Ukulele Joe Thomas

Meet Omaha's second most famous–and until now, mostly mysterious–ukulele player, Ukulele Joe Thomas.

Ukulele documentarian (rockumentarian? ukumentarian?) Bill Robertson has been searching for information on Mr. Thomas for 11 years. He finally heard back from the Douglas County [Nebraska] Historical Society yesterday. From the Society's facebook page:

"Let me introduce you to Ukulele Joe Thomas, a native of New Orleans and longtime Omahan, where he worked as private chef for the Union Pacific, often for the organization's top management when they traveled. 

Joe was also a musician, singer, and songwriter, and on his travels with UP frequently appeared at radio stations along his route. He and his ukulele appeared constantly on Omaha radio from the 1930 to the 1950s. 

Locally, Ukulele Joe was known as the "singing chef," and he had turned his entire home kitchen into an impromptu concert hall."

Link

(h/t Wm Preston Robertson)

Aaron Kuehn - Ukulele Typogram

Artist Aaron Kuehn has created a clever typogram: an illustration of a ukulele almost entirely out of type. Sez Aaron:

"A tiny mas­ter­piece of typo­lutherie, the UKULELE TYPOGRAM tunes and con­di­tions your ‘uke-abulary, and upgrades the orthog­ra­phy of chord shapes for aspir­ing vir­tu­osi. A muse for the re-entranted."

.pdf files of the art are available for $5. Check it out.

Link

Licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

Stien Bovijn

Meet the mysterious Stien Bovijn, Belgian beatboxer and ukulele chanteuse. We haven't found much about her, but she has a lovely voice. Her tracks "17" and "Slow Down" are real standouts. Listen here.

Photo credit: Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove

Magic Fluke Ukuleles and Violins

Finally! The Magic Fluke Company, makers of the terrific Fluke, Flea, and Firefly ukes now has a website. They're making violins now, too. Say Hi to Phyllis and Dale Webb.

Link

S'Wonderful, Mr. Godfrey

Having a stressful week. This helped. Hope it does for you, too.

Rhymes With "Darling" Ukers

Check out this charming shot by Spidra Webster from the recent Cheap Suit Serenaders show at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. Link

Do these kids remind you of Jeremy and Jemima from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? They do me.

This impressive duet must have certainly been a tough act to follow. That's Ukulelia Perfesser Emirates Robert Armstrong on the musical bedpan behind them.

I checked with the kids' mom, who tells me that video of their performance was shot, but didn't make the grade. As a consolation, imagine they're every bit as good as Joel Eckhaus and (pastor) Rachel Manke. (I'm certain they were.)

The Jamie Oliver of Music Education?

Richmond, VA based music educator Samson Trinh hopes to become the Jamie Oliver of music education. And the uke's his stock pot.

Check out this nice profile of Samson and his Uke'N'Roll program in today's USA Today.

And learn more about Samson's programs on his website.

Happy cooking, Samson!

The Booming Business of Ukuleles

The (ahem) idiot-proof ukulele is being credited with boosting small, independent music stores across the country. Read all about it in this CNN Money report, which also features a nice video interview of uke maker Mike DaSilva. Link

Greatest Ukulele Gift of the Year

I'm not sure if the link below will work for you, as I'm not sure what the FB permissions setting is, but I'll repeat the story.

Earlier in 2013, Alan "Ukisociety" Brandt sold his custom Tom Guy maple tenor (the one he's playing in the above video) to raise money to adopt a child. The ukulele changed hands several times during the year until the last buyer, Edwin Gilkison, noticed Alan's name inside and, after finding out why Alan sold it, gave it back to him.

Hats off to Mr. Gilkison, Official Ukulelia Hero of 2013. What a loving gesture.

Link

Tonight You Belong to Me: World's Greatest Version

Let's start the new year right. And by "right", I mean with the world's greatest rendition of "Tonight You Belong to Me." Courtesy of Benjamin J. Ames and his four-year-old daughter.

(h/t Jeff West aka Humble Uker)

Coming Soon: U900 Tuners

Looks like we'll see U900 clip on tuners in 2014. I have more tuners than I need already, but how could I resist these? Normally I say "tune it or die," but in this case I think I'd say "tune it and be cute!"

(h/t Woodshed)

The Christmas Song: Brittni Paiva

Here's a little something to make today and tomorrow especially merry: Brittni Paiva's tabbed version of The Christmas Song.

Merry Christmas from Ukulelia. And may Santa bring you the uke of your dreams tonight. Link

The Ukulele Handbook

Bumped into this book on a Christmas shopping trip. Looks like a fun book, and quite nicely done. Not novel enough to buy a copy (although if it shows up on the morning of the 25th I'd be happy), but perhaps you'd like to check it out. Link

West School Ukulele Club

How cute are these kids? From Hingham, MA, 1924 Link

Thanks, Ukester Brown!

The 3D Printed Ukulele

Check this out. A 3-D printed ukulele based on an open source design. Now if this guy would print himself a tuner... Link

Here is a link with more information on the open source design (apparently the link accompanying the YouTube video is incorrect). Link

Thanks, Shelley Rickey!