The Staves, UK sisters Jessica, Camilla and Emily Staveley-Taylor, perform folk rock music with beautiful harmonies. They combine ukulele with guitar which makes for sweet sounds. Magical.
Category Archives: Ukulele Players
Ramblin Man: Ooks of Hazzard
A lively ukulele version of The Allman Brothers Band hit song Ramblin Man from the Ooks of Hazzard. Great finger picking.
“We’ll Meet Again” and “Lili Marlene” on Ukulele
Two of the most beautiful songs of World War II are Vera Lynn’s song We’ll Meet Again and Marlene Dietrich’s Lili Marlene. Here are a couple of lovely ukulele versions by Melbourne’s Ilana Charnelle and the UK’s Sara Spade to commemorate Anzac Day (April 25) in Australia and New Zealand.
Street Musicians Carl Scott and Eddie Thomas
Simple instruments yet complex rhythms from two street performers of the late 1920s. Carl Scott and Eddie Thomas demonstrate that all you need is a ukulele and some household items to make exciting music. Bit hard to do this with a modern coffee pot and washboards are not easy to find these days. But with a bit of imagination you can make music using all kinds of ordinary items without lot’s of expensive technology.
Folk Uke: California Stars
The duo Folk Uke: Arlo Guthrie’s daughter, Cathy on ukulele and Willie Nelson’s Daughter, Amy on folk guitar perform California Stars, a song with the lyrics of Woody Guthrie and the music of Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy (members of Wilco). This beautiful version was from a live performance in 2016. Folk Uke were recently in Victoria for The Port Fairy Folk Festival and a Melbourne concert.
Azo Bell
Versatile Australian ukulele player, Azo Bell, plays 3 of his compositions for the “Ukulele Sessions” on his soprano ukulele. Very entertaining with some amazing playing and ukulele acrobatics.
Honoka and Azita
More exciting young ukulele talent from Hawaii. Duo Honoka and Azita play beautiful melodies and rhythms. For their full story visit their website.
The following is a performance they did in 2016.
Ukulele Players: 4U Ukulele Quartet
Coming from the heartland of the ukulele, Honolulu, are a young group of ukulele players, the 4U Ukulele Quartet. Formed in 2014, this talented band play both classical and rock pieces with great skill and enthusiasm. For their full story see their website and check out the following videos.
Ukulele Songs About Ukuleles
Ukulele songs about ukuleles. This is a great genre for groups so I thought I’d have a look on the net to see how many I could find. There are a number of songs from the 1920’s and 30s but not so many from later periods, unless they are just unrecorded, unavailable on the net or only found in ukulele music books.
From the early days of the uke, some of the songs mentioned on the Ukulele Hunt website (Ukulele Songs) are Ukulele Moon and Ukulele Island, but I could not find them in cyberspace. Pity, they sounded interesting.
One of the most famous songs from the early period that is still madly popular is of course Ukulele Lady. A great live version by Bette Midler (not the distorted video version) has disappeared from YouTube but here is a fun one by the Muppets.
Amusing songs about the ukulele were performed by those stalwarts of the 30s and 40s, George Formby and Cliff Edwards.
Here’s George doing With My Little Ukulele In My Hand from the movie Off The Dole (1935)
Another funny song is I Did It With My Little Ukulele sung be Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards in the 1933 movie Take A Chance. It contains a typical flash back sequence of the period with stereotypical cannibals and hula dancers.
Other songs that I found on YouTube are I Love A Ukulele performed by Annette Hanshaw (1930) and I Love To Play My Ukulele by Max Bygraves (1958).
Recent songs about the ukulele are harder to find. There are plenty of new songs written for the ukulele, like Charlie Roe’s Ukulele Song and Vance Joy’s Riptide, but these do not refer to the ukulele in the lyrics.
A good one I did find is Ukulele Central written and performed by Fairport Convention in 2010. It gives a short hilarious history of the ukulele.
Most ukulele players by now would have heard the fabulous Amanda Palmer’s Ukulele Anthem. Here she is performing it outside the Sydney Opera House.
Another fairly recent song is A Ukulele and You by Jim Berloff (2005), one of the compilers of The Daily Ukulele and other song books. Here is a version performed by Ukester Brown:
Some ukulele groups adapt existing popular songs so that they are about ukuleles and can be played on the uke. Here is an example:
If you wanted, it would be relatively easy to adapt a song yourself or you could write an original song about ukuleles.
I am sure that there must be more ukulele songs about the ukulele out there so have a look around. It really does take you on a small journey into the history of the uke.
Kat
Bayside Ukes Member
Pockets “Never Wanna Go”
Scottish musician Pockets does amazing things with live Loops and the ukulele. His original song Never Wanna Go shows just how creative someone can be with one ukulele, a voice and a chopstick.
baysideukes.com 