Ukulele Salon at Googie's, Saturday, July 31

The NY Ukulele Salon presents another showcase of some great NY uklele talent on Saturday, July 31, at Googie's Lounge in the Lower East Side (154 Ludlow, upstairs from The Living Room; here's a map).

8:30: J. Walter Hawkes
9:00: The Suaverinos (my act)
9:30: Doctor Uke & Daughters
10:00: The King Crow Duo
10:30: Bliss Blood

Here are videos of earlier performances from these acts:

Loads of Fun at Summer Solstice Jam

Per my earlier post, we had a great day of ukulele performances on Monday at Union Square as part of Make Music NY - the Ukulele Mass Appeal. Below are videos of some of my favorite performances:

Strum in the Summer Solstice (June 21) with Make Music NY - Ukulele Mass Appeal

Make Music NY and the NY Ukulele Salon strum in the summer solstice with a four-hour concert and play-along with some of the best performers on the NY uke scene.


Make Music NY celebrates its 4th year with more than 1,000 concerts around the city, along with similar events in hundreds of other cities. The "Mass Appeal" concerts feature lovers of specific instruments, and this year they've asked the NY Ukulele Salon to organize the uke gathering.

We have a great location: Union Square, as part of the Green Market (northeast corner of the park).

The event is a Monday, so it starts at 4pm and continues till dark. Fun for kids of all ages.

Each featured act gets 3 songs, including one for audience participation, so bring your ukes!

Please spread the word via Facebook, email, Twitter, spoken voice, etc.

Here's the lineup of performers:

4PM
Rick Bruner
D'yan Forrest
Ken "Bari" Murray
Sarah King
Les Chauds Lapins

5PM
Bliss Blood
Dana McCoy
Leslie Chase & David Sands
Jon Braman
Amity Rose

6PM
Josh Bisker
Evy Mayer
The Ukemen
Carlos Molina
The Suaverinos

7PM
Uncle Zac
No Soap Radio
Roger Greenawalt
Peter Stampfel
The Edukated Fleas
Jamie Scandal

See here for more details about Make Music NY - Mass Appeal.

Happy New Year from Ukulele Mansion

            

More photos here.

NYE Uke Drop; Uke Cabaret; Uke Burlesque and More!

Dear Readers,

This is cut and paste job from an email I set out to the 100+ folks on the NY Uke Salon list. If you'd like to be on that list, send an email to rickbruner at gmail dot com and I'll add you to it. These are various announcements of upcoming stuff.

• New Year's Eve: Sonic Uke's 6th Annual Ukulele Ball Drop
  321 23rd Street, Brooklyn. Get there shortly before midnight. Details at www.sonicuke.com

• Ukulele Cabaret, January 29, at Banjo Jim's
  Yes, the Cabaret is back! Videos also on my YouTube page from the November cabaret. More details for the ongoing series at www.ukulelecabaret.com

• Uke Ooh-La La: Ukulele & Burlesque Show, February 11 at Jalopy Theatre
  Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette is organizing. Promises to be loads of fun. Details still forming, but check her site.

• Also Noted:
• January 2: Second Annual Connecticut Ukulele Invitational at Molten Java, 102 Greenwood Ave, Bethel, CT. Still maybe 1-2 open performing slots. Details at www.edukatedfleas.com
• January 23: Craig Chesler's CD Release party at Banjo Jim's. Lots of performers. Details at www.craigchesler.com
• February 25: Bliss Blood, Kelli Rae Powell & Al Duvall at Jalopy's. Plus lots more opportunities to see Bliss at www.blissblood.com
• Stay Tuned: NY Uke Fest 2010!!!! Details pending at www.nyukefest.com

Also, as always, players of all levels are welcomed at Makalina's weekly NY Ukulele Meetup.

2010 will surely see a resurgence of the Ukulele Salon, including exclusive parties at some of NY's coolest residences, plus public performances likely at Otto's, The Living Room and elsewhere. (If
anyone has a great home or performance space to recommend, please drop me a line.)

We're also looking to include some special guests such as Jonathan Coultan, John Hodgman, Nellie McKay and other NY-area quasi-famous ukulele celebrities. (If anyone has their email addresses, lemme know, or please direct them to this blog entry.)

Seriously, how lucky are we that this town boasts a Uke Salon, a Uke Cabaret, a Uke Burlesque, a Uke Fest, a Uke Meetup and so much more!

Also, if you haven't checked it out lately, give GoChords a look. A NY venture, the site is continuously improving to be a great social network of sorts and tool for building, browsing, and sharing ukulele songsheets.

Finally, a shout out to a favorite discovery of 2009, the OTHER guy who constantly practices uke on the uptown #1 train, Jon Braman. If like me, you would think ukulele hip-hop seems a stretch, think
again. Check out his site and remarkable album Climatastrophunk.

May you learn many new chords in 2010! Hoping to strum together soon.