We had a big group of people–33 by our count–who attended the Sept 13 monthly meeting of AUS at the Central Market North Community Room. It’s been great to see people coming to join us for the first time; we hope you enjoyed it and will come back.

The group had a great time singing and strumming a lot of our old favorites, from Three Little Birds to On the Road Again, and we debuted the Willie Nelson/Patsy Cline song Crazy as our newest number. (Chords-&-lyrics sheets for all our songs are kept in the Ukulele Music Library.) Plus we had great performances from plenty of our regular attendees. In short, a great time was had by all. And there’s more ukulele stuff coming up in Austin:

• Sunday, September 18, Ukulele Workshops at Fiddler’s Green with Jessica Graves. Check their website for contact information: http://www.fiddlersgreenmusicshop.com/

• Sweetpea’s Ukulele Night at Skinny’s Ballroom next Wednesday, September 21, at 7:00pm. Skinny’s (http://skinnysballroom.com/) is located downtown at 115 San Jacinto with parking right across the street.

• Ukulele Soiree at the Swan Dive on Saturday, September 24. The Swan Dive is located at 615 Red River. Check out their website: http://www.swandiveaustin.com/

Our next meeting will be held once again at the Central Market North Community Room, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11.

See you then, and watch for an announcement about our newest song.

Jen sez: We’re looking forward to next week’s meeting and hope you are, too!  We’re meeting on TUESDAY, September 13th, at 7pm, in our regular spot: the Community Room at Central Market (4001 N. Lamar Blvd).

Bob, Walter, and I discussed it, and we’d like next week’s meeting to give us a chance to practice many of the songs we’ve worked on over the past months but rarely get time to run through.  Some of you may not have even had the chance to play them with the group, if you’ve only been coming to our play-a-longs for a month or two. This meeting will give you a chance to try out any that you missed.

As usual, we’ll warm up with “Three Little Birds” and maybe another familiar-to-us tune or two.  We will play one new song to add to our repertoire – Willie Nelson’s “Crazy” – (you may know it as a Patsy Cline song) and then we’ll spend time playing as many of the 16 other songs we’ve enjoyed together as we can.  We’ll still break from our songbook towards the end of our meeting to give you a warm and friendly ‘open mic’ audience if you’d be kind enough to play/sing us a tune of your choice!

All songs in the AUS repertoire can be found in our Ukulele Music Library; that includes Willie Nelson’s “Crazy” (which is not to be confused with the Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” we sang last meeting–both are great songs, but you’ll never mistake one for the other).

Are we crazy for playing the ukulele? Possibly.

Bob is bringing a projector, but feel free to print copies of any/all songs in case you don’t have a good view of the projector. See you there!

Wow, what a crowd at our great August meeting at Central Market. We’re wondering whether we should have more meetings on Thursdays. (What do you think? Leave us a comment if you have an opinion on the subject.)

Anyway, here’s Bob’s report, which you may have received already by email:

Thanks to everyone who came to our August meeting Tuesday night. By Jen’s quick headcount, 35 players were strumming away – our biggest turnout since we started meeting back in January! A very warm welcome to the many first-timers who joined us — we hope to see you again soon!

Special kudos to everyone who played a solo for the group. Every song was a gem.

A reminder that you can find downloadable PDF versions of all our song sheets on our blog, http://austinukulelesociety.wordpress.com/. Click on the “Ukulele Music Library” link. We mail out copies of any new songs we’re going to play, but you can always check the Library for the complete set.

Reserve the date on your calendar and spread the word: our next monthly meeting will be Tuesday, September 13th, at 7:00pm. We’ll be sending out reminders and posting on our blog and FB page. Please send in suggestions for our sing-along — we’re building a great repertoire.

For those who can’t wait until next month, come to “Sweetpea’s Ukulele Night” at Skinny’s Ballroom next Wednesday, August 17th, from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Skinny’s (http://skinnysballroom.com/) is located downtown at 115 San Jacinto. This month’s theme: the British Invasion, with guest hosts Bill “Monster” Jones and Kathy Murray!

As always, it’s a pleasure to play with you all.

Don’t forget–if you have any ideas for songs to sing at the meeting, please let us know. See you in September, folks!

Remember, we’ll be meeting again at Central Market North’s Community Room on Thursday, August 11th, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Two new songs will be featured–one is the oldie (way oldie: we’re talking 1928 here) My Blue Heaven, suggested by one of our members. But we’ll also have a relative newie–Crazy, the 2006 Gnarls Barkley hit. Download ’em here, or come get ’em, plus all our other featured songs, in our Ukulele Music Library.

See you on the 11th.

Jen sez: “As most of you know, the AUS usually meets on the second Tuesday of the month –and we’ll continue to do so, in the future.

