to get out with your ukulele into
the sunshine while you can.
See you in August and keep on strumming and smiling!!
Cheers,
Ralph
The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit http://www.ralphshaw.ca/ for Book, DVDs, CDs.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday June 19, 2012
Aah there’s nothing better than a good strum!
It’s so true. I’m sitting here thinking how good I feel after tonight’s uke circle. It’s always this way. I don’t know whether to put it down to the happy vibe, the cathartic outpouring of music or the cup of peppermint tea I imbibed before playing. Whatever it is, I like it!
A superlative evening. Packed to the rafters of course. I wish I could magically make seats appear for everyone but I can’t. If it’s any consolation, I don’t get to sit down either.
We sang a bunch of our usual and eclectic stuff. I want to give a special mention to a young fella called Keegan – what a guy! Trying to get people to come and lead songs is like pulling teeth. But when I asked for a volunteer to come up and lead Sweet Caroline, Keegan jumped up and did it even though it was his first time at uke circle. He also delighted us all during performance time with his original song My Dog Rover. Unforgettable!!!
A perfect start to performance time came from Denis Gunn who sang Life is a Cabaret. Isn’t it just; in the middle of his song a fire engine roared by on Broadway with red lights twirling, the sirens playing in exact rhythm to the Cabaret song. Paul sang Eye of the Tiger. You know that someone’s captured the essence of a song when the audience roars their recognition within 2 bars of music.
We are happy to see Ed back, fitter than ever after his operation, smiling and singing Roger Miller’s Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Craig gave us the Tom Waits song Jockey full of Bourbon. Carrie did some pretty fancy playing on the song Let Me Entertain You from the musical Gypsy. In honour of this being the last day or two of spring before summer officially hits, Boaz sang Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Another, more melancholy, Tom Waits song was played for us by Jimmy J.
Ron Usher, henceforth known as “The Bishop” or simply “The Bish” when he’s doing the street thaang, gave us Deep River Blues, a song by The Delmore Brothers. Ron was in Oregon recently when one of the Delmores was inducted into the Tenor Guitar Hall of Fame. Ron played the song on tenor guitar, or as we like to call it: a retuned baritone uke. Alison, a singing teacher and with us for the first time, sang Over the Rainbow. What a sound! If she helps her students sing half as well as she does I can recommend her for voice lessons.
Johnny Sway was next. In the noisy room I thought he’d said his name is Johnny Swag, which in all honesty I have to say I like better. He did a wonderful job of playing and singing Doo Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann. It was most entertaining. Carol, Jo and Jen led us in a beautiful and rousing Amazing Grace. Then I broke the introspective mood by letting loose with the Tom Jones song Sex Bomb! (To honour her majesty’s 60th jubilee.)
I’m so happy. It’s so much fun to do this with you guys. Thank you.
Until July when we do it all again — keep strumming and smiling!
Ralph Shaw
If you haven’t signed up for my no cost email newsletter yet you can do so at my website: Great tips to help your playing and performance. The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers Visit http://www.ralphshaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday May 15, 2012
My personal favourite tonight was when we did Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire in the style of Wagnerian opera. I don’t know what it sounded like but it sure was fun to play!
There were several first timers performing tonight. These included: Yoshimi who partnered with Carrie to sing The Wayward Wind; Fran & Lisa who I virtually dragged onstage to sing Blue Suede Shoes, and Callum who sang an original Gospel song called Waiting for a Miracle that had us all dancing in the aisles and waving our arms in the air; well, I was anyway.
Gary had us all singing along to The Wild Rover. Craig provided a powerful good vocal for the Rolling Stones’ Shine a Light. Boaz sang She’s My Girl. He didn’t introduce it as a Tom Lehrer song, although that fact became obvious upon hearing the first line: “Shark gotta swim, Bat gotta fly”.
Russ and Tom sang The Band’s Cripple Creek partly to honour their drummer/singer Levon Helm who passed away recently. Jeff sang CCR’s Have You Ever Seen The Rain. Els felt brave enough to sing Walk On the Wild Side. She was going to do it last month but chickened out because there are some rude bits in the song and her dad was in the audience. I asked her “Which are the rude bits?” but she refused to tell me. Tom sang the Sinatra hit In the Wee Small hours of the Morning. I finished things off with a 1920s song called Whispering.
There was so much great stuff tonight and a fabulous energy in the room. Thank you so much for being a part of it.
Strummity strum strum – till next month!!!
