This is a brief reminder that we’ll be meeting on the second Thursday of the month, August 9, as usual, from 7 – 8:30 p.m.

We’re still selecting the music for the next meeting, and we’ll be in touch several days before the meeting to share the chord chart(s), so that you can practice ahead of time. Watch for it.

Remember, we meet at Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive (Austin, TX 78723) – it’s just southeast of where I-35 and US-290 connect.  Google will give you good directions from any part of town.

Enjoy the rest of July and we’ll be in touch in early August!

If you were at the July 12 AUS meeting, you know that Bob taught us a version of “Sway” that included a tabbed solo section. It’s great for those who are long-time pickers or those who are just easing themselves into picking their uke’s strings. It has now been added to the Ukulele Music Library as “Sway – Presentation Format.” —W

Our July 12 meeting was one of the best we’ve had yet. Around 40 ukers attended–it was one of those meetings where we had to carry many chairs out of the storage closet at the Memorial Church. Bob led the group in our new song-of-the-month, “Sway.” which sounded great. He taught us how to play a solo for the song, the tabs for which should appear in our Ukulele Music Library soon.

It was also great to see so many folks playing a solo number. We should give out our thanks to our performers: Ray, who played “Pancho and Lefty”; Woody, who performed “Alabama Jubilee” on his banjo uke; Jason, who did a great clawhammer solo, and Bill and Kathy, who sang “Suspicion,” one of their duets we’ve come to know so well.

Celeste played and sang the old Bill Withers/ Grover Washington hit “The Two of Us,” Elaine played a 4th of July salute to the theme songs of the Navy, Marines, Army, and the other services, and Walter (your faithful AUS blogger) performed the Big Joe Turner version of “Sweet Sue.”

We all had a great time, and want to encourage you to join our group of solo performers–there isn’t a friendlier audience anywhere!

If luck is with us, our next meeting will occur on Thursday, August 9, at 7 p.m. But who knows? Watch this space!  —Walter

Our July meeting is coming up on the second Thursday of the month – July 12th, at 7pm at Memorial United Methodist Church!

We’re all looking forward to playing a new-to-us tune on the ukulele–“Sway” (suggested by Bill – thanks!); please feel free to try out the song chart before the meeting. You can find all of the songs we play in the Ukulele Music Library of our blog, thanks to Walter, which, of course, is right here.

As usual, we’ll start out by sharing some ukulele-related news.  Then, we’ll play some songs from our repertoire. We’ll also have an ‘open mic’ section near the end of our meeting for those of you looking for a warm audience.

Reminder on meeting Location:
We’ll meet at Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive (Austin, TX 78723) – it’s just southeast of where I-35 and US-290 connect.  Google will give you good directions from any part of town.

When you arrive, please pull into the ‘enter only’ parking lot on the north side of the church – you can park in any spot not designated for staff.  I would recommend parking just past the covered driveway near the front entrance of the church.  We’ll be strumming in a large classroom adjacent to the gym.  We’ll make sure a door is open till 7:15.  Please try to arrive by 7–if you arrive late, and run into difficulty getting in, please follow the sound of music till you find our practice room and knock on the window–we’ll let you in.

Reminder: If you’ve requested one or more of our awesome Austin Ukulele Society logo shirts, please bring $20 (per shirt) and we’ll get you squared away!

Have a happy and safe Independence Day!  See you in 10 days! —Jen

A big bunch of us were at the Hill Country Galleria Amphitheater in Bee Cave last Saturday, including a bunch of folks from San Antonio, to perform a Uke Mob in the middle of Patricia Vonne’s concert. So here they are, thanks to Trina Woodall and Lyda Guz– “Three Little Birds,” as Bob gathered us onstage:

here’s “Love Potion #9“:

Here’s “Margaritaville”:

and last but far from least, Then, here’s “Runaway” with a kazoo solo by yours truly:

Watch out for more performances & uke mobs, as they happen! –Walter

A record 55 people were strumming and singing on some really rockin’ tunes on Thursday evening. As always, it’s such a pleasure to play with you all!