“For August, though, there is a one-time date change – we’ll meet on Thursday, August 11th – same time, same place (7:00pm – 8:30pm, Central Market’s Community Room – 4001 N. Lamar).”

So… if you haven’t been able to attend AUS meetings because Tuesdays don’t work for you (but Thursdays do), here’s your chance! Come and join us. More info coming soon about the meeting.

If you were at this past Tuesday’s meeting, we hope you enjoyed it. Quite a few new folks were there–hooray! If you weren’t there, we hope we’ll see you again soon.

Here’s how Bob described our get-together on July 12 at Central Market:

Thanks to everyone who came to our July meeting Tuesday night. Despite the blistering heat outside there was plenty of cool music in the room — and we had a lot of fun. A special shout out to the first-timers who joined us — hope to see you again!

The Austin Ukulele Society reached a milestone this week: David Salazar, who we met at this week’s meeting, was the 100th person to “like” us on FaceBook. Thanks David, and welcome!

Reserve the date on your calendar and spread the word: our next monthly meeting will be Tuesday, August 9th, at 7:00pm. [Note: It’s now Thursday, August 11th.] We’ll be sending out reminders and posting on our blog and FB page. Please send in suggestions for our sing-along — we’re building a great repertoire.

And for those who can’t wait until next month for a ukulele event, come to “Sweetpea’s Ukulele Night” at Skinny’s Ballroom next Wednesday, July 20, from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Skinny’s (http://skinnysballroom.com/) is located downtown at 115 San Jacinto. This month’s theme: Elvis!

As always, it’s a pleasure to play with you all.

Cheers,

Bob G.

Hey, folks… if you haven’t fled northward during Austin’s 100-degree-plus (and rainless) summer, remember that the next meeting will happen Tuesday, July 12, 7 – 8:30 p.m. at Central Market North’s Community Room (the usual place).

We’ll be playing “Hey Jude,” which has been on our list of songs for a few months, but we haven’t gotten to yet. Our other song for July is “Singing in the Rain,” the old Gene Kelly classic, in an interesting arrangement in which the chords we play change every two beats. Take a look and try it out. Both are in our Ukulele Music Library.

Bob sent along this message about the June 14 meeting at Central Market North’s Community Room, attended by (we think) 23 people:

Thanks to everyone who came to our June meeting Tuesday night and made it so much fun. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the room! A special welcome to the first-timers who joined us — hope to see you again!

Hats off to those who played and sang (and low-yodeled) a solo number, and to Walter for his dizzying kazoo solo break on “Runaway.” Thanks for sharing!

Mark the date and spread the word: our next monthly meeting will be Tuesday, July 12th, at 7:00pm. We’ll be sending out a reminder and posting on our blog and FB page. And please send in suggestions for our sing-along — we’re building a great repertoire.

As always, it’s a pleasure to play with you all.

If you missed this one, will we see you at the July 12 meeting? We hope!

Yes, it’s time on Tuesday evening, June 14, for our monthly meeting at Central Market North, 40th & Lamar, between 7 and 8:30 p.m. in the Community Room, which is located to the right as soon as you enter through the Produce Dept door. We have some new songs for you this time: the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” and the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon.” Oh, and about this last number–if you get a chance, download it and take a look at (and try out) the wonderful descending intro chord progression that Bob has developed. If you’re familiar with the song, we think you’ll agree that it’ll be lots of fun to play as a group.

Remember that all the songs we perform at meetings will be posted permanently (or as permanently as things are ever posted on a blog) in our Ukulele Music Library. We plan to have the projector on the premises, but just in case, it never hurts to bring along the songs on paper.

See you Tuesday!

Our own Jen has been so kind as to arrange for another outdoor meeting for us with one of our members in South Austin for Tuesday, June 7. She sez:

We were all disappointed to have to cancel tonight’s meeting due to a scheduling conflict at the Triangle Park.

Susan, one of our members, was kind enough to offer up her large backyard as a strumming venue for us, before the next Central Market (6/14) meeting.

Here are some notes from our kind hostess:

You are welcome to BYO beverages/food/snacks. If you’d like us to do so, we’ll fill a cooler with ice. We have a few extra chairs, but probably not enough for everyone, so to ensure a place to sit, bring your own portable chair.

As we’ll be outside, there will not be a projector. Please bring printed song sheets. And don’t forget some insect repellent!

When: Tuesday, June 7th: 7:00pm – 8:30pm

What: Strum-along to “Three Little Birds” “Ring of Fire” “Stand By Me” “Eight Days a Week” “On the Road Again” “(All I Have to Do Is) Dream” “Don’t Fence Me In” “All of Me” “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong, Iz, etc) and “Wonderful World” (Sam Cooke) Please let me know if you need any of the above song sheets emailed to you – you can find them all here at Our Ukulele Music Library.

See you there, we hope!