Author Archives: Austin Ukulele Society

December 11, 2025: Holiday Potluck & Strum-a-Long!

On a balmy December evening in Austin, around 150 ukulele players brought lots of cheer and merriment with them to our 15th Annual Holiday Potluck and Strum-along! 🎁 🎄

We take a different approach to this last-meeting-of-the-year compared with our other workshop-style meetings. Instead of learning a new-to-us song arranged by Bob, we socialize! We truly enjoyed visiting and noshing to start off the eve! Bob shared some info about the evening’s agenda and we warmed up our hands and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then we played through some of our favorite holiday songs and medleys!

Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2025 Holiday Songbook!

We had an extended open mic portion of the evening, with a terrific array of big groups and solo musicians, all playing an excellent variety of holiday tunes for our listening pleasure. We owe a huge thanks to Walter, the Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG), the Georgetown Ukulele Club, the Sweetwater Ukuleles, Jack Pott, Rodger, Helen, and the Austin Ukulele Society Ensemble for sharing their terrific performances!

After the open mic performances, the whole group got back together to play a few more group holiday songs!

Thank you for bringing food and treats to share, wearing holiday attire, and always bringing happiness with you. We truly appreciate you all for making 2025 a wonderful year for the Austin Ukulele Society – we couldn’t do it without you!

As always, we owe Jen, Lyda, Lori, and Jana a big thanks for supporting all of the backend business of the AUS. Thanks also to Barry and Gary for their tireless set up efforts at each meeting. We’re all grateful to Bob for his patient and thoughtful teaching and leading. Last, but not least, we owe a big thanks to Aaron for keeping us on the beat with his U-bass! 

We can’t wait to ring in 2026 with you! We’re looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, January 8, at the first meeting of our 16th year! Until then, keep strumming and have a peaceful holiday season! 🙂


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.


November 13, 2025: Silver Bells Medley!

Silver BellsIt’s time to start polishing your holiday repertoire! The Austin Ukulele Society had a delightfully merry November gathering. As is our tradition in November, we kicked off the holiday season with plenty of colorful attire and smiles as we learned a new-to-us medley of holiday standards! “Silver Bells” may be 75 years old, but it is as timeless and popular as ever. Since “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is also in 3/4 waltz time, they make for a great medley. ❤   

After sharing some local ukulele news and the evening’s agenda, Bob demonstrated his lovely arrangement of “Silver Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” 

He then took us through helpful exercises to learn the chords, three-quarter time strum styles, picking, and vocal harmonies. 

We enjoyed practicing each section of the medley. When we put it all together to play through, we sounded terrific!

We hope you’ll play along with us on the “Silver Bells Medley” 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 the “Silver Bells Medley” 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 to Bob, Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, Gary, and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


We look forward to seeing you at our holiday strum-along and potluck on December 11 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and have a lovely Thanksgiving!  🙂

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

October 23, 2025: Li’l Red Riding Hood!

Sam the ShamThe Austin Ukulele Society had Halloween season chills and thrills covered, across the globe, at our virtual meeting last week! From Australia to Canada, the UK and Germany, and all points of North America, we united for a fun and spooky evening of music. 🙂

Since this event fell just eight days before All Hallows Eve, we couldn’t resist revisiting an eerie tune from the AUS past. We were thrilled to learn a spooky, bluesy, howling hit from 1966: Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Li’l Red Riding Hood.” 💓

Bob started the night by sharing some personal and AUS updates and asking all to say hello and where they were signing on from. We then played Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” to warm up our voices and fingers.

Next, Bob shared some info about “Li’l Red Riding Hood” and gave us a great demonstrative performance. He then took us through helpful exercises to help us get comfortable with the chords, chord progressions, harmony options and more. Bob extended his tutorial to include some chord and strumming variations to use in our featured song as well as many other songs we might play. We had fun practicing the various components of Bob’s lesson, and by the time we played “L’il Red Riding Hood” through, we sounded great and confident – and even played it through twice!

To close out the evening, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and visited a bit more in the chat while watching a few AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “Li’l Red Riding Hood” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the October 23 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

It was a wonderful time together, and we owe a special thanks to Lyda Guz for managing the presentation and Jen Richardson for moderating the chat.

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 January 22nd, 2026! Until then, we wish everyone a great Halloween and a wonderful holiday season!

And we hope to seeing all our nearby friends at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, November 13, 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.


October 9, 2025: Thriller!

ThrillerA thrilling kickoff to the Halloween season was had by all 165+ in attendance at the Austin Ukulele Society’s October meeting! At this meeting we were thrilled to cover Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” This epic, eerie and haunting tune is on EVERY Halloween playlist, and the music video is considered the best of all time. We loved strumming and singing it together! ❤

The evening began with introductions and Bob giving a run-through of the evening’s agenda. We then warmed up by playing our traditional opener: Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”   

Bob gave us a great performance of his arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” before we launched into helpful exercises. We practiced chord progressions, strumming options, and even an appropriately-timed stomp as we learned to strum and sing.

