January 14, 2016: Fly Me To the Moon!

Members new and old gathered on a warm January evening to kick off the sixth year of the Austin Ukulele Society’s monthly meetings. At our first meeting back in January 2011, we had about 15 attendees, and at our January 2016 meeting, there were over 150! We have grown exponentially and love every minute of bringing together ukulele players of all ages and backgrounds.

Everyone enjoyed paying tribute to the one and only Frank Sinatra, who would’ve turned 100 years old in December, by learning to play and sing one of the standards he made famous, “Fly Me To the Moon.” Bob helped the group add some swingin’ style that would’ve made Ol’ Blue Eyes proud, with creative pauses and ‘doo-be doo-be dos.’ The group also enjoyed revisiting “Margaritaville” as well as our usual warm-up and closing songs, “Three Little Birds” and “On the Road Again.”

You can download the lyrics and chords for “Fly Me To the Moon” or download a copy of the presentation (what we project up on the wall for all to follow along).

As usual, the open mic portion of the evening impressed all, with a Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG) ensemble performance of a ‘THE John Davenport’ original tune, an excellent cover of “Man of Constant Sorrow” by Ian, a TUG trio (Nancy, Jay and Raj) performance of “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” a sweet original ode to a best friend who’d passed by Richard, and great covers of Destiny’s Child by Matt and Steve Winwood by our leader, Bob. 🙂