January | 2026 | Austin Ukulele Society (AUS)

Hello, friends, thank you for joining us at our January virtual meeting! Whether it was 5pm in California, 9pm in Nova Scotia, 2am in Germany, or noon Friday in Sydney, Australia, more than 180 of you showed up, ready to strum and sing with Bob and the gang in Austin. We love you! 🙂

With the recent passing of the legendary co-founder of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, we thought it would be great to pay homage to him by revisiting our take on “Ripple.” The Austin Ukulele Society covered this classic ~11 years ago.

Bob kicked off the meeting by introducing special guest and friend Jay Clement, who joined him to harmonize on vocals and play u-bass. He then introduced Jen, his AUS partner, and Lyda, his life partner, and shared some local uke news, including our upcoming Ukulele Open Mic on February 21st.

Then Bob led us in playing our lovely opening song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” before launching into the meeting’s tutorial. Bob led us through some helpful exercises to learn each part of “Ripple,” including its strumming styles and harmony options. He also spent time reviewing and demonstrating some useful strumming techniques. We enjoyed breaking down “Ripple” and played it through twice – we sounded great!

Then Bob spent a little time sharing some background on “Wagon Wheel,” and we had fun playing this popular tune together, too.

To close out the evening, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” Bob shared a few of the AUS in-person meeting videos, and we chatted some more before ending the livestream.

You can download the song sheet for “Ripple” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

Download the song sheet for “Wagon Wheel” to play along, or grab a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the January 22 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● “Ripple” tutorial and play-along
● “Wagon Wheel” tutorial and play-along
● “On the Road Again” closing song

It was a wonderful time together, and we owe a many thanks to Lyda Guz for managing the presentation and Jen Richardson for moderating the chat. Special thanks to our guest Jay Clement for his bass and vocal accompaniment!

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

We look forward to being back with our friends from near and far online on April 23, 2026! And we hope to seeing all our nearby friends at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, February 12, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming! 🙂

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

We kicked off our 16th year of monthly meetings on a beautiful January evening in Austin. We had at least 175 ukulele enthusiasts of all levels in attendance! As always, we want to thank you for showing up, smiling and participating. We could not do this without you!

In January we always opt to learn a popular and upbeat song. This January was no different, and we learned Glen Campbell’s 1975 timeless, international hit, “Rhinestone Cowboy.” This tune is generally considered his signature song and tells a tale of making it, despite obstacles. We were all singing and strumming along in no time!

Bob kicked off the meeting with introductions and gratitude. He thanked Jen for being his partner in all things AUS, Lyda for all she does, not least of all designing our fantastic shirts, Lori and Jana for supporting us in business decisions and t-shirt sales and gave thanks to our tireless friends Barry and Gary, too. After sharing some local uke news, we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

After hearing Bob and Aaron perform a great demo of our new-to-us song, we got to work on “Rhinestone Cowboy.” We had fun learning the chords, chord progressions, strum patterns and picking options from Bob. After we practiced each component of the song, we put it all together and played it through, sounding better each time.

We took a break to hear Rich play a great song he’s been working on. Then we got back to practicing “Rhinestone Cowboy” and recorded a video of our performance!

We hope you’ll play along with us on “Rhinestone Cowboy” from your home. It will be coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Rhinestone Cowboy” 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).

As always, we’re immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and all the fabulous AUS volunteers for all their hard work.

Take care and be well. We look forward to “seeing” everyone at our upcoming virtual meeting on Thursday, January 22, at 7:00 CDT on our YouTube Channel. We also hope to see you at the February 12 in-person meeting at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on 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 and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “Classic Ukulele,” “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. 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.