On a balmy spring evening, one of the biggest groups of ukulele players at an Austin Ukulele Society meeting yet (170!), gathered to make music together. Our new-to-us song for the month was an infectious hit by The Mavericks, “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down.”

Before we launched into learning our new song, we kicked off the meeting with introductions, local ukulele news and ukulele shows around town. The group warmed up their fingers and voices, as always, with Bob Marley’s beloved and optimistic classic, “Three Little Birds.” Afterward, together with guest musicians Bill Jones on button accordion and Aaron Lewis on bass, Bob played through “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” to demonstrate the arrangement he’d prepared for us. Bob then took the group through some helpful drills on the chord progressions and strumming pattern, and included some variants on the two chords to give the sound a little more depth. We also practiced some harmonizing, since The Mavericks’ lead singer Raúl Malo has such an amazing voice, and we wanted to do the band justice (and we did!).

Many thanks to Bill Jones for accompanying us on button accordion and to Aaron Lewis for keeping the rhythm going on bass; these additions made the evening much more special! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

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After playing and singing together for a while, we took a break to enjoy some great open mic performances. Both The John Davenport and Sho H. played fantastic originals for us, and we truly enjoyed creative and cool covers performed by Gaige and Matilda. The group is always warm and receptive to hearing what our friends are working on during the open mic portion of the evening; we look forward to you sharing next time, too!

(Above, clockwise from upper left: Gaige, Bob, Bill, Matilda, The John Davenport, Sho H.)

We look forward to strumming and singing with you all at our next monthly meeting on Thursday, May 10th! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

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