Ralph
New book: The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit http://www.RalphShaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday April 17, 2012
Last week I came back to Vancouver from Australia and Hawaii and was
thrilled to discover that the weather here was not too different from
what I’d been getting in the tropics. It felt like summer was early.
Well tonight’s cool April rain changed all that and now I feel I am
truly back on the wet coast once more.
Ed played us a James Hill tune: “Minimalist Blues” and was followed by
Boaz who introduced his performance of a Bowie song as being “minimalist
glam”. The song was “Lady Grinning Soul”, I’m listening to it right now
and I can finally hear what Boaz was getting at as he imitated the piano
trills and other bits. Unfortunately no-one in the audience had ever
heard the song before so we had no references for Boaz’s excellent piece
of adaptation. Sorry Boaz.
First timer at Our Town, Joel, played “Such Great Heights” (by Postal
Service) as a singalong. Ron played Anytime on his limited edition
Martin Tenor Guitar wonderfully accompanied by Russ on lead solo. Matt
sang “Andrew in Drag” (Magnetic Fields) barely managing to hold himself
together from cracking up. Anne sang lead vocal on “I’ll Fly Away” and
Luci did backing vocal and accompanied on frailing style ukulele.
Barry did a fine job of playing “Big Road Blues” by keeping a driving
sort of rhythm going that made not tapping your feet almost impossible.
Jeff sang “White Winter Hymnal” (The Fleet Foxes) and Jen sang a song
called “Maurice”. It was a sad song but made absurdly funny because she
dedicated it to her cactus that she killed, mostly with kindness, but
also with unsuitable cactus-friendly conditions. Cool dark basement
suites aren’t the best homes for our desert brethren. Paul finished
things off with John Mayall’s “The Heart of Life”. He’s about to sing it
for 400 people at his old Elementary School fundraiser. So wish him
luck!
Anne Fleming is having a book launch next week and she needs ukulele
players. She’ll be sending out more info on that soon.
Till next time!!
Ralph
The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit www.RalphShaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday March 20, 2012
Wendy here. We’ve let Ralph go off to Australia for a month of performing and what-not. Apparently, we weren’t enough of an audience for him here.
Peter Dunn did a fine job running the show Tuesday night. He remembered to have us tune up, and we sang our traditional starting and ending tunes, and we learned some chords along the way. He asked if anyone knew You and I, and invited a first-timer volunteer to come up and help him lead it (whose name I didn’t get, sorry).
Peter was ably helped with the leading by Joe, Paul, Ronin and Tom. Ronin showed us how to slide our G up the neck to make the A and C chords in Eight Days a Week, and Tom made the tricky bits easy for While My Guitar Gently Weeps. He also led Only You in a rendition that sounded just like what I remember of the recording.
Joe started off performance time with a sort of autobiographical Tribute about the Best Song, with contrapuntal vocal help from Peter. Ken performed a bluesy sounding number he told me was just called The Blues. Craig sang a song with a happy melody but scary words, and as the song went on his persona changed into Mac the Knife before our eyes- most impressive! Ronin did a not surprisingly wild rendition of Born to be Wild. Magda sang a touching version of To Make You Fell My Love. In another autobiographical song, Jill performed YouTube Song, explaining why she didn’t get her song contest submission in on time (according to the song, anyway).
Boaz channeled Jacques Brel with Port of Amsterdam. Tom swears that the tune he sang, Dang Me, made it into the Top 5. Whoever recorded it must have sung it as well as he did. First timer Daniel did an amazing job on Jake Shimabukuro’s Blue Roses Falling. Hansol played a classy sort of classical intro to Slow Boat to China. Goeff sang Maggie May, which I’d never heard of, but it was written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and has a whole page in Wikipedia. Paul did Something There to Remind Me in reggae style because, as he says, that’s what he does.
Thanks to Russ MacKay who has volunteered to pick up songbooks and sell them next month when Carol can’t be here.
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday February 21, 2012
Success!! We have found someone to take over the job of picking up and
selling the books. Peter Dunn not only was instrumental in creating the
vanukes songbook in its present form he also goes to the printers every
month to pick up books and sells them at the meetings. It’s not the
hardest job in the world but it does take a little time and it is
important for us. Please join me in thanking Peter for all his work and
thank you Carol McAusland for coming forward to take the job on. (My
heartfelt plea for help must have worked.)
