Do you remember “Up on the roof,” the Drifters’ hit from 1962? It’s going to be our song for the May meeting. You can get “Up On the Roof” here, or from the Ukulele Music Library. It’s an easy and fun song, with just four chords, and suitable to sing this summer. (Not that there are all that many East-Coast-style roofs to get up on in Austin–on many of them, you’ll step on the solar panels and slide off, so watch out.)

Here’s the original song from 51 years ago (Bob warns us that this video’s version is in G#, but we’ll be playing it in G):

Hope we’ll see you at the Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, at 7 pm, Thursday, May 9.

It’s that time again. We’ll be meeting on Thursday, May 9th, from 7 – 8:30 p.m., in the usual classroom at the Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX 78723. We don’t yet have a definite song, or even whether there will be a new song, but we’ll know soon if there’ll be one. (Bob is cogitating.) Visit this space again soon.

A message from Bob about our appearance at the Memorial Methodist Church on Sunday afternoon, April 28 (and remember that the Church is nice enough to let us hold our monthly meetings there):

Yesterday we sounded fantastic! [Walter’s] kazoo and Kendra and Ian’s vocal solos were real crowd-pleasers. The unexpected addition of Gary’s upright bass added a whole new dimension to our sound. After we played, there were so many people who approached me to thank us for coming and express how much they loved our music and the opportunity to sing along. Many thanks to everyone who attended — it was a fun experience!

Thanks!

Bob

It was a lot of fun; the Heritage Day at the church honored those who had been members for decades (and I overheard someone being applauded for being a church member for 40 years). We hope that more people who come to our monthly meetings will also come to our “events.” You can be onstage making beautiful noise without the stage fright because you’re part of a big group. And here’s the video of one of the songs we performed, courtesy of Trina Woodall:

Our meetings are always great fun, but the April meeting seemed to be particularly enjoyable. Preparing for the two big performing events we have coming up–one at Memorial United Methodist Church, where we meet, and another May 10 at Zilker Elementary School–the whole group went over some of our favorite numbers, such as “Love Potion #9” and “Ring of Fire.”

It’s a little scary for some of us who want to perform in public to face the idea of playing our numbers without a chart of chords to follow (at least it is for me). I know that I’ve got to memorize the chords and lyrics for all eight of the songs we’re doing at the two performances. That’s why we have the Ukulele Music Library, of course. We can read the charts from our screens or print ’em out on paper. Either way, it helps us play them over and over until we have them down pat. (If you’re interested in joining us on either or both days, drop a line to austinukes[at]gmail.com.)

Plus, besides the two performances, we have something else to look forward to–a workshop and concert by Deb Porter, a true Texas ukulele (and dulcimer) songbird. Deb has been traveling all over, making CDs, and singing for years. On Thursday, June 20, she’ll be presenting a workshop, “S.U.C.C.E.S.S.:  Smile, U Can Completely Enjoy Singing and Strumming!” and a concert, at a spot soon to be announced. She’ll teach us how to build our confidence when we sing, and how to tailor our ukulele arrangements to fit our voices. Plus, she promises to teach us how to yodel. More details soon!

During the solo section of the meeting, several of our in-house performers–Derek, Woody, Jack, Steve, Bob, and Gary (plus yours truly, Walter)–played and sang for us in a bagful of styles. If you are interested in performing before the friendliest and least critical audience you’ll ever find, you should come to our meetings and raise your hand when Bob asks for volunteers.

It looks as if our next meeting will be held on Thursday evening, May 9th, from 7 to 8:30 as usual, at Memorial United Methodist Church. Will we see you there? We hope so. —Walter

Jen sez:

We’ve been asked to do a couple of performances in the coming weeks.

The first will be at the church where we have our meetings.  On Sunday, April 28th, Memorial United Methodist Church honors their older and long-time members with an event called Heritage Sunday.  We’ve been asked to perform at around 12:30, for about 30 minutes.  We’re invited to enjoy lunch there, as well.

On Friday, May 10th, in the evening (exact time TBD), we’ve been asked to perform at Zilker Elementary’s Backyard Concert. The event is a fundraiser to help purchase much-needed instruments for their music classrooms.

