Interview w/ Utah Uke Fest organizer Ryan Taylor

The 2013 Utah Uke Fest is just a couple weeks away (June 15th)!  This year's festival features performances and workshops with Craig Chee, Daniel Hulbert, Micheal Stone, and others.  There will also be open mics and plenty of giveaways.  We're proud to be a donating sponsor once again this year!  You can find more information about the festival at www.UkulelePlay.com

Festival organizer, Ryan Taylor was kind enough to sit down and tell me a little bit more about the Utah Uke Fest.  I hope that you enjoy the interview!

Interview w/ Ryan Esaki from Ukulele Underground

A lot of great ideas start out as something entirely different.  For example, look at Nintendo.  Nintendo actually started out in 1889 as a playing card company. The game, Hanafuda, became very popular in Japan but they knew the market wasn’t that big. So they began to experiment in other industries. Between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a hotel chain, a TV network, and a food company.
Finally, in 1974, Nintendo entered the video-gaming industry and today they’re third most valuable listed company in Japan.

Ukulele Underground has become one of the top ukulele sites on the web.  I guess it shouldn't surprise us that Ukulele Underground started as a very different enterprise.  Ryan Esaki, one of the founders of UU, was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions about how it all started and where it's all heading.  Hope you enjoy this interview!

Interview w/ plastic ukulele collector Antoine Carolus

Antoine Carolus is a man that is slightly obsessed.  That's not always a bad thing though!  Especially in the ukulele world.  The above picture is his personal collection of plastic ukuleles...all 65 of 'em.  This obsession prompted him to create the website www.ChordMaster.org  
The site serves as a personal nirvana for those who love plastic ukes.  If you are interested in info about any plastic uke that you've seen or acquired, chances are excellent that you'll find it there.
Antoine was kind enough to sit down and answer a few questions about his collection and his passion for plastic ukes.  Hope you enjoy it!

Jake Shimabukuro interview on the Jim Bohannon Show

Jake Shimabukuro (whose name I still fail to pronounce correctly) is a ukulele virtuoso who has sort of taken the musical world by storm.  His beautiful and intricate ukulele arrangements have helped change the perception of the ukulele from "just a toy" to a serious musical instrument.

This past week, I was very surprised to hear one of his arrangements come over the airwaves on the AM radio station that I work for.  That interlude was followed by the announcement that he was one of the guests that evening.  Listening to him chat with host Jim Bohannon about the ukulele for over half an hour was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

I was able to find the podcast of the show he was featured on.  Here's the link to it.  Hope you enjoy listening to it....just a heads up, his interview doesn't start until 1 hour and 20 minutes into it.

Apparently, he also has a PBS special coming up on May 10th entitled "Life On 4 Strings", which they talk about a little bit.  Can't wait to see that special!

Interview w/ Jerry Hoffman from Boat Paddle Ukuleles

Boat Paddle Kayak - yet another uke I must have!

For being such a fantastic custom ukulele builder, Jerry Hoffman sure is very humble guy.  Sometimes humility can be mistaken for a lack of confidence, but that's not the case with Jerry and his Missouri based company, Boat Paddle Ukuleles.  I simply think that he strives for excellence and perfection in all his builds.  He strikes me as the type that's never satisfied and always wants to do better both for the customer and for his own peace of mind.

I don't know about you, but that's exactly the kind of individual that I want building my custom ukulele - someone that will go above and beyond to make sure you're 100% happy with your purchase.  This is exactly why I'm planning on making that beautiful uke to the left (Boat Paddle Kayak) my first custom ukulele. 

I recently had the opportunity to correspond with Jerry in interview type fashion and ask him a few questions.  Hope you enjoy it!  And of course, don't forget to check out some of his AMAZING work here at the Boat Paddle website.

Interview w/ Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments

"They don't make 'em like they used to".  It's an old cliché that rings particularly true with Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments.  Jake spends his days fixing up and reviving pre-WWII instruments out of his family's Rochester, Vermont store.  He certainly picked a good name!  The word "antebellum" is a Latin phrase that literally means "before the war".

On the Antebellum Instruments site, you can check out what Jake is currently working on via his running blog (something that I spend WAY too much time looking at).  You also have the opportunity to buy one of these pieces of musical history - ukuleles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, etc. 

There is a group of people in this world that are absolutely fascinating to me - people who have stories and anecdotes to pass along to you...people who seem like they've done it all....people who are just plain interesting.  From my brief correspondence with Jake, I would have to put him in this category.  I enjoyed every bit of his responses to my questions and I hope you will too!

New Ukulele Magazine

A brand new e-zine directed towards all of us ukulele enthusiasts has emerged.  "Ukulele" seems to be a simple, yet very appropriate title for this compilation of interviews, tabs, reviews, and a whole lot more.

There is an e-mail sign up required to read it, but other than that slight inconvenience, it's free!  You can check it out and read through it at www.ukuleleunlimited.com

So far just two issues have been released.  The most recent Spring 2013 issue features an interview with James Hill, a bunch of tabs including "On the Beach at Waikiki", a Blues on the Uke Lesson, and reviews of the Ohana CKP-70 Concert, Kala KA-SMLTE-C Tenor, and Boulder Creek Riptide UC-SNS. 

Check it out and take the survey while you're there.  This is a very cool thing and all of us ukers need to show them that we can support such a magazine for years to come.