Wednesday, July 25, 2018

In attendance for the Wednesday night strum on Judy’s deck were: Linda, Ian, Marsh Kennedy (special guest from Alberta), Lorna, Louise, Lynn, Verna, Thelma, Cathie, Zenith, and Judy.  Judy's husband made a brief appearance (my guess is that he wisely retreated to a warmer spot!).  Judy offered her fine dining room chairs for comfort with our instruments and soon the wine appeared to help numb the coldness of our fingers in the chilly outside air (+ 16 Celsius).  

Marsh showed us his Fluke ukulele with its charming flat bottom and mellow sound.  He brought a whole package of songs for us to play.  Lorna generously copied bundles of them for us at her office (which gave her opportunity to don warmer clothing, too!) and so we were able to play each of Marsh’s songs:  My Little Runaway, With a Little Help from My Friends, Lyin’ Eyes, Silhouettes, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Good Hearted Woman, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, Lay Down Sally, and Blue Skies

We also played songs from our inventory and quite happily went overtime before we agreed to end with our signature set ending song.  Gratefully, the warmth of Judy’s home invited us to hang around a bit to visit and munch on Verna’s goodness-infused Rice Krispie squares.  

It was our coldest summer Wednesday night so far and we played outdoors!  For sure, it was good to be together again.

- Verna

Thanks Verna. Sounds like a great evening. If someone can save copies of the new songs to give to Lana they can likely be scanned and added to the drive. :)

- Heather
Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Sound like it was a very hot evening in Carman. 37 degrees C here earlier this evening in Waterloo but the humidity was an uncharacteristically low 17 percent and there was a breeze so it didn't seem nearly as hot as it was when it was 27 degrees with 50 percent humidity the other day. Thanks to Thelma for the update on tonight's strum in Carman.

The group this evening:  Judy, Lana, Louise, Lorna, Lynn, Zen, Barry, Ian, and Thelma.

We played and sang: All I want is You, Bad Moon Rising , Angeline the Baker, Can the Circle be Unbroken, Cotton Fields, Lakes of Ponchartrain, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Brown Eyed Girl, Fannin Street, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Can’t Help Falling in Love with You, I’ll Fly Way, Love Potion Number 9, Let Me be There,  Shovels and Rope - new one that Lynn introduced, 50 miles of Elbow Room, Wagon Wheel, Sonny’s Dream, Early Morning Rain, Farewell to  Nova Scotia, I’ll See You in my Dreams, Jolene, Blame it on the Ukulele. 

Here in Waterloo the Waterloo Ukulele Club also meets Wednesday evenings. They meet at the Adult Recreation Centre and project their songs onto a screen. 

The songs they use are from the Southern Ontario Ukulele Players book which can be found hereThey also have the chords printed out on letter size paper which they string across the front.

Just this week they had 15 songbooks made up in binders for use starting next September when the club next meets. They are hoping to practice some songs they could play at seniors' residences. I told them of our experiences and how rewarding it has been playing at the Boyne Lodge and Towers. One thing they don't have (not needing them up until now as they have the song sheets projected) is music stands so they are hoping to find some at garage sales, etc. I forgot to mention to them that spending a little extra on good stands is well worth it :)

We played some nice songs - a couple I had never played before and some that we like to play including: Five Foot Two, Cockles and Mussels, Blue Moon, Tennessee Watlz, Wild Mountain Thyme, Black Velvet Band, I Walk the Line, When I'm 64, Mull of Kintyre, the beautiful Song for the Mira, and There's a Kind of Hush. The songs can all be found in the Southern Ontario Ukulele Players book.

- Heather







Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Marge, Zenith, Barry, Linda, Ian, Lynn, Louise, Lorna, Judy, and Verna met at the gallery to sing and play.

A few members played in the back of the truck representing the Golden Prairie Arts Council during the Carman Fair Parade. 

Linda, son Ian and grandson Kelly busked at the Carman Fair. 

Sorry I missed the fun :)

Thanks to Verna for the info and to her friend for the photos.

- Heather








Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Our group for tonight’s ukulele round robin included Lynn, Kathie, Marge, Thelma and Verna.  


We shared music and played the full two hours.  


Marge brought a new song: Olivia Newton John’s “Let Me Be There.”  Lynn brought “Union Girl” and presented a few others for which he did not have extra copies.  


The evening was another good time of ukulele strumming.   We wish our members at Folkfest (or at the lake) lots of fun, too.  


- Verna
Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Lynn, Louise, Lana, Zenith, Linda, Judy, Barry and Heather met at Lynn's deck in the serenity of his back yard (thanks for the lovely location Lynn)  to strum and sing as it was deemed that meeting in the upstairs of the gallery would be too hot. Unfortunately, Verna and Thelma missed the email regarding the move. Thelma reported that they met for ice cream and then went back home and had their own two-person strum. Next time we should put up a sign at the gallery. Sorry about that, Thelma and Verna :(

We started with: Angeline the Baker, Cryin' Time, Down on the Corner, End of the Line, and Fishin' in the Dark  (fix As and Ds), and Grandpa was a Carpenter. We were choosing in alphabetical order for fun but Lana couldn't think of a B song when she first arrived after golf so we ended up going back to B and later decided to dispense with the albhabetical order idea entirely. We also played: Grandpa was a Carpenter, Black Velvet Band, Harvest Moon (which sounded great), I'll Fly Away, Rollin in my Sweet Baby's Arms, Something Stupid, King of the Road, Put your Hand in the Hand, Someday You'll Want Me to Want You (with Louise picking instrumental part), Walk Away, I'll See you in My Dreams, Hard Times Come Again No More (start slow with first verse and chorus, then speeed up!), Hallelujah, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Dance Me, That Saskatoon Moon, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, The Cuckoo song (starts on Dm with Linda doing high harmony notes), Cotton Fields, You Belong to Me and our signature set ending song.

Since this last meetup we discussed participating as a group in the Carman Fair but decided too many people would be away. You could still walk the route if you liked.

Here is a list of Canada Day songs from Ottawa's Byward Ukulele Group you may want to try out to celebrate.

You can find the chord sheets for the songs here by title.