A group of about 85 friendly ukulele players got together on a warm August night for the monthly in-person Austin Ukulele Society meeting. We kicked off the evening with introductions, upcoming event info (including our August 20 Ukulele Open Mic event at Kick Butt Coffee), and happy voices singing our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Next, we dove into our featured song: Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” This song was released 50 years ago and was Young’s only #1 hit in the U.S. It’s a beautiful folk/rock ballad that has stood the test of time, as it’s been covered by other artists for years, including Willie Nelson, Bettye LaVette and Passenger, to name just a few.

Bob shared some fun facts about “Heart of Gold,” then performed it, to demonstrate his arrangement. Bob showed us helpful exercises on the chords, chord progressions, strum patterns, picking parts and harmonizing options. We all enjoyed working on each part of the song and then putting it together to play through.

We practiced “Heart of Gold” a few more times before recording ourselves to share with all on YouTube. Special thanks to Jay Clement for accompanying us on U-bass. We hope you enjoy listening and playing along! Be on the lookout for the video of our performance, coming soon to our YouTube channel. 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Heart of Gold” 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).

We took a break for our talented group of open mic participants: Kelly did a lovely version of “Build Me Up Buttercup,” Jay performed a terrific cover of “King of the Road” on his U-bass, and THE John Davenport played a terrific original song. The audience had a blast helping out on vocal harmonies for all!

We’re all looking forward to our upcoming Ukulele Open Mic Event – see you there on Saturday, August 20. And join us on September 8 for our next in-person monthly meeting and September 22 for our next live-stream!! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” 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.