August 12, 2021: Hooked on a Feeling!

We had a wonderful August virtual meeting with about 150 ukulele-playing friends from around the globe!

We began the meeting, as usual, with local ukulele news, including info about our good friend Sho Humphries’ last Austin-area concert before he heads off to college. The event was live-streamed on August 14, but you can still check it out on Sho’s YouTube channel.

Bob also announced that our September 9 meeting will be virtual and NOT in person, due the surge in COVID-19 cases in the Austin area. We appreciate y’all for sticking with us, and we’ll be delighted to have you join us on virtually on Thursday, September 9, on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel . Hope to see you there!

We love covering classic pop hits that have stood the test of time, and we admit that we’re also a bit partial to musicians with ties to Texas. We lost the talented singer B.J. Thomas earlier this year; he is especially known for big hits from the 60’s and 70’s, including our August featured song, “Hooked on a Feeling.” The Swedish rock band Blue Swede also had an internationally popular rendition in 1974, featured on the soundtrack of 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

After playing our warm-up song (Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”) together, Bob dove into sharing info about B.J. Thomas’ “Hooked On a Feeling” and played his arrangement for us. He then took us through a thorough and enjoyable tutorial of the song, helping us learn how to play chords, transitions, chord variations/substitutions and some finger-picking. We learned a lot, and felt confident when we played the song through twice. We then joined together on our traditional closing song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”

As always, we appreciate Bob’s wonderful teaching style, and we’re very thankful to Lyda for navigating the slides and to Jen for moderating the live chat.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Hooked on a Feeling,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the August 12 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
    ● Welcome and announcements
    ● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
    ● Bob’s “Hooked on a Feeling” tutorial
    ● “On the Road Again” closing song
    ● Bob’s demo video of “Hooked on a Feeling”.

We also debuted the collaborative video of our July song: John Legend’s “All of Me.” Everyone loved seeing Marty Porter’s beautifully-produced video. And a special shout-out to Paul Butler for sound mixing. Many, many thanks to both of them! Check it out:

Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!

We look forward, as always, to “seeing” you at our virtual meeting with you next month on Thursday, September 9! Be well and keep strumming until then! 🙂

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

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. In celebration of the Austin Ukulele Society’s 10th anniversary in 2021, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase via mail order. The new 10th Anniversary design, Mermaid, Cowboy, and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

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