Warm holiday greetings, ukulele friends!

The Austin Ukulele Society is thrilled to host one of the hottest ukulele performers and teachers touring the US today: Lil Rev! He’ll be conducting a workshop and house concert right here in Austin on Thursday, January 17.

The Workshop: Hot Licks for Ukulele
90 action-packed minutes of classic rock, blues, and jazz hot licks for ukulele! You’ll learn intros, endings, turnarounds, licks, fills, riffs and how to use them. Get important soloing tips from Rev, as well some juicy music history. There will be handouts and feel free to bring a recorder with you so you can retain these fantastic licks and stories!

The Instructor and Performer: Lil Rev
A Milwaukee native and resident, Lil Rev is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and music-historian who teaches and tours the continental US. He was inducted into The Traditional Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and voted Best Folk Singer in Wisconsin in 2004. Check out his blog (http://fountainofuke.blogspot.com/) and website (http://www.lilrev.com/) for videos and sample tutorials.

Where: Dirty Sixth Studios
610 North I-H 35, Austin, TX 78701
www.dirtysixthstudios.com
The photography studio of the Austin Ukulele Society’s own Jeanette Warner! Austin cool and funky, downtown, right off 6th Street.

What Time: The fun kicks off at 7:00pm
The workshop runs from 7:00 until 8:30pm, followed by a short stretch break. Then a full solo set of ukulele music by the incomparable Lil Rev!

How Much:
Workshop only, $25
Concert only, $10
Both, $30 (save 5 bucks!)

This will be a fun-filled evening of instruction and entertainment not to be missed! Please register by responding to this message – space is limited!

Here’s our third song for the Dec 13 party / meeting; it’s the Crystals’ (i.e. Phil Spector’s) version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” to accompany the other two songs, “Blue Christmas” and “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” We hope to see you there, ready to sing along–remember that there won’t be a projector, so learn it in advance if you plan to join the strumming.

Also don’t forget, if you want to join us, drop a line to austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com, to get the address, and let us know if a) you’re bringing a potluck item and b) whether you plan to sing a solo number. Ho, ho, biddy boom boom.

It’s the time of the year that some folks call “the most wonderful time,” and others call the most stressful, but whatever you call it, we hope you will join us for our Second Annual Potluck and Ukulele Jam. It’ll be held on Thursday, December 13^th, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm. As it was last year, AUS members Susan and Ted have generously offered to host the gathering at their home in south central Austin. Hooray, Susan and Ted!

This event takes the place of our regular meeting at the Memorial United Methodist Church, so don’t go there this month. Instead, to obtain the address, drop a line to austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com and tell us you’ll be attending.

We’ll be singing a few holiday songs together, but we will not have the regular projector setup. Thus you will probably want to refresh your memories of Blue Christmas and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, our holiday songs from last year. There’ll be another song or two coming soon, so watch this space.

Bring a dish to share, and BYOB. If you’d like to do a solo song, holiday-themed or not, bring that along, too. And of course bring your uke. Hope to see you there.

On November 8, AUS held its monthly meeting at the Memorial Methodist church. It’s always good to get together. All who were there appeared to enjoy themselves very much, at last as far as I could tell. We had the usual T-shirt sale (Don’t have one yet? Order yours for $20 each from austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com). We also heard about an upcoming January workshop and performance from Lil Rev, a Wisconsin uke player who’s touring though Texas, to be held in south Austin. I’ve seen him perform; he’s a lot of fun. Watch this space for more news soon about the workshop and the accompanying performance soon.

At the Nov 8 meeting, we spent more time than you would imagine (if you know the deceptively simple song only casually) on the old Creedence Clearwater song Proud Mary. If you aren’t a polished player, the intro alone takes some attention, but our group rose to the challenge. Bob just sent me the Proud Mary – Presentation Format (i.e. the PowerPoint version he presented at the meeting) with more information about strumming and chording the song. Try it out, whether you were there or not

As usual, we had a crew of folks providing a number of stimulating solo spins. Woody sang the old Jim Croce number “Operator.” Joe sang a number I wasn’t familiar with, but the title seemed to be something like “She loves my dog more than she loves me.” Gary played a uke version of the “One Note Samba.”

