Blue Hawaii

The Ukedelics featuring the vocal stylings of John Krauss doing Blue Hawaii. There is a special magic that John brings to the Ukedelics. Let the music speak for itself.

McKendree Luau

Great Ukedelics gig at McKendree Retirement Village! An elderly lady in a wheelchair sang along to several of our songs. Afterwards she told us, with a twinkle in her eye and song in her voice, that it was the best time she had had in months. It was a good day.

It was our most ambitious set list to date. For the first hour we plowed through 15 Hawaiian tunes and then moved inside for our standard set list. It was great to have an audience that grew up with many of the songs we do. A few got the urge to get up and hula dance with us. Fun!

The Hawaii State Society Ukulele Workshop

The Hawaii State Society of Washington DC presents a Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Music Weekend Workshop featuring Grammy artists Keoki Kahumoku (slack key), Herb Ohta, Jr. (ukulele), Grammy nominee Keale (music and culture), and Hawaiian language, voice, and hula artist Darci Baker (Hawaiian mele and voice). Here are some details: Workshop classes include Basic and Intermediate instructions in Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar and/or Ukulele, private one-on-one or one-on-small group sessions, and Hawaiian jam (kanikapila) sessions with the artists. Singing and understanding Hawaiian music is important, so there will also be workshops in voice and the culture behind some of the music where you will gain a deeper appreciation of Hawaiian culture through its music and stories. Open to teens and adults. Date: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 9-11 Place: Northern Virginia Community College, Ernst Cultural Community Center Cost: $425 Includes 3 days of workshops, jam sessions, 8 meals, and front row concert ticket. Details on registration and complete schedule can be found at The Hawaii State Society website: Go to The Hawaii State Society website

Wish You Were Here! --Rockfish Stu

A tropical postcard comes to animated life as a happy-go-lucky beach comer has a run-in with a crabby local.

This is a short I've been working on for longer than I want to admit (off and on, of course ... I'm sure everyone is familiar with the way that goes.) It started as a way to experiment with combining 2D animation with claymation and photographic backgrounds. It's animated in Flash and edited in Final Cut Express.

Rockfish Stu is a character loosely based on my friend Sid. (I don't even know what that nickname means, but I've always thought it had a ring to it.) He recorded his VO sitting in on the commode at his house on Maui then emailed the files to me here in Nashville. Bless the internet!

Rockfish's ukulele is actually a vintage 1930' Hilo that I purchased on eBay several years ago. I photographed it without the strings so I could put animated strings on it.

I believe that is koa wood on the front and back and mahogany on the sides. It has a great sound but the frets are kind of tall and it's a little harder to play than some of my other ukes. I LOVE the logo though. It was worth it just for that. (this was another era of Hilo's history--they don't make them like this anymore.)

I got fed up with having so much done on this short and yet it would still be another year, at the least, to finish the entire story as written, so I found a convenient stopping point and called it done. Not the most satisfying solution since there's a lot of cool stuff that was going to happen in the second half but life and other projects were pushing this further and further into the distance. Ah well, one day I'll either finish the entire "vision" or absorb some of those ideas into something else.

Moonlight In Vermont (in TN)

A fireside serenade: A lovely rendition of Moonlight In Vermont by The Ukedelic's secret weapon, Michael Timme (the Shy One). I can only dream of playing this well. (I'd play even worse in that setting since I'd have to be wearing my mittens.) His ukulele camping adventures have always seemed like a lot of fun, but that's a little cold for me.

Ukulele Lady

Well, although this is not a great performance--and not even the entire song--it is kind of fun. Plus, we're always struggling to come up with interesting blog posts so I'm throwing it up here. This is a video birthday card for my friend Dana. If the hula moves look familiar, that is Betty Boop's body lifted from one of her cartoons. (in fact, the one which contains the very first appearance of an animated Popeye.)

For the big uke nerds out there, I'm playing a Kala Pineapple Ukulele. It was a gift from a client of mine; one of the nicest presents I've ever gotten. I think it has a nice sound and it's a lot of fun to play.

And while I'm on the topic of this song, I've got to give some love to one of my favorite versions of Ukulele Lady; it's from the Muppet Show:

Ukedelics at Eastwood Christian

The Ukedelics were asked to perform some Christmas songs at Eastwood Christian Church on January 4. At first we were puzzled, thinking that we would get a lot of strange looks from people for playing Christmas music in January, but then Pastor Jay reminded us that for the Church the Christmas season extends to Jan. 6. (so we had time to spare.)

We played Mele Kalikimaka followed by What Child Is This at the start of the service. Then we performed Silent Night Hawaiian-style for the Offertory music. That song featured our newest member, Casey "Bliss" Dugan, in her Ukedelics debut.

Eastwood has a beautiful sanctuary (with GREAT acoustics, ideal for ukuleles) and the congregation was a great audience, rewarding us with warm applause and positive comments after the service. We enjoyed being there and I'm sure we'll do it again.