When we put the song together, we were sounding terrifyingly good!

We took a break and enjoyed the fabulous open mic talent of Alan (all the way from the UK!), Walter M., and Rich C. We are fortunate to have had such a delightful interlude!

Then we got back to our enjoyable work, and after we practiced some more, we were ready to make a recording for you. We hope you’ll play along with us on “Thriller” 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 “Thriller” 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 to Bob, Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, Gary, and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


Take care and be well, enjoy the spooky month, and please join us at our livestream on Thursday, October 23, at 7:00 CDT on our YouTube Channel. We also hope to see you at the November 13 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.

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

September 11, 2025: Drift Away!

Dobie GrayThe September meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society was extra special, as we saw our biggest in-person gathering since before the pandemic! We were thrilled to welcome 175 ukulele players of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels, as it is always a joy to make music with such wonderful folks!

This month, we turned our attention to a soulful song made most popular by Dobie Gray in 1973: “Drift Away.” This international, timeless hit pays homage to the gifts that music gives us, and while it’s been covered by many, our rendition will stick more closely to Dobie Gray’s version. We loved playing this beautiful song together!

We kicked off the evening with brief introductions and local ukulele news (including info about Lil Rev and Rockin’ Ray’s September 25 workshop – email us for details!). Then we enjoyed warming up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”  

Then Bob performed “Drift Away” to help us get a feel for the arrangement we’d soon be playing. He then took us through some very helpful exercises to get us comfortable with all of the components of the song, including the chord progressions, strum patterns, picking options, and vocal harmonies.

We enjoyed working on each part of the song and then putting it together to play through. 

This month’s meeting didn’t have any open mic participants, so we took advantage of a little extra practice time and fine tuned our performance. Please enjoy playing along with us from 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 “Drift Away” 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 to Bob, Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, Gary, and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


Take care and be well, and we hope to see you all at the October 9th AUS in-person meeting at St. John’s United Methodist Church, as well as the October 23rd online meeting on our YouTube channel. 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.

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

August 14, 2025: A Thousand Years!

Christina PerriThe Austin Ukulele Society’s August meeting was filled with the wonderful energy that can only be found when 160+ ukulele enthusiasts get together for an evening of community music!

We’ve been rockin’ and groovin’ to upbeat tunes over the past few months, so it was time to turn our attention to another song style we love: ballads. We learned to strum, sing, and harmonize Christina Perri”s “A Thousand Years.” This 2011 hit was written for the very popular romantasy film “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1,” and continues to be loved across the world. We had a blast playing this lovely song together!

We started the evening with local ukulele news, including a ‘save the date’ for Lil Rev and Rocking Ray’s September 25th workshop and concert. Then we enjoyed warming up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”  

Bob shared an overview of his arrangement of “A Thousand Years” and gave a great performance of it to help us get ready to learn it. We practiced all of the components of the song, including the strum style, tab options, vocal harmonizing options, and getting comfortable with the tempo, with Bob’s excellent teaching and useful exercises. After playing it through a couple of times, we were ready for a little break from our efforts.

Thankfully, we had three terrific performances during the open mic portion of the evening: Jess Holloway played a great rock song, The John Davenport and Leta performed a lovely duet of a Jacob Borshard song, and Sho Humphries blew the roof off (and got a standing ovation for it) with one of his original compositions. Thanks for sharing your talent with us!

Next, we got back to work on “A Thousand Years” and we sounded better and better with each run through, so we recorded ourselves and hope you’ll play along with us from 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 “A Thousand Years” 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 to Bob, Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


We look forward to seeing you at our September 11th monthly 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.

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

July 24, 2025: An Evening of Elvis Hits!

The Austin Ukulele Society’s July virtual meeting was rocking! 160 enthusiasts from Finland to Brazil, New Zealand to Canada, Germany to Colombia, and numerous locations around North America, got together to play some timeless hits by the King of Rock n Roll himself – Elvis Presley. 💓

Bob kicked off the evening with Austin-area ukulele news and our warm-up song (Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”)

He then shared his plan for the evening, as he patiently guided us through great tutorials of the three songs we’d be learning – “Don’t Be Cruel,” “All Shook Up,” and “Return to Sender“. We had a terrific time learning the strum patterns, chord progressions, and song styles along with a little music theory. Naturally, we sounded terrific when we put each song together to play through. As an added treat, we also played another Elvis classic: “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.”

We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and spent a little more time in the meeting chat while we watched a few AUS videos together.

You can view and download the song sheets Bob created for each song, as well as a PDF copy of each presentation Bob displayed for the tutorials and play-alongs:

An evening of Elvis Presley hits!
3 tunes by the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll
All Shook Up
1957
Song Sheet
Tutorial presentation
Return To Sender
1962
Song Sheet
Tutorial presentation
Don’t Be Cruel
1956
Song Sheet
Tutorial presentation
Download all three song sheets together!

