November meeting fun as usual (or perhaps fun in its own unique way)

On November 8, AUS held its monthly meeting at the Memorial Methodist church. It’s always good to get together. All who were there appeared to enjoy themselves very much, at last as far as I could tell. We had the usual T-shirt sale (Don’t have one yet? Order yours for $20 each from austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com). We also heard about an upcoming January workshop and performance from Lil Rev, a Wisconsin uke player who’s touring though Texas, to be held in south Austin. I’ve seen him perform; he’s a lot of fun. Watch this space for more news soon about the workshop and the accompanying performance soon.

At the Nov 8 meeting, we spent more time than you would imagine (if you know the deceptively simple song only casually) on the old Creedence Clearwater song Proud Mary. If you aren’t a polished player, the intro alone takes some attention, but our group rose to the challenge. Bob just sent me the Proud Mary – Presentation Format (i.e. the PowerPoint version he presented at the meeting) with more information about strumming and chording the song. Try it out, whether you were there or not

As usual, we had a crew of folks providing a number of stimulating solo spins. Woody sang the old Jim Croce number “Operator.” Joe sang a number I wasn’t familiar with, but the title seemed to be something like “She loves my dog more than she loves me.” Gary played a uke version of the “One Note Samba.”

Bill and Kathy played an original song by Kathy that they also played at the “Ukes for the Cure” show. Jack performed Neil Diamond’s first hit song from the mid-Sixties, “Solitary Man.” Bob sang “You’re Not Alone,” and yours truly (Walter) performed that old 1920s chestnut, “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing.”