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November 26, 2008: Some have commented on the fact that I'm no longer playing GString ukuleles exclusively.  It's true: in concert and in the studio I play a range of instruments. Banjo uke, resonator slide uke, vintage Martin 3K soprano, custom instruments from a variety of luthiers and, of course, GString ukuleles.

Derek Shimizu and James in Tokyo (April 2007).

Derek Shimizu, the owner of GString Ukuleles, has been a great friend to me for many years.  He made me my very first custom instrument.  He brought to life my signature model ukulele.  He also recognizes that it's best for me and my music if I'm free to experiment with a variety of brands and work with a variety of luthiers.  He's right, of course, and it speaks volumes about his character that he has never asked me to sign an exclusive contract.  It comes down to this: when I need the GString sound, I'll play a GString.  When I need a different sound, I'll play a different instrument.  Makes sense, really.

Try a GString ukulele for yourself and you'll see why Derek is known for making some of the most beautiful ukuleles in the world.  When it comes to genuine handmade-in-Hawaii ukuleles, it's hard to match the sound, the feel, and craftsmanship of a GString ukulele.  Whether in studio or on tour, you can bet I don't leave home without a Derek Shimizu ukulele in my lineup of instruments.

October 15, 2008: On the road in Euguene, OR at the moment. UKEtoberfest is this weekend... I'm ready for my fruhschoppen now! Speaking of, the Wine Country Ukefest was last weekend in Napa and if you weren't there I'm sorry 'cause you missed a great party. Thanks to Elaine and Susie and the rest of the crew for putting together a great inaugural festival.

Ralph Shaw and I have known each other for years and we often play at the same festivals. But for some reason we'd never performed together until last weekend. I knew Ralph was a yodeler so I asked him to join me on a tune. This is what happened.

UKEit! UKEit good!

Still on the topic of good wine, if you haven't checked out the UKEit CD (a bunch of really good uke acts from Italy) you really should. Every once in a while a new scene emerges in the uke world and this is one of those times. The sound is different, the attitude is different, and the music is diverse and captivating. Don't take my word for it, see for yourself: they have a MySpace page with free audio samples.

October 3, 2008: We're on the road in Indiana right now playing at the wonderful Lotus World Music Festival in Bloomington. I could get used to this place pretty quickly. Anyhow, I'm looking ahead to my Northwest tour that'll take me through the rest of the month. If you're anywhere near the Napa Valley, Eugene, Portland, Bellingham, or Vancouver (BC), I hope to see you real soon. See the full tour schedule here.

September 12, 2008: Anne and I have been in the studio this past week working (finally) on our first album as a duo. We basically recorded the whole thing in four days at a studio in Halifax; it's all happened so fast and I'm really happy with the sound so far. None of it is mixed but it will be soon. I think we've decided on the title of the album, too. It's one of those things--like naming a child, I'm told--that falls into place once you're face-to-face with the thing you're trying to name.

Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to playing the new tunes on the road. This album is a new sound for us; it's more down-to-earth and rootsy than ever before, more like our live shows over the past year. Lots of singing and a few flashy instrumental bits to boot. Plenty of different flavours of ukulele, too: tenor, soprano, slide, banjo. Yum.

There's no release date yet. I just wanted to let you know that it's coming along great and that I think you're going to love it.

August 30, 2008: Home at last! I was entertained all morning by coverage of the US election. Let's all dance on the grave of satire and surrealism! What a spectacle. Anyhow, I don't have time to go through every memorable moment from my summer tours and neither do you. So here are some highlights:

All hands on uke (Ottawa Folk Festival 2008).

Build-your-own ukes at the Ottawa Folk Festival: Taking the old adage"music self-made is happiness self-made" one step further was luthier Wolf Kater and Ottawa Folk Festival director Chris White. Wolf's do-it-yourself ukulele kits were are big hit at the festival. Folks of all ages were making their own ukes (a kit cost $30 if I remember), and then coming over to the uke tent for a workshop led by myself and Chalmers Doane. Quite the challenge keeping a dozen just-finished ukes in tune for an hour, but good fun.

And the Helen Verger Award goes to... Chalmers Doane!

It's Banjo Time: This year's Helen Verger Award recipient was Chalmers Doane, my very good friend and the father of Canadian ukulele. The award, presented mainstage at the Ottawa Folk Festival, recognizes a lifetime contribution to Canadian folk music. Past recipients include Garnet Rogers, Ian Tamblyn, and Murray McLauchlan. I was asked to say a few words about Chalmers at the award presentation after which Anne and I launched into Chalmers' Uke Talk, the first song of our evening set (a video of this performance later showed up on YouTube).

Bella Ukulele!: I know I've already raved about the UkeIt festival in Vicenza, Italy. So I won't tell you any more about how excellent the performers were or how well-organized it was or how great the UkeIt compilation CD is. But we did get some great photos by Giuseppe Santamaria courtesy of Daniela Gaidano of the Aquilacorde company. View pics.

A Campy Little Instrument: When I first started teaching at folk music camps about five years ago, there were five people in my class, two of whom were ringers sent by the camp to bolster the numbers. Now the beginner uke classes have 20-30 people in them. I taught at four camps this year and ukulele is second only to the guitar in popularity, far outnumbering mandolin, bass, accordion, or even fiddle. What have we started?!