Tonight’s solo performers were: Craig came up for his first time to sing
Monochrome by Yann Thiersen (soundtrack of Amelie), Ron (usually our
bass player) sang the Old Lamplighter – A tune whose first four notes
happen to be GCEA – the strings of a ukulele!
I wish I could adequately describe what Julie and Jen did. In harmony
they sang an original song called Mr Mustard. This energetic song had an
instrumental that Julie performed with a sort of mouth-trumpet-scat
technique something like 1920s uke-crooner Cliff Edwards would do. The
whole thing was so much like an old-time mustard commercial I can still
taste the flavour of hot dog. Gary sang the lovely Hawaiian song Kahlua.
The Ukesters, tonight down to only three members, did Herman’s Hermits:
End of the World, with each taking different parts.
It was fitting that Jeff sang a song (Just Like Heaven) by Eighties band
The Cure because he told us tonight that singing at uke circle has
helped improve his asthma a good deal. That’s great news. Singing in a
group is known to be a very healthy activity. I asked if anyone else had
noticed similar health benefits for themselves but I only got silly
answers. Peter Dunn shouted out, “I can see!!” But he could already see
so it doesn’t count.
Staying with the Eighties theme, Matt sang The Smith’s ever cheerful
Girlfriend in a Coma. Paul took Jackie Wilson’s R&B hit Higher Higher
and recreated it with his own signature sound. Boaz (tonight sounding
strangely like Jon Anderson from “Yes”) sang Let’s Give Him the Chair.
Written by his Toronto friend David Yakobi.
Tom sang Ever My Love, introducing it as one of those songs from the
Sixties on the theme of, “Yes I’ll always love you so stop freaking
out.” Cynthia sang Jobim’s So Danco Samba. I sang The Inkspot’s Every
Night About this Time.
A packed house and a fun night. I’m heading off to Australia soon to
visit numerous ukulele clubs down there. Should be fun, although I don’t
know how I’ll handle being upside down for so long. By the way I write a
no-cost fortnightly newsletter to help uke players and performers. You
can sign up to get it at my website: http://www.ralphshaw.ca/ then go to
the newsletter signup page.
Until next time: Keep strumming, keep smiling and keep breathing!
Ralph Shaw
New book:
The Ukulele Entertainer
Visit www.RalphShaw.ca
Vancouver Ukulele Circle Meeting – Tuesday January 17, 2012
It’s -5 degrees and there’s talk of snow. Appropriate now to remind everyone that those all-season strings should really be called 3-season strings. When the weather gets this icy you need to put on snow-strings. They help to keep your fingers from slipping and can be real life-savers should your song come to a sudden stop. Yes they cost a little more – but it’s worth it.
The frigid conditions meant a somewhat smaller crowd than we’ve been used to recently. But all seats were full, there was a great energy and a good time was had by, well, me at least. One of the Our Town serving wenches mentioned that she’s not normally keen to work on other open-mic nights, However! She loves our music, songs and performances. Speaking of which Gary kicked things off with the Beatle song Hide Your Love Away (It’s only Beatles with an ‘s’ if you’re talking about more than one song.) Ed sang the McCartney song Dance Tonight.
Sarah had her debut performance and sang the Beach Boys Don’t Worry Baby. Many of us can learn from her smiling stage demeanor. Even when struggling for the occasional chord her presence never slipped and everyone enjoyed her all the more. Peter sang us an original birthday song for his friend Julia. The song relates how she once flashed her boobs in order to amuse her friends. There were other things in the song too but that’s all I remember. It’s hard being male.
There are many romantic moon songs. Jill’s original song was not one of those. Coding by Moonlight was a musical ode to the nocturnal nerd (indeed what other kind is there?) It came with a groovy singalong instrumental in binary notation. Russ took us to the beaches of Jamaica with the Bob Marley Classic: Three Little Birds. Boaz took on Bowie once again, dealing with the death of Ziggy Stardust (as opposed to his own onstage demise like when he last performed a Bowie song. Ha ha!)
Paul, fresh from Hawaii, sang Simon and Garfunkel’s Hazy Shade of Winter. Hansol did Bobby Vincent’s I Love How You Love Me. Jeff sang Tiger Mountain Peasant Song from the Free Foxes. I finished things off with Cheek to Cheek.
Special mention must be made to Ron. The Our Town amp broke down just before performance time but Ron saved the evening by jury rigging a replacement system with the extra gear that he brings. Way to go buddy!
Keep strumming and stay happy
Ralph
My new book:
The Ukulele Entertainer – Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
Visit www.RalphShaw.ca
