Hi Folks! The next hug meeting is this coming Monday, July 7 from 7-9 at Celtic Corner. The back room is booked so bring your ukes and your friends for a great night of summertime uking.

I ( John Kavanagh) was in the eastern US recently doing some playing. Here’s a little article I wrote about it, and the uke scene in general, for a Wolfville paper :

Notes from the Ukulele Underground

I spent the first part of April on a Ukulele Caravan – a tour that took me and half-a-dozen other solo and duo performers up the eastern seaboard, playing shows in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine. You may not know about the Internet-driven ukulele scene going on these days, but I’ve seen it, and it’s quite something.

Like any of the millions of hidden worlds, it’s all-important to the people who live there. I met and played with ukulele celebrities like Craig “Ukulele Noir” Robertson, Rotterdam’s Uke Box, Patsy Monteleone, Greg Hawke (yes, the blonde guy from The Cars) and fixtures from New York’s Midnight Ukulele Disco like Sonic Uke and Uke Skywalker. Only in Manhattan could you fill a room at midnight with transvestite ukulele players, most of them excellent. If you think I’m making this up, Google it - I dare you.

The little guitar was first a craze in Hawaii, when it was introduced by a couple of Portuguese builders in 1879. It came to the mainland with the San Francisco Exposition in 1915, and was taken up by some early jazz singers like Cliff (Ukulele Ike) Edwards, the original young crooner in a raccoon coat. That wave rode radio and shellac records.

The Second Wave crested on television, with Arthur Godfrey, and the present Third Wave is spread far but still relatively thin by Web forums, YouTube, and all those TV commercials with a uke tinkling in the background.

Here in Canada, and Nova Scotia in particular, we have a unique bit of uke history: in the 60s and 70s, a music teacher from Truro named Chalmers Doane started a classroom ukulele program that eventually involved 50,000 students. A lot of Canadian baby boomers first learned music with a uke in their hands.

Some of us still play the uke pretty seriously. I’m not the only one – anyone at the Evergreen theatre in Margaretsville May 17th saw a thorough musician and new Nova Scotian named James Hill www.ukulelejames.com play a great show of original ukulele/cello duets. If that sounds marginal, you should have been there. A serious player from New Jersey recently told me that he considers Hill the best uke player in the world today. (It’s not a competition.) He certainly proved, if it was in doubt, that there’s all kinds of first-rate music in that little box.

I think it’s time the Ukulele Renaissance flowered in the Valley. I’m thinking of starting a ukulele group for all ages in September. I’ve coached and played with clubs in Bridgewater, Dartmouth, Halifax, Maine, and at the 2007 international Ukulele Ceilidh in Lunenburg, and I want to bring it home. If you’re interested, email me at parlourukulele@gmail.com or drop into the Odd Book in Wolfville and leave your name. We’ll have fun.

I have a website, plugging my CD, at http://ezfolk.com/audio/John_Kavanagh

Since the Ukulele Hunt site has been on a break lately (Woodshed starts up again with his daily helping of uke everything on June 15), I’ve been checking out some of my other favourite uke haunts. One of the best is Ukulele Underground. In particular, check out the Uke Minutes videos and the video lessons by Aldrine Guerrero - great stuff.

Ukulele Yes! the Classroom Ukulele eZine has been launched as part of James Hill and Chalmer’s Doane’s work with their new Ukulele in the Classroom instruction method.

This first installment of the newly resurrected Ukulele Yes! magazine (the magazine’s original print run was from 1976-1981) features lots of great items to check out including:

• an interview with Peter Luongo of the Langley Ukulele Ensemble,
• a free arrangment of Rattle on the Stovepipe, and
• a great article on Ragtime ukulele by HUG member John Kavanagh.

The next meeting of HUG is NOT Monday, June 2. HUG will be meeting on Monday, June 9 at 7 pm at the Celtic Corner on Alderney Drive in Dartmouth. Bring a friend and see you there!

A note from Rev Hank…

The next HUG get together is this Monday, May 5 at the Celtic Corner in Dartmouth, from 7-9pm.

It would be nice to add to the format this week:

• For those of you comfortable with showcasing your playing, it would be swell if you could perform a tune or 2 by yourself (or with a friend). I’m sure we’d all like to hear each other.
• If you any techniques (strums,solo playing, etc) you can share, time will be set aside for that as well.
• There will also be our usual sing & strum along session.
• Please bring along a tune or 2 (15 copies) to add to our repertoire.

As always, all levels of ukers, and ukies (uke groupies) are welcome. There will be a couple of extra ukes around for those ukeless wonders.

There are a few online forums devoted to the ukulele. These are some of the ones I have found so far. If you have run across any more, let us know. Anyway, if you can stop strumming for a few minutes, check out what people are saying about their favourite four string friend…

• As part of their large site containing tutorials, tabs and members’ music, ezFolk.com hosts a large forum on a multitude of folk instruments. Their ukulele section is great! A thread about the Halifax Ukulele Gang appears here.
• The 4th Peg ukulele site also hosts a forum. The Parlor Room contains a wide variety of discussion areas. Another worthwhile surf!
• Ukulele Cosmos has another very busy ukulele forum with a wide range of ukulele discussion topics. As far as I can tell, the forum is the site. I’m not sure what the initial link to the site is for. Maybe something is coming later? Anyway… the forum is a great one.
• Woodshed at Ukulele Hunt has also set up a bit of a forum through his YouKulele site.
• Jim Beloff (of the Jumpin’ Jim’s series of ukulele books) hosts both an online Bulletin Board and Collector’s Uke Yak (moderated by Chuck “Frets” Fayne) at his Flea Market Music site.

The UkeCast (as far as I can tell, the only podcast dedeicated to the Ukulele) is back with Episode 303. This podcast is hosted by Chris from the US and Nipper from the UK (you may have seen Nipper on a CNN article on the ukulele). Each episode features a mixture of music, news and uke-related information. This month’s UkeCast “features The Modesty Board, Ian Emerson, Yan Yalego, Howlin Hobbit and more!!!”

Check out the other archived UkeCast episodes at the site as well.

A big thank you goes out to Stacey for setting up a H.U.G. Facebook group. Check out the site for pics from the April 7th meeting at Celtic Corner!

Remember, the next meeting is Monday, May 5th.

Looking for chords? Chordie is a great place to find them. Chordie promotes itself as:

Guitar chords and guitar tablature made easy. Chordie is a search engine for finding guitar chords and guitar tabs.

Although this site is predominately geared toward the guitar, there is lots there for the uke player. The database is huge and the search features are easy to use. Just about any song that is formatted as CHORDS is strummable on the uke. As well, with a quick click on the right sidebar, you can switch the chord charts to the ukulele (in C or D tuning), as well as to a variety of other stringed instruments.

Another great feature is the “Transpose chords” option in the sidebar. If you like the song, but the chords are just too tricky, play with the transposing option to find the key that works for you. Try out the “auto-scroll” feature, as well. It’s great when practicing in front of the computer screen.

Lot’s of folks have posted their own collections of chordie tunes. Check out the “Public books” section.