A round of applause for Jack, Kendra, James, Tim and George for playing solo tunes for the group — great job! A very warm ukulele welcome to the first-timers who joined us; we hope to see you again soon! And a special shout-out to our friends from San Antonio who drove up to play with us; thanks to Kathy C. for making that happen. We’ll have to plan a trip to join you at one of your meetings!

A few folks were disappointed we didn’t get to play “Sway” and I’m so sorry about that. It was important that we go over the songs for out upcoming performance on June 23rd and we simply ran out of time. So much music, so little time! We’ll save that jewel for another meeting.

A few upcoming ukulele events:

*** Bill ‘Monster’ Jones and Kathy Murray will be performing as their acoustic duo Cherrywood Road tomorrow, Saturday June 16th, at Mangia Pizza on Lake Austin Blvd. from 8:00-10:00pm. If you haven’t seen them perform, you owe it to yourself to check them out!

*** Saturday night, June 23, is the Austin Ukulele Society’s Uke Mob at the Hill Country Galleria. This is shaping up to be a fun-filled event — we expect 40 or more participants! (We’re no longer accepting additional participants.)

*** The June edition of Sweetpea’s Ukulele Night at Skinny’s Ballroom will be Thursday, June 28, 7:00 – 9:00pm. This will be a “Wizard of Oz Event.” Check for details on Sweetpea’s Ukulele Workshop page on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ukulele-Workshop-Skinnys-Ballroom/232825920074803. Skinny’s is located at 115 San Jacinto.

*** Mark your calendars: the Austin Ukulele Society’s next meeting will be held on Thursday, July 12, 7:00 – 8:30pm. We’ll meet at the Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Drive. Hope to see you all there!

Cheers!

Bob G.

There’ll be one new song introduced at the June 14 meeting–“Sway,” a Latin music classic. Be prepared to get your rhythm on.

Below is the live Michael Bublé version of the song, which is a good guide to the beat and melody. It’s even in the right key to strum along with–until the last verse modulates into a higher key, which we’re not going to do. And instead of a big band & a trombone solo, imagine many ukuleles:

Have fun! Remember, on Thursday, June 14 we’ll be meeting 7:00 – 8:30pm at the Memorial United Methodist Church, at 6100 Berkman Drive (Austin, TX 78723).

The version of “Margaritaville” that we posted in the Ukulele Music Library was not the same one that Bob used at the meeting. “Margaritaville” in the revised version had tabs that allowed the player to pick out the famous “dee dee dee DEE dee” instrumental phrases. Folks have been asking since then for the revised “meeting” version–so, by popular demand, the revised version is now in the UML for you to download.

We tried our our new home for our May 10 meeting–a big room just off the gym at the Memorial United Methodist Church on Berkman Drive in east Austin. Everyone who was there–and it looked as if there were about 30 of us–seemed to feel that it was a pretty good spot for a meeting. After cramming ourselves into the Community Room at Central Market North for our first 16 months as a group, at last we had some room to spread out.

Bob had prepared three new songs for us. The first was the Jimmy Buffett classic “Margaritaville” (which, we learned, was reputedly written in Austin), and Bob taught many of us who aren’t pickers how to pick out the introduction on our two middle strings. We also performed a medley of two Buddy Holly songs–“Everyday” and “Rave On.”

And then came the solo performances. We thank Steven, Tim, Gary, Ian, Jack, and (yours truly) Walter for entertaining us with a widely-blended mishmash of music–everything from rock to clawhammer. All of the audience–even when they don’t perform themselves–make the performances friendly and special. We encourage everyone to try it at least once.

Jen brought in our big box of AUS-logo fundraising T-shirts, and sold many of them. Our supply is rapidly disappearing, so if you want one, now is the time to drop us a line at austinukes@gmail.com (and the shirts, in whatever size you request, are $20 each). They’re really comfy and classy.

Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled, once again, at the Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Dr., for Thursday, June 14, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. Hope to see you then.