Sticking it to uke: Doing my percussion-uke thing in Waikiki.

Ukulele Graceland: This summer I toured in Hawaii for the first time since 2006. It was great to get back there. Not even the Kona vog (volcano fog) could get me down. The Hawaii Ukulele Festival in Waikiki was a highlight. I sat in with Dan Scanlan's StrumBums, had the festival band of 800 students sing and strum along with me on a tune, and performed a weird percussion-uke piece that people either loved or hated (see the video). All in a day's work! Top ^

July 10, 2008: On Saturday I leave for the California and Hawaii legs of my summer tour. So this is going to be just a short re-cap of an amazing few weeks.

It started in Portland late last month. People are starting to refer to the Portland Ukulele Festival as "the best ukefest in North America" and it's hard to disagree. The festival is a special thing that brings people together in a unique environment. Basically it's a four-day-long ukulele party where students and teachers mingle and jam all day and, in some cases, all night. My daily grind? Eat, teach a couple classes, eat, decide who I'm going to perform with at the concert that night, maybe squeeze in a rehearsal before the show (yes, that entertaining hanging-on-for-dear-life onstage energy is 100% real), and eat.

Then it was off to Seattle for the Dusty Strings Uke Fest (7th Annual, no less). Jim Beloff, John King and I played a set each for the evening show on the 28th. Greg Canote was good enough to join me onstage for a number and the whole thing ended as it should with a big sing-a-long. The next night the Herb Ohtas (Jr. and Sr.) were performing in town so we caught their show which was great 'cause I hadn't seen either of them since I before I grew a beard.

Then is was back home. I had time to do laundry, see some friends here in Brookfield, pick up Anne and head to Italy the next day for the inaugural Ukeit Festival, a coming-out party for the Italian ukulele scene. Istituto Barlumen is the record company behind the uke fest (which was also generously sponsored by Aquila Strings). These guys are nuts for the uke and they make great recordings, artwork, etc. If you can get your hands on it, pick up a copy of the Italian ukulele compilation Ukeit to hear what I mean. Twenty-two beautifully produced perspectives on ukulele, each with a distinctly Italian flare. In case you can't get the CD, go to their myspace page for samples.

Interestingly, I heard that ukuleles outsold CDs three-to-one at the festival. And it's not because nobody was buying CDs. It's because people in Vicenza are like so many folks all over the world: they're catching onto the idea that "music self-played is happiness self-made." Can your iPod do that? Top ^

June 16, 2008: Only a day before I leave home for my summer tour. Some of it will be solo and some of it will be with Anne on cello (hurray!). Some old haunts (Waikiki, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Ottawa) and some new spots (including Italy which I'm really looking forward to). Anyhow, I should be doing laundry and packing my suitcase but I've been too busy watching YouTube videos of Bobby McFerrin and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian (not together, sadly; what a duet that would be!).

There's a tonne of McFerrin clips; I recommend this one and this one. Beautiful music.

I never used to watch YouTube; I thought it was all "here's a video of my little brother burping the alphabet" and so on. Then John King was telling me how easy it is to find footage of great performances; since then I've spent more than a few hours watching choppy, truncated clips of Jascha Heifetz, Victor Borge, Montserrat Caballé, Miles Davis, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson to name a few. It's like inspiration on tap.

Anyhow, laundry calls. There's plenty going on in the uke world this summer so I hope to see you down the road somewhere soon. Top ^

April 16, 2008: Anne and I were in Calgary, AB last week for a whirlwind series of concerts and workshops. We visited a bunch of schools that have ukulele programs. We were really encouraged by what we saw. The kids were really getting into it and they were learning a ton about music. One student wrote on her class blog:

Students from Alex Ferguson school enjoy a uke workshop.

"Ukulele was a blast!  I would love to go do it again.any day.  We sang and played to "row, row, your boat", frera shaka, and lots more.  It was so much fun!  I can't wait for the next lesson.  Really I can't.  Oh ya, one more thing -did you know that Ukulele means jumping fleas?" - Brit, Grade 5, Alexander Ferguson School.

In fact, you can click here to read the whole blog and listen to clips of the workshop. Amazing what these kids picked up in less than an hour! Top ^

February 13, 2008: Time for what seems like my bi-monthly (do I hear quarterly?) blog entry. Too late for the Happy New Year and too early for Merry Christmas. Oh well.

What's been keeping me busy and off the blog? Plenty. The main project has been the Ukulele in the Classroom method book series. It's been in the works for four years but as Ralph Shaw once told me "it's the last 5% that takes 95% of your time and energy." Wise man, that Ralph. He ain't the King of the Ukulele for nothing. Anyhow, it's all "go" over at www.ukuleleintheclassroom.com (well, almost). While you wait patiently for the books to arrive at your door (before you ask, yes, they're available in D and C tuning), you can download free stuff and sign up at the forum.

Does the ukulele community need another on-line forum? Debatable. Either way, this one is a little different. It's a place for ukulele teachers and students to exchange ideas about how to use the ukulele as a tool for music education. In short, that's what the books are about.

At any rate, the whole "music literacy through ukulele" thing worked for me (and about 50,000+ other Canadians kids who get/got ukulele instruction in school). Basically, Ukulele in the Classroom is an effort to keep that torch burning for another generation. Top ^