Maine Central Institute and the Newport Ukulele Group

This week I also had the pleasure of performing / teaching for the Newport Ukulele group at the Newport Cultural Center in central Maine.  What a fun time I had with them.  There is nothing like seeing what you can teach people in a very short amount of time.

 Early into the clinic phase of the night I discovered everyone was afraid of the Emaj chord.  So I promptly went about providing different fingerings and hand shapes until I think I found at least one that worked for everyone.  Bmaj also seems to be an ongoing problem among novice ukulele players.  We fixed that too hopefully!  Everyone seemed like they got something out of the night, even if it was just a chord shape.  
Sharing your passion for entertaining to a high school gym with 500+ students and staff cheering you on is nothing short of epic.  I had a afternoon at Maine Central Institute first talking with the guitar class.  Perhaps a few will be converted!  Along with that I got to perform in front of the whole school with Pete Witham of the Cozmic Zombies.  It went swimmingly well.  Here is a clip of my afternoon performance.

That evening I also did a more intimate performance with Riff Johnson (another Maine rock star) in the student lounge.  What a fun crowd we had.  Just enough people to fill all the seats.  Perfect.

I can't wait to come back to the east coast again next year and do it all over again.  One more gig at the Smiling Moose Public House in South Paris, Maine and I will be getting ready to pack my bags and head back to the great land.  Heard it might be standing room only at the Moose.  That's just how daddy likes it.

The "One Man, One Ukulele" sessions

NEW SOLO TRACKS!!

Three new tracks from the one afternoon blitz recording session at the Casa Del Reny Studios in Waterville, Maine.  I think all three were one take wonders and then I spent the rest of the time playing the songs over and over and not keeping anything.  I'm calling these songs the "One Man, One Ukulele" sessions.



TRACK 1
Figured I needed a song in ode to my big old Chevy man truck.  I think with this one song I have cornered the ENTIRE ukulele truck song market.  I could be wrong, but then again I could be right!

TRACK 2


The solo version of the Bear Safety ukulele hip-hop explosion.  Get some!  SAFETY!  Be bear aware folks!

TRACK 3

Ode to Dr. Jones, Parks Highway Band Drummer / Doctor of Life.

Maine and Florida...both colder than Alaska

Why is it the one time I get out of Alaska during January to a state that is supposed to be warm it ends up being unseasonably cold and a heat wave hits Alaska?  Knowing my luck I will be back to the great land just in time for the cold to come back.  Even with that said... I still always miss being away.  I decided to post this pic of driving my old tour bus named "Ba" in the Yukon Territory.  My old home.  Good times.  

So I have been in Maine and Florida visiting family, friends, and playing some great shows!  It is always a pleasure to head south to charted and uncharted territory for me and play some ukulele for the people.  I have a full week this week and I'm getting it done.

Just recorded a few tracks for the "One man, one ukulele" album.  Keeping it simple.  Just my ukulele and I letting loose.  Casa Del Reny studios in Waterville, Maine (known as H2O-ville) are just the place to do it.  Mr. Mike Reny and I have been good friends and musical colleagues for a long time.  The four tracks we did today sound sweet.  Pretty much all one take wonders.  It is really nice when that happens.

Wednesday I'm conducting a clinic / performance for the Newport Ukulele Group at the Newport Cultural Center at 6pm.  Come learn some of the different things I'm doing and how to make sloppy playing work for you.  I'm telling ya, not everything has to be clean and pristine.  We are talking about functionality, not fancy.

Thursday at Maine Central Institute I will be working with the high school music students and then performing for the student body in the afternoon at 2:15pm followed by an evening concert on campus.  I love talking to the students about music and just love sharing my passion for musical endeavors.    

PANTS OFF DANCE OFF

I awoke this morning to the sound of snowmachines warming up as I crawled out of my loft.  The neighbors were getting ready for a joy ride.  So I stepped out to make pleasant conversation and low and behold a shattered U-joint is on the ground behind my truck.  After crawling underneath my truck I discovered...all my u-joints were fine.  Strange... shattered pieces of metal in the driveway... Then again my neighbors buddy lost a CV-axle in the driveway on Christmas.  It probably was that.  -40F will do weird things to metal.

Tonight is the night where the stars align and the temps will rise to near zero and the PANTS OFF DANCE OFF will commence.  I'm playing with a group of great local musicians to see if we can conjure the best pantless dancers in Fairbanks.  It is going to be wild.  There is nothing like the lull of post-Christmas / pre-New Year to get people to come out.  People won't realize they are broke until after the New Year from spending too much money on Christmas so this is the time to get them to belly up to the bar and take those pants off....and shake what their Mammas gave them.

