By Greg Olwell With this week’s Throwback Thursday falling on St. Patrick’s Day, it just seemed right to feature a little Irish music. Back at the Portland Uke Fest in 2008, two modern masters, the late John King and James…
“First law of music journalism: Do not make an album. And on top of it, I play a ukulele,” Leonard Cohen biographer and esteemed rock journalist Sylvie Simmons joked in an interview with Ukulele following the release of her exquisite…
By Greg Olwell While most people have probably heard Lyle Ritz, they may not have known it. As an A-list session bassist whose career began in the late-’50s, Ritz racked up thousands of studio sessions, playing on many hits including…
By Greg Olwell Let’s look at some vintage film shot in Hawaii for Aloha Friday. Throughout the ’20s, the mainland US was enthralled with the culture and music of the Hawaiian Islands and this nine-minute film, made by the Ford Motor Company…
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One of last night’s Oscar highlights was famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone winning best original score for The Hateful Eight. At 87, Morricone is the oldest Oscar winner ever—a fact confirmed today by the Academy—and, surprisingly, this is his first…
By Greg Olwell For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we are celebrating the birthday of one of the most famous ukulele players, George Harrison. The Beatles’ guitarist and songwriter was known for many things, including writing some of the catchiest hooks…
A reader posted this cool vintage clip to our Facebook page and we had to share. Watch the short film “The Making of a Ukulele,” created by Ford Motor Company around 1917 for educational purposes. The clip depicts a…
By Greg Olwell With the ukulele’s popularity still soaring during the world’s first wave of ukulele love, it’s no surprise that one of the all-time great comedy duos used a uke in one of its famous slapstick romps. For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we…
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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.…