Bill and Kathy played an original song by Kathy that they also played at the “Ukes for the Cure” show. Jack performed Neil Diamond’s first hit song from the mid-Sixties, “Solitary Man.” Bob sang “You’re Not Alone,” and yours truly (Walter) performed that old 1920s chestnut, “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing.”

It was tres fun, and if you are a ukulele player and you aren’t coming to the meetings, you’re missing out. So come!

Folks, don’t forget that our next meeting will be held on Thursday, November 8, 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the Memorial Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman Dr, Austin.

Our song this month will be that eternal Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, “Proud Mary.” Start strumming…

And here’s the song:

Also– there will be more of our black Dia de los M-uke-ertos T-shirts available at the meeting. Bring $20, and a great shirt is yours.

Folks– If you want one of the AUS “Dia de los muertos” T-shirts (modeled here by our very own Bob, and including an Austin trademark bat), or if you want one of our original shirts , you should drop a line to austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com. Someone will get back to you about how to order them. Both of them cost $20 each.

We’ve had several requests from people near & far. We’re still working out how much the postage/shipping will be (but it shouldn’t be much! Don’t let that stop you from ordering! And it’s for a good cause–namely, promoting ukuleles in Central Texas!).

Can’t you tell we haven’t been expecting requests from non-Austin locations? Thanks for the interest! –Walter

Bob sez: “Hi all,

“We had a lot of fun and enjoyed terrific music Tuesday night during our “Ukes for the Cure” benefit event at Threadgill’s! Great turnout, lots of energy, and a large, appreciative audience! We also helped support a very worthy cause and people were very, very giving: the Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas will be receiving a donation of $600. Wow! Thanks to everyone who came to join the festivities and who gave so generously!

“As some of you may know, I lost my sister, Pam Wassung, to breast cancer several years ago, so this event held a special personal meaning for me – I’m deeply grateful to everyone who participated and made it possible. Special thanks go out to:

• All of the performers who volunteered their time and talents: Ray Carr, Tim Keough, George Traugott and Lisa Alexander of the Pine Beetles, Kendra Korshak and Donna Rich of The Lunettes, Frank Meyer, Kathy Murray, Bill ‘Monster’ Jones, and all the members of the Austin Ukulele Society Ensemble.

• My niece, Kasia Wassung, who pitched the idea: “We should do a fundraiser!”

• Steven, Mike, and all of the fine folks at Threadgill’s North for making us feel so welcome.

• Brady Woodall, who was instrumental in finding us a new home for this event after we lost our original venue.

• Lyda Guz who designed the beautiful posters, as well as our fantastic t-shirts.

• Walter Minkel, our blog-master, who helped spread the word and keep us up to date.

• And extra special thanks to Jen Brown who handled so many of the behind-the-scenes details that made this event such a success.

“Photos are coming in, and many have already been shared on FaceBook. There were lots of cameras snapping pictures – so if you’ve got some you’d like to share please let us know.

“Thanks again so very much — y’all are the best!” –Bob

Yeah, it’s a dumb headline, but true. Our group of AUS members (there were about 40 of us there at the Memorial Methodist Church) appeared to truly enjoy the eternal YouTube ukulele standard “Build Me Up Buttercup.” By the third time through, thanks to Bob’s special arrangement of the song, we sounded great. (The link above is to the “Presentation Format” version of the song he presented at the meeting.)

Bob also made a special announcement about the Ukes for the Cure show coming up on Tuesday evening, October 23 at 7 pm. Among the groups to be featured are our very own AUS team of volunteers, Kathy Murray and Bill ‘Monster’ Jones, the Lunettes, and Bob’s own band, the Pine Beetles. Other special guests are being finalized, so stay tuned!.

We also sold a bunch of our new “Dia de los M-uke-ertos” shirts. They’re still available, in a variety of sizes, but they’re a limited edition, so who knows how long they will last? If you want one, make your intentions known at austinukes[at]gmail.com, or come to the “Ukes for the Cure” benefit show at New World Deli, 4101 Guadalupe, Austin, accompanied by a $20 bill.

As usual, we had a bunch of folks in our “Open non-Mike” segment (we don’t need a mike in our classroom and we don’t have one, anyway). Woody, Kathy and Bill, and Walter (yours truly) sang songs of the spooky season, and Jason, Gary and Bob sang the non-spooky stuff.

AUS meets the second Thursday of each month at the Memorial Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin,  at 7 pm. Our next meeting is thus November 8! See you then!