The man wants you to wear pants.  Seriously.  They were invented to keep you down.  Release your inner dance demon and come compete for great prizes at the PANTS OFF DANCE OFF tonight at the Marlin in sub-tropical (haha) Fairbanks, Alaska.    

Darknesses

This is the time of the year I plan very few gigs and I become a recluse cabin dweller out on the outskirts of town.  The wife and I barely go into town unless it is for some necessities.  I literally spend my time watching paint dry and just keep piling wood into the stove.  The lack of vitamin D is apparent.  You really don't know what it does for you unlike you need it.  The temps have finally dropped to around -40F (which is about -40C for my non-American friends) and it makes going outside to get some "D" even harder.  But life goes on.  I will continue sleeping 14+ hours a day until the sun comes back.  It is only a matter of time.  I'll just try to keep busy for the 10 hours I am awake a day.  Got the truck loaded now for a water / propane / trash run.  How I do like driving that truck.  I can't even being to think of how many ukuleles I could haul with that truck...oh the possibilities.  Perhaps I will drive around for the three hours it is light out.  Will that help?  Not too sure.

I'm playing my last two shows of the year this Saturday at the "Pants Off Dance Off" and then the New Years Eve party with the Fairbanks All Stars.  Both gigs are at the infamous basement bar known as the Marlin.  It is a place near and dear to my heart.  Nothing like cool basement clubs where anything goes. I get to play this show with a handful of real Alaskan pros.  It is going to be awesome.

Soon after the new year it is time to head back east to see family and play some interesting gigs.  I can't wait this darkness is getting to me.  Forty below, the ice and snow, and the darknesses.  That's right, there is so much of it that you need to create new words to describe it.  The deep freeze wouldn't be so bad if the sun was actually out.

 

Mullets, alternators, and the forty below.

I am convinced that the mullet is making a comeback.  I'm not saying I would be hip to getting one.  I am just saying that they might be making a come back.  There was a foreigner I ran into in town.  He was rocking one.  Went to Wal-Mart and saw another.  There is even this little woman in town with a high and tight mullet. It is extremely well kept.  Business in the front, party in the rear.  Who knows it could just be the darkness getting to me.  The countdown to solstice continues.  Just a few more weeks and then we will be gaining sunlight.  Boo-ya! 

Big truck died on me the other day... well... It all started with my van's transmission crapping the bed.  Stuck on the side of the highway about 100+ miles from my place at the end of Windy Pass.  Lucky it was only -10F or so outside.  My buddy from the Cantwell Lodge came and rescued me and hooked me up with a rig for the week so I would still make my gigs at the Yukon Bar in Seward (520 miles from Fairbanks).  I can't even begin to thank them.  Mike and Janet are the best.  GO TO THEIR LODGE!! Right off the Parks Highway.  Explore downtown Cantwell.  The legendary rival community to Sicily, AK. the fictional town from the TV series Northern Exposure. 

Anyway the wife started up the truck so we could use it to go retrieve my van off the road.  Turns out it needed an alternator.  It died.  So I got that done today and even replaced the belt while I was at it.  Thank god it wasn't too cold today.  Now just to do the CV axles on my new Subaru I picked up tomorrow.  Should be good to roll to Anchorage then.  Last trip of the year.  Humpys Great Alaskan Alehouse here I come downtown Anchorage      

The temps dipped down last week to the high -30Fs.  It was cold being stuck on the side of the road.  Hopefully my new beater with a heater makes it or this ukulele guy is going to be hitching it.  I have to leave a day early.  Looks like there is an ice storm on the way.  Time to pack the arctic gear and get ready for whatever is thrown at me.      

 

Let the hibernation begin!

Here is a blast from the past!  Ron and I.  Beantown.  Good times.

This is the time of year I slow down on out of town (Alaskan) gigs and get down to....hibernating.  The short days are getting shorter and soon we will have less than 3 hours of light.  That is when the real crazy begins.  I use this time of the year to enjoy the winter things like riding my snowmachine and snowshoeing among others.  However, this is the time of the year I do a ton of writing and learning of new material for my show.  I think the long days inside because who wants to ride a snowmachine at -30 or below?  Not this guy.  So this is when I sit by the woodstove, play my kamaka since I could care less about it (from the first time I brought it to Alaska it has been dying -- Hawaiian instruments with no rods in the neck are a BAD IDEA for subarctic Alaska.  Very BAD IDEA.....  I went through a long depression when my Kamaka fell from grace and then was rescued by Tom Parse of Far North Ukuleles.  Best ukuleles this side of the Pacific rim!

Big things are on the horizon though.  International festivals this upcoming year (they will be announced soon and no...they aren't in Canada), tons of new gigs, and the Parks Highway Band will be growing to a four piece for some select shows.  This is going to be a great year for this ukulele guy.  Stay updated for more ukulele happenings in the last frontier!