I wanted to create this blog as a place where I can store and retrieve information for future reference. I chose the name Humble Uker Ramblings because I have started out strumming my father's 1950's painted Harmony ukulele. I think that the greatest appeal of the ukulele as "the people's instrument" is it's humble simplicity. My contact email is HumbleUker@gmail.com. I have also been working on a blog for the Baritone Ukulele called Humble Baritonics.
This is a step back 5 years into the Ukulele Explosion. Victoria Vox was 12. Well, maybe not -- this is a nice long show, enjoy... (You might just want to listen while you do other activities)
Watching this is like opening a time capsule, Jeff. It's been only five years, perhaps, but...
Looking into the NY Uke Fest, I find that it's been held in April since 2006. Now, April 22, 2006, is the date Jake's "Gently Weeps" video was uploaded onto a young YouTube. So, this video is pre-Jake and pre-YouTube.
And it shows. There's (to me, anyway) an innocence to the whole affair, to the performances that are focused on simply playing and singing songs rather than attempting to dazzle with Jake-like pyrotechnics (which would come later).
And the songs themselves weren't the pop songs that have come to occupy such a huge chunk of the ukulele repertoire. You can tell this festival took place before "I'm Yours" hit the ukulele world, you just can.
Now, what we need is a similar document of this year's NY Uke Fest to see the changes that the five years since the 2006 edition have wrought.
And have those changes been good ones, HU? In the music, in the playing, in the attitudes and behavior of ukers? In the water and in the air, so to speak. What would the 2011 NY Uke Fest be like had there been no "Gently Weeps?" No YouTube as it has become for ukers? No, "I'm Yours?"
Watching this is like opening a time capsule, Jeff. It's been only five years, perhaps, but...
ReplyDeleteLooking into the NY Uke Fest, I find that it's been held in April since 2006. Now, April 22, 2006, is the date Jake's "Gently Weeps" video was uploaded onto a young YouTube. So, this video is pre-Jake and pre-YouTube.
And it shows. There's (to me, anyway) an innocence to the whole affair, to the performances that are focused on simply playing and singing songs rather than attempting to dazzle with Jake-like pyrotechnics (which would come later).
And the songs themselves weren't the pop songs that have come to occupy such a huge chunk of the ukulele repertoire. You can tell this festival took place before "I'm Yours" hit the ukulele world, you just can.
Now, what we need is a similar document of this year's NY Uke Fest to see the changes that the five years since the 2006 edition have wrought.
And have those changes been good ones, HU? In the music, in the playing, in the attitudes and behavior of ukers? In the water and in the air, so to speak. What would the 2011 NY Uke Fest be like had there been no "Gently Weeps?"
No YouTube as it has become for ukers? No, "I'm Yours?"