The songs below (in no definitive order, yet) are the ones we’re probably going to do for both live performances since it’ll be nice to rehearse the same material for two gigs and they are good, clean fun tunes!

SXSW was going strong, but did that stop our members from attending? We had 38 members show up at the Memorial Methodist Church classroom for our March meeting–pretty good, we think. We learned a new song, Miles and Miles of Texas (in Presentation Format), made famous by the band Asleep at the Wheel. (The “presentation format” has some extras that Bob taught us at the meeting.)

We also revived a “western” song that we sang in our early meetings: Don’t Fence Me In in Presentation Format. With the new stylings we learned for this classic, we appeared to have a great time performing these new and old songs. Bob said it sounded great from up at the front.

There was also a good bunch of folks who performed in our “open [non-] mike” section. Thanks to Kendra and Layci, Roxanne and Chris, Woody, Steve, Bob (and yours truly, Walter). Everyone finds a great, accepting audience at our meetings.

There will be a chance for AUS coming up on Sunday, April 28 that will be a good opportunity to thank Memorial Methodist Church for letting us use their building for our meetings. They’re having a celebratory lunch to honor those in their congregation who are over 90 years old. We’ve been asked to be the entertainment. If you’re interested in being part of this group, send an email to austinukes@gmail.com.

Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 11 from 7 – 8:30 p.m., at the Memorial Methodist Church, of course. Hope to see you there.

It’s that time again. This coming Thursday, March 14, 7 – 8:30 pm, Central Daylight Time (hooray!), we’ll be meeting at the Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive (Austin, TX 78723).

Folks who choose the songs have decided that it’s time for another Texas song, so here it is: “Miles and Miles of Texas,” a Western swing-influenced number that many of us know because of the version performed by the band Asleep at the Wheel. The chords are fairly easy, but in a few places you’ll be jumping from chord to chord quickly, so run through it a few times before the meeting.

Here’s the original recording:

And here’s a slightly different live “Austin” version:

Here’s another piece of news: the Memorial United Methodist Church, which lets us meet in its classroom every month for free, would like us to play for about 30 minutes at 12:30 for an event coming up on Sunday, April 28–their annual “Heritage Sunday Celebration” where the church honors their oldest members. At the meeting, we’ll be recruiting folks to join the group who’ll play some of our favorites there.

And, sadly, for those of you who remember the AUS at SXSW last year, there will not be a Beatles Complete on Ukulele event this year.  We’ll be sure to let you know if it’ll be back next year. —Walter

Our February meeting, held on Valentine’s Day because it fell on our regular meeting date, was surprisingly well attended. We had something between 30 and 40 people in the room, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (what a great group, hey?). We sang our special Valentine’s Day edition of the classic ukulele number “Tonight You Belong To Me (in G).” (This link will take you to Bob’s Presentation Arrangement that he used at the meeting. A Presentation Arrangement usually has extra fun stuff, so check it out.)

Bob also led us in a revised version of one of the group’s “oldies” (from our first meeting two years ago–can you believe it?)– Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”– in C . Bob told us that the original song on record was odd as far as the beats went, but of course Johnny Cash could get away with that sort of thing. This new presentation version was intended for us mere mortals. This version lets us sing the “Da-da-da-da-da-da-dah dah” trumpet lines, too. It was fun to strum and sing as a group–Bob says he was surprised at the high energy of the February group.

We also had plenty of performers who wanted to show off their stuff. Thanks much to Woody, James, Ray, Jack, Erin and her friend (whose name we didn’t get), Larry (we think that was his name), Bob, and Jeanie (and yours truly, Walter). Everyone who performed seemed to have a great time.

We of the AUS are really happy to give anyone who wants a chance to play us a song they’ve been working on, and as someone who has made plenty of goofs during his performances but keeps getting up to try again, I (Walter) can tell you that the AUS audience is extremely forgiving of mistakes. I haven’t seen anyone among our listeners who has been caught yet rolling their eyes. If you come to a meeting, you can see how much everyone finds joy in our minuscule instrument.

