Even though we’ve seen a little more rain than usual the past few months, an Austin summer is still pretty dry, and the lakes are dipping lower and lower. So how about another classic Creedence Clearwater number that will express our hope for what we need most around here? “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” is a classic from 1970. (Bob says that the original recording below is in the same key we’ll be performing, so strum along.)

As always, our meeting will be on the second Thursday evening of August, which means we’ll be meeting from 7 – 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 8, at the Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Dr., Austin. If you’d like to perform a song you’ve been working on, please have it ready. During our Open Non-mic section, there’s no friendlier audience than our group. See you then!

At our July 11 meeting, the 40 or so AUS members present rocked and rolled–not all night, but long enough to enjoy ourselves. That old KISS song sounded great with dozens of ukuleles strumming it together. Bob also had us using the strings as a percussion instrument and learning how to syncopate the song’s chorus so that we started a beat behind, as in the song, which was very cool. Oh, and if you were there, you know that Bob made an error in his fingering chart for the Eb chord. He corrected that and here is the correct Rock and Roll All Nite–both in the original version, and in the expanded Presentation Format from the meeting.

We heard about the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain concert coming to Austin on November 21 and 22. You can purchase tickets now at the Texas Performing Arts site. If you’ve ever seen the many YouTube videos of the Ukes, you will know that you probably won’t want to miss this show. The Dallas Ukulele Headquarters will have a group of folks coming down to Austin on Friday night 11/22 for the concert, after which we are hoping to take some of the members of the Ukes out for a drink. Then at mid-day on Saturday, the DUH folks will get together with the AUS folks for a jam. More info will be coming as the date gets closer.

Thanks to both Bobs, Kendra and Lacey, Ray and Sandra, Richard, Woody, Kathleen, and Jack for performing at our Open Non-Mike session. There was one other fellow whose name we didn’t catch, pictured above–if that’s you, or you know who he is, please let us know. We hope that you will think about performing for the group at a future meeting. It’s just about the world’s most forgiving audience.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, August 8, at the Memorial United Methodist Church. Hope we’ll see you there!

Folks– Bob just released two PDF documents we’ve been waiting for– Up On the Roof – Presentation Format and House of the Rising Sun – Presentation Format. These are the “final” versions of the songs that we played and sang at the May and June meetings. Get ’em here now!

When we played for the participants at the Keep Austin Weird run on June 22, a parade official drove by the spot before the event began, saw our ukuleles, and told us, “Remember–no heavy metal.”

We laughed, but our fearless leader Bob also took this as a challenge. He decided that the song for our July meeting would be that KISS classic, “I wanna Rock and Roll All Nite (and party ev-er-y day).” Take a look at the song sheet and give it a spin, but to get in the mood, here are two YouTube videos to get that KISS feel.

Oh; a warning. Bob says that the band performs the song in A flat, but because A flat is a tricky key on the uke, he’s dropped it a full step down to G. The first one is the original recording, supplied with sing-along lyrics:

And here are the oddly groomed band members themselves performing the song live under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1996. Given that it’s July and all, don’t you think the fireworks are a nice touch?

See you at the Memorial United Methodist Church for the meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 11. Will we rock and roll all night?

Here are some more photos of the AUS crew performing weirdly (and surrounded by weird runners) at the Keep Austin Weird run on Cesar Chavez St in downtown Austin on Saturday, June 22.

We had a great time, and we hope that maybe the next time an AUS crew goes out for an event, you’ll join us.

Our crew from the AUS were out last Saturday evening, June 22, serenading the weirdly-garbed participants of the Keep Austin Weird run. We were stationed, wearing aloha shirts, leis, and grass skirts, on the north side of Cesar Chavez Street as the participants ran and sauntered by. We had our pictures taken. The runners posed in front of us. They gave us thumbs up.

But there was indeed a lot of positive energy shared among everyone out there. Oh, and did you see the woman wearing a double-ukulele bra over her running clothes? Quite an impression was, um, made. Actually, all of us were very impressed.

Needless to say, we had a great time.

More photos soon!