You can also watch a replay of the July 24 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

Thank you, as always, for your enthusiasm, participation, questions, comments, and more. Jen Richardson (moderating the chat) and Lyda Guz (passing questions to Bob) enjoyed your company throughout the evening. 💓

Thank you 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 Thursday, October 23. And we look forward to seeing our nearby friends at the next in-person meeting on Thursday, August 14, 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.


July 10, 2025: I Wanna Dance with Somebody!

Whitney HoustonWe were thrilled to welcome ~140 newcomers and regulars alike to our July 10th in-person meeting!

We had so much fun “dancing” with Martha and the Vandellas at our June meeting that we decided to keep on “dancing” in July! This time, we learned to strum, sing, and harmonize on Whitney Houston’s mega-hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” This popular 1987 song is one of the best-selling singles of all time, and it was so much fun to play together!

After everyone settled in at about 7pm, Bob shared our agenda for the evening as well as important ukulele news, such as the Kick Butt ukulele open mic we’d host just a couple of days later. We warmed up our hearts, hands and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” 

Bob then gave us a great preview performance of his arrangement of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” This helped us know what we’d be working towards, and we got right down to business, practicing chords, chord progressions and the strum pattern. As we put the pieces together, we also learned some tab and vocal harmonizing options. We then played the song through a couple of times, sounding better and better each time.

We took a break from working on our song to enjoy the talents of our open mic participants. Walter M. performed a fantastic uke and kazoo song, Cool Hand Ukes did a fun cover, and Kelly (accompanied by Kermit the Frog) did a classic as well. Thanks to all for sharing your talent with us!

Next we got back to practicing “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and recorded our lovely rendition for you, coming soon to our YouTube Channel! Please play along with us from home when you can. 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” 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 to Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, Katie and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


We look forward to “seeing” you at our July 24 virtual meeting at 7:00pm Central on our YouTube Channel!

And our next in-person meeting will be on August 14, 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.

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

June 12, 2025: Dancing in the Street!

Dancing in the StreetOn a beautiful summer evening in Austin, nearly 150 ukulele players of all ages and stages enjoyed gathering for the June monthly meeting. We had a great time connecting over our beloved 4-string instrument!

We enjoy letting the season inspire us in our song choices, and this first month of summer definitely influenced us. “Summer’s here and the time is right” for Martha and the Vandellas’ Motown classic “Dancing in the Street.” This song may be over 60 years old, but it is just as infectious and fun as it was back then. David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s cover in 1985 was also a smash hit. We were singing (and dancing!) along in no time! 

Bob kicked off the meeting with lots of exciting local ukulele news and a brief description of the evening’s flow. We then warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob demonstrated his terrific arrangement of “Dancing in the Streets” to help us get familiar with what we’d be learning. We launched into the great exercises Bob had prepared for us, and he guided us through each part of the song. We got more and more energized as we practiced, and we sounded great when we put the song together.

We took a break from our practice for a fun math/music quiz with Walter, during the open mic part of the evening.

When we practiced the song a little more, we sounded even better and made a recording for you, coming soon to our YouTube Channel. We hope you’ll have fun playing along with us!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Dancing in the Street” 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 to Jen, Lyda, Jana, Lori, Barry, Gary and all the fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.


We look forward to seeing you all again soon, at our July 12 in-person meeting, at St. John’s United Methodist Church! We’ll see you then!  🙂

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.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

2025 Circle of Stars AUS Tee

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “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.

May 22, 2025: Take Me Home, Country Roads!

Country RoadsWe were delighted to host a friendly online group of 170+ ukulele players from near and far: Canada, Germany, Brazil, the Philippines, New Zealand, and many states across the U.S.! This event gave us the opportunity to take a deep dive into learning a song, with a detailed tutorial presented by Bob, live Q&A fielded by Lyda, and the presentation managed by our friend Fran. 🙂

During this livestream event, we learned to strum, pick and sing the John Denver folk classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” This timeless song has been popular all around the world for over fifty years, and we enjoy playing it together! 💓

To kick things off, Bob shared some local ukulele news, including the upcoming workshop and concert with Sho Humphries on June 25, and our next Kick Butt Open Mic Happy Hour on July 12. He then led us through our warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob then played through his arrangement of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and took us through helpful exercises for learning how to play the chords and chord progressions, the strum pattern, the transitions, and more. He also gave a great presentation on the Circle of Fifths and and how it can be used to get a deeper understanding of this song (and many others). Thanks to you all for the feedback and valuable dialogue throughout!

We played the song through a couple of times and sounded great! We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and spent a little more time in the meeting chat while we watched a few AUS videos together.

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

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

A big shout out to Lyda Guz, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Fran Stelly, who skillfully managed the presentation slides and joined in on playing the tunes. Thanks Fran!!

Thank you 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 Thursday, July 24. And we look forward to seeing our nearby friends at Uke Stars and the next in-person meeting on Thursday, June 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.