If you are wondering about our March meeting, at this time we plan to hold it in our regular location at our usual time–Memorial United Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 14. If there are any changes (which is doubtful–we always seem to get together at the planned time), we’ll let you know, but until we do we hope to see you next month.

Oh! We’re still selling our AUS T-shirts, so get one before they’re gone. Email us at austinukes[at]gmail[dot]com to get the details.

You probably know by now that AUS’s February meeting has been scheduled for Valentine’s Day evening–yes, Thursday, Feb 14, and from 7 to 8:30 as usual. Hey, the restaurants are all full that night, right? Take out your understanding date on the night before or after–or bring him/her to the meeting. And it’s in the usual spot–the Memorial United Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, just east of I-35.

Plus, here’s our bittersweet Valentinish song–“Tonight You Belong to Me,” which, ever since it was used as the big number that Steve Martin sang with Bernadette Peters in Martin’s first feature, “The Jerk,” has become a standard part of the uke repertoire. It’s way fun to play and sing.

After you download it and read through it, you’ll notice the phrases in parentheses. Then listen to the performances below (the first one by the two girls who made it a hit in the Fifties, Patience and Prudence, and the second by Bob and the Pine Beetles), and you’ll hear the “echo” built into the song that makes it a lot of fun to sing. Grab your partner or friend and try it out, because Bob will be leading us in those parenthetical echoes at the meeting.

Oh, and here’s the version from “The Jerk.” The uke you hear was played not by Steve Martin–who we know is an excellent bluegrass banjo player–but by the famous uke player Lyle Ritz:

Have fun with it! See you at the meeting.

Well, I don’t know about fantasmic, but everyone who attended sure appeared to enjoy themselves at our January AUS meeting on Thursday evening, January 10, and Lil Rev’s workshop and concert on Thursday evening, January 17.

At our January 10 meeting, Bob taught the group how to play and sing “Barely Breathing,” a really big hit for Duncan Sheik in 1997–although when Bob asked the group whether they knew the song, many people did not raise their hands. Selecting the song was part of AUS’s effort not to always sing pre-1980 songs–we want to find good ones from the last thirty years, too. We had a good time with “Barely Breathing” anyway–it wasn’t a difficult song to catch on to. Here’s Bob’s Barely Breathing – Presentation Format to see what he shared.

If anyone has a suggestion for a song from later than 1980 that lends itself to group ukulele playing, please drop a line to austinukes@gmail.com and let us know. We’re always looking for new stuff.

There were plenty of folks ready to share a song in the open non-mike session, when everyone has a chance to show off their stuff. Many thanks to  Steve, Jack, Ian, Bill and Kathy, Kendra, and Ray and Sandra for doing what they do so well.

We then had to deal with a problem. Our next meeting, if we follow the second-Thursday-of-each-month schedule we’ve been using, falls on February 14. Did we want to hold our next meeting on one of the biggest date nights of the year? After some discussion, we decided that yes, we did.

So if you want to come to the February meeting, perhaps you can bring your partner with you. Wouldn’t an AUS meeting be a great stop on a wonderful Valentine’s evening out?

Next, on the evening of Thursday, January 17, the fabulous uke teacher and performer Lil Rev presented to a group of about 25 of us an exceptional class (it was supposed to be 90 minutes long, but ended up being closer to two hours, and nobody minded a bit) in blues and country licks and how to play them.

Rev stressed that no matter your level, it’s not hard to master little bits of music, such as intros, turnarounds, and outros that you can add to a great many songs in many styles. Of course, you must be willing to spend some time practicing and building up the muscle memory you need to be a good (or better) player.

When you’re starting out as a player, he said, the most frightening words you can hear at a blues or folk jam is when the group leader nods at you and says, “Take it.” Unless, of course, you’ve been practicing.

After a stretch, Rev played us some songs–some instrumental, some vocal, some blues, some Tin Pan Alley–and showed us how much he has practiced (a lot). He played almost every song on a different ukulele, from a soprano to a baritone resonator. If you weren’t there, and if you ever get a chance to see Lil Rev play a concert, don’t miss it.