Deb Porter’s workshop and concert at the Memorial United Methodist Church Parlor this past Thursday, June 20, shared with us some critical lessons on being a good musical performer:

First, you’ve got to feel confident about what you’re doing when you pick up your instrument and open your mouth. Don’t go halfsies when you start to sing; believe in yourself and your abilities.

Deb stressed the importance of warming up before you begin singing for an audience. There are now a number of phone and pad apps out there to help you.

Find a key you can sing in comfortably. Deb demonstrated the importance of key with a song she often performs in which the first verse is sung in low notes she can comfortably reach, but heads for the top of her range after that. But because it’s sung in a key in which she can sing, she can perform it without anxiety.

Many of the points she covered are here in these workshop handouts, including a Guitar [sic] Transposition Wheel that you can use if you want to transpose a chords-and-lyrics sheet like the ones we make available to a friendlier key.

Deb, along with her accompanist Andrew Hardin (and during one medley of Hank Williams tunes, with our very own Bob), ended the evening with a concert of some great songs. If you get the chance to hear Deb Porter sing, go for it. Thanks, Deb.

Oh, and yodeling? Here’s the main trick: you must find the spot at which your voice “breaks” when you pass from a low note to a higher note. It may take hours to find it, she warns, and you must try for it in a place in which you aren’t driving others crazy. “I learned during a very long, lonely drive,” she told us. Once you know your break, you’ll be able to yodel.

Our June 13 meeting was fun, but it also spread the word on lots of other stuff happening around Austin that involved AUS members. After the meeting was the “Voyage to Uketania” show at the Sahara Lounge, and then on Thursday, June 20, Deb Porter comes to town to do her “Shine when you sing with your ukulele” workshop and concert at our home base, the Memorial United Methodist Church. It’s at 7 p.m.–you won’t regret it if you come and join us! It’s for those who want to sing as they play more effectively.

On Saturday, June 24, a group of AUS folks will be performing to enhance the weirdness of the Keep Austin Weird run and festival. (We’re playing between First and Lamar at 7 p.m.) Hope we’ll see you at at least one of these events.

We had some uke-playing visitors from Houston dropping by, too–Julie, Buck, and David (here they are, on your left). What did they think of our meeting? They left before I could find out.

Our new song (an old song, actually) was House of the Rising Sun. It doesn’t seem as if it would be all that difficult to play, but Bob deliberately avoided leading us down the path of performing it with that “light, happy uke strum” that so many uke players use. So it took us a while to catch the more intense strum and the rhythm he taught us. We played it as we usually do–we spent some time with it near the beginning of the meeting, and then came back to it at the end. By that time, we’d had enough time to digest the tricky strumming pattern, and it sounded pretty good.

In our “open non-mike” section, both Bobs, along with Bill and Kathy, Kendall, and yours truly (Walter) performed, as always, a mix of styles and songs.

It appeared that a good time was had by all (although I still don’t know what the Houston folks thought). Don’t forget to join us at our Deb Porter workshop/concert at Memorial United Methodist Church (6100 Berkman Dr., Austin) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20. And our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 11, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at–you guessed it–the Memorial United Methodist Church. Will we see you there? Hope so.

Our June meeting will be happening very soon–as in this coming Thursday evening, June 13th, 7 p.m., at our usual spot, the Memorial United Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman Drive in Austin.

Our song will be the old classic “House of the Rising Sun.” Bob says it’s “an old bluesy number that everyone should know.” The Wikipedia article about the song tells us that it’s the story “of a life gone wrong in New Orleans.” The version of the song best known in 2013 is the one played and sung in 1964 by Eric Burdon and the Animals, a group that was part of the British Invasion of the mid-sixties. It was the group’s biggest hit. This song, however, began as an American folk-blues number.

Here’s the YouTube video, which, if you ignore the lip-synching and the stiff stage manner, shows you why this version of the song is important:

Bob will no doubt have a more elaborate “presentation” version of the song for the meeting, and when he does, we’ll post it here. But for the time being, give it a whirl. See you at the meeting.