Jake's Just a Poor Boy, Nobody Loves Him

Jake's been working on Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for some time. Here 'tis!

cover it

So, I’m sittin’ at Louie’s Bar and Grill. Friday afternoon. Not much happenin’ in Ukuleletown on a Friday afternoon.

Lotta talk about doin’ covers of songs and getting’ hassled or booted off YouTube. Of course, last time I looked, YouTube wasn’t chargin’ people to look at the videos. Learning and playing other people’s songs is the lifeblood of musical knowledge.

The problem seems to be putting them on YouTube in a (semi) permanent format for all the record company business lawyers to see.

Let ‘em sort it out. Big record companies are dyin’ and frantically trying to keep control of something they never really had any control over in the first place. Music is air to musicians. Just lean back and breathe deep.

This is Miss Zooey from Australia doing a brilliant cover of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok:

Where the Uke Have We Been?

Welcome back! If you're a regular reader of Ukulelia, you no doubt noticed that we haven't posted anything new for some time, and that the blog was entirely down for a couple weeks.

What happened? Well, suffice it to say that Ukulelia (which we're proud to say was established long before most folks knew what a blog was) had been published by an ancient method (by internet standards) and we had to forklift the whole shebang over to a new protocol in order for us to keep publishing it.

Alas, what had been promised to be an easy and smooth transition was not, and it took some time for us to work out the deets. We have much more work to do to repaint and rewire the hale, but at least we're back!

I would like to thank the following Friends of Ukulelia who helped us navigate the arcane windings of the changeover:

• Jim Bradbury, who keeps the web flame over at The Sierra Club, and knows more about the Beatles than a uke player should
• Adrian Cotter, the genius behind Dopey Dopey Dodos, the swell new game for your iPad.

Ultimately, the credit goes to Ukulelia Founder, Mark Frauenfelder. Mark started Ukulelia as an outlet for his personal ukulele fanaticism, and has generously allowed Craig and me to edit the blog while he was busy with things like building Boing Boing, editing MAKE Magazine, and writing more neato books than you can shake a stick at.

We're thrilled to be back. Thank you for your patience, and please tell everyone you know that Ukulelia's back!

Volcano Song

Ouch!

This is so good it hurts. Little 6ster from France on ukulele and vox and Christelle Berthon on harmonica, playing "Miss Cellie's Blues"

Craig Robertson's New CD

Yup. It's me. I always feel a little weird about self-promotion. I guess I shouldn't.
(the angel on one shoulder is saying "be polite, people will recognize what you do" while the devil on my other shoulder is saying "screw it, do it!"

so...

My newest CD, Better Liar, will start shipping at the end of April (this month). You can PRE-ORDER a copy right now.

Mastered at Psychic Hamster Studios by Bill Sherman.
Additional vocals on by Amber Nash and Jordan Neff (from Shiny and the Spoon), Electric Guitar on "Dark Circles" by the Rev. Willie Deuel, Drum tracks and Bass guitar (where noted) by Arturo Larizza

Produced by Craig Robertson and Arturo Larizza

songs included are:

1. Only a Bird
2. Broken’s Spoken Here
3. Dark Circles
4. Metaphors
5. Rosa’s Song
6. Narcissa
7. The Scorpion Queen
(Z. Janzen 2009)
8. Never Understand
9. Undead
10. Pigeons and Hawks
11. Conjure Box
12. Better Liar

You can also click on a link on my website for the chords (most of them) and the lyrics to the songs.
enjoy!

LINK

Jumping Flea or Champion?

Seattle-based Matt Dahlberg seems to have an identity crisis. He's either "The Jumping Flea" or "The Champion of the Ukulele." Either way, he's pretty darn good. Link

Vintage String Packages

Ukulelia University Adjunct Professor of String Theory and Fretboard Journal editor Michael Simmons pointed us to this online photo gallery of vintage string packages, several of which are for ukuleles. Some wonderful graphics here. I especially like this circa 1935 George Formby banjolele string package. The illo looks very much like R. Crumb's handiwork. Link

Poulet Shack

Manitoba Hal gets his Poulet Frit Kentucky on!

No No NoCal

I am sad to announce that the Northern California Ukulele Festival (traditionally held in Hayward, CA every April) has been canceled for this year. Evidently budget cuts for cultural events at the State level made it an impossibility for PICA, the event's organizer. Let's hope that things turn around in time for the Fest to happen in 2011.

The Mysterious Eddy Clark, "The Ukulele Baby"

I can find almost nothing about Eddy Clark, billed as "The Ukulele Baby". Here are two recordings posted on the Internet Archive: Ukulele Baby and We're Gonna Have Weather. Oh, and by the way, Bill "Rock That Uke" Roberston sez Eddy was a lady. Despite what the copywriter thought.

Le Cabaret Grimm

Jojo, "the Burlesque Poetess"
also a member of Walter Sickert's Army of Broken Toys
in a production called "Le Cabaret Grimm" at the Boston Center for the Arts
Link

Tea Bagging with the Uke

Uker and former SNL cast member Victoria Jackson recorded a couple CDs of childrens' songs several years ago. Her latest song has a more political bent. So just to show that not everyone who plays the uke falls on the left side of the political spectrum, here's Victoria.

Ukuleles Fight Tooth Decay

Who knew? This winsome young gal in Life Magazine in 1951. Link

The Pearl Qatar...

This set could be either from a Fairy Tale or a Science Fiction movie...

It's Amelia Robinson, from England. She says: "I’m a ukulele-ist contracted by a big development company in Doha off the Arabian Peninsula to bring some soul and life onto a mad-made island called The Pearl Qatar. Am just finishing up a 5 month stint and thought you may be interested in some new vids I’ve just uploaded..."