Location Change: October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and in support of this cause, the Austin Ukulele Society is sponsoring  “Ukes for the Cure,” a uke-centric benefit concert.  It’ll take place Tuesday, October 23rd, from 7:00pm – 9:00pm at Threadgill’s north location, 6416 North Lamar. Voluntary donations will be accepted and will go to Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas.

Several fantastic ukulele-focused bands are lined up for this event and the Austin Ukulele Society is performing a set as well!  This is a friendly reminder to RSVP if you’d like to participate in the AUS ensemble portion.  We’re planning to play about six songs – they are “Three Little Birds,” “Runaway,” “Stand By Me,” “Love Potion #9,” “Eight Days a Week,” and “On the Road Again.” You can find the song charts here:
https://austinukulelesociety.wordpress.com/ukulele-music-library/

Quite a few of you have already RSVP’d and we’ve got you down, no worries. We are planning to get together for a brief rehearsal on Wednesday, October 17th, at 7pm, in south central Austin. and we’ll also informally practice songs for the performance during our monthly meeting on October 11th.

Those who’ve participated in our previous public appearances can attest to how much fun we have, so please consider joining the show.  Just respond to this message by October 11th – we’ll add you to a separate distribution list for the participants in this event.

Even if you can’t participate in the AUS part of the performance, we’d love for everyone to attend and invite their friends to enjoy some great ukulele music and donate what they can to a very worthy cause!  We’ll share a flyer in the next few days.

Best regards,

Jen and Bob

Ukulele players everywhere have messed around with this song since at least the first days of YouTube–you’ll find many versions of it online. But the original version from 1969 by the Foundations still can’t be beat. It’s a complex song with 12 chords, so it may take some practice–it’s an excellent idea, then, to download “Build Me Up Buttercup” now and start strumming. It’s also in our Ukulele Music Library.

Listen to the song below, and pick up on the tricky rhythms:

Hope you’ll be there October 11!

We just learned that there will be a new AUS T-shirt available at the Oct. 11 meeting. Here’s Bob modeling the new design, with the illustration designed by Bob’s wife Lyda. If you think it’s as cool as we do, and would like one of these all-black, all-cotton shirts for your very own, bring $20 to the meeting; they’ll be there for purchase. Don’t forget; the meeting will happen Thursday, 10/11, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at Memorial Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman St. Hope to see you there.

Yes, Fall is here. After all that hot Austin summer weather, things are finally beginning to cool down. That means it’s time for our October meeting on Thursday night, October 11, from 7 – 8:30 p.m., at the Memorial Methodist Church at 6100 Berkman Drive. See you there, see you then, and bring along a song to perform, if you’re of a mind to. Soon (meaning, within the next few days) we’ll post the music for our October song. Watch for it!

Here it is– the revised version of “The Letter” that we played along with at the September 13 meeting. The document is called “The Letter – Presentation Format.” It’s also in the Ukulele Music Library.

The turnout was smaller–unlike the 40 to 50 folks we had at some recent meetings, about 30 attended on September 13–but, as always, we had a great time. We sang the classic “The Letter,” and asked aloud with our tongues in our cheeks, “Hey–what’s a letter?” (What would the title of the song be in 2012? ‘The Email’? ‘The Tweet’? ‘The Text’?” None has that same ring, don’t you think?) We also brought back a favorite we hadn’t done for a while, “Secret Agent Man,” and that was a lot of fun to sing again.

Plenty of folks also had material to share during the “open non-mike” period of the program. It was a real mix. Woody sang the Dan Daly song “Still in Saigon.” Sandra and Ray sang the classic uke number “Tonight You Belong to Me”  (made famous by the first Steve Martin movie “The Jerk”). If you’ve seen Martin perform the song in the movie, you should know that the uke on the soundtrack was played by the famous studio musician Lyle Ritz, and that immediately after the last take, Ritz stepped on and crushed the vintage Martin uke he’d been playing.

Other performers included Bill and Kathy, who performed the old and awesomely cool surf instrumental  “Mr. Moto” (the Challengers, 1963). Mardi sang the John Prine song “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian,” Bob sang the Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello number “(What’s so funny about) Peace, Love and Understanding,” and Walter (yours truly) attempted an original song called “Take a Shower with the Blues.”

We all had a great time, and we all (I hope) look forward to the October 11 meeting. We’re not yet certain what the song for October will be, but watch this space and you’ll find out soon. Suggestions are always welcome–send us a comment or write us at austinukes [at] gmail.

Hey, look–another baby-boomer favorite will be the featured song for our September meeting– “The Letter” of Box Tops and Joe Cocker fame. It’s an enduring hit, though, so you probably know it no matter your age.

If you want to hear it again, here you are. First the original 1967 Box Tops version with singer Alex Chilton (who sadly died in 2010 just before traveling to SXSW to perform):

and then the more famous 1970 Joe Cocker version:

Which version of the song will we play at the meeting? Come to the September meeting on Thurs., Sept. 13 at 7 pm to find out. Also keep in mind that Bob will have an enhanced “presentation” version for us to use at the meeting. This version is for you folks to practice before the meeting. We’ll post the complete “Presentation” version on this blog & in the UML after the meeting.

Our next AUS meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 13th, at 7:00 pm, at Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive (Austin, TX 78723) – it’s just southeast of where I-35 and US-290 connect, and a few blocks east of Cameron Road.

September’s song will be along soon; check this space.

We had an action-packed meeting last Thursday! Close to 50 strummers, eight sing-along tunes (three of them brand new to the group), and so many great solo performances. Many thanks to Jack, Bill and Kathy, Bailey and Weston, Ray, Kendra, and Gary for sharing your talents with us during the open mic part of the program. The breadth of musical styles and the display of skills was an inspiration.

A special Austin Ukulele Society welcome to the many first-timers who joined us — we hope you’ll come back and play with us again!

Walter will be posting a summary of the meeting and a few pics (thanks Jen!) on our blog soon, as well as the Tin Pan Alley Medley in the presentation format we worked through on Thursday. Give it a try — we’ll be playing it again at a future meeting!

Mark your calendars: our next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 13, 7:00 – 8:30pm. We’ll be sending information soon, so keep an eye out.

I say this after every meeting, but it’s true: it’s such a pleasure to play with you all. Can’t wait until we meet again!

Cheers, Bob G.

[Well, folks, I wasn’t there–the first AUS meeting I’ve missed! But I will see you in September. So I’m posting Bob’s message. Looks as if you folks who were there had a lot of fun. Between now & then, look for September’s song. —Walter]

PS: Here’s one more thing–we have now posted for everyone’s delectation the Tin Pan Alley Medley – Presentation Format that Bob shared during the August meeting. It’s now here and in the Ukulele Music Library.

Here’s our song for our August 9 meeting (well, actually five songs). It’s a medley of Tin Pan Alley favorites from 1926 to 1931 that folks have played on the uke for more than 70 years: “All of Me,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” “My Blue Heaven,” “Five Foot Two,” and “Please Don’t Talk about Me When I’m Gone.” All of them feature the chords C, E7, A7, D7 & G7. A couple of them we’ve played before, but we haven’t played them enough. So start strumming; here’s the Tin Pan Alley Medley No 1 .