By Mark Kemp Well, folks, I’m here in Kansas City, Missouri, this week for the annual Folk Alliance International Conference, where more than 3,000 players and singers from more than 20 different countries will be strutting their stuff in the…
After last night’s 58th annual Grammy Awards everyone’s lips are movin’ about singer-songerwriter (and uker) Meghan Trainor, who took home an award for Best New Artist. “I’m a mess,” she said to the audience during her sincerely humble acceptance speech.…
There’s something so sweet and sincere about this clip of Elvis Costello performing “The Scarlet Tide” that it seems like a perfect valentine — despite the fact that it’s more of an anti-war song than a love song. Written by…
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by Kenny Berkowitz If four discs of hula kitsch sounds like a lot, well, it is. But the good news about the new Hulaland: The Golden Age of Hawaiian Music box set is that it’s not too much, even if…
By Greg Olwell For this week’s Throwback Thursday, I wanted to make a personal post about my first ukulele. After playing guitar for many years, I fell in love with vintage Hawaiian music back in the mid-’90s. Soon after I…
If I were in New Orleans today for Fat Tuesday, I’d be running the streets with my uke in hand — and a Sazerac and gumbo in my belly! But instead, I’m at the office with a black tea in…
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When it comes to lasting beauty and serious mojo, it’s hard to top a vintage harp ukulele. Invented by an innovative, if occasionally questionably skilled, luthier Chris Knutsen, the harp ukulele was a member of his “New Hawaiian Family,” which…
“Everyone I know who is into the ukulele is ‘crackers,’” writes George Harrison in the below letter (courtesy of openculture.com). George wisely opines, “you can’t play it and not laugh!” So today, in honor of World Play Your Ukulele Day…