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November 1, 2007: I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Auckland New Zealand (the Kapono Uke Fest is coming up on Saturday) thinking back over the last six weeks. Makes my head spin. So much has happened: first, Anne and I bought our first house, a lovely log home on four acres of wooded land in rural Nova Scotia. Major selling features? The peaceful setting, the privacy and, of course, the porch. I'm talking a heavy-duty music/party porch... perfect for serenading the setting sun with my new Bean Sprout!

Melanie Doane, Chalmers Doane, and I onstage in Liverpool, NS.

Just this past weekend was the 2nd International Ukulele Ceilidh in Liverpool, NS. What a party--the Ceilidh is really one of the highlights on the uke "circuit"; well organized, great fun, great people. I was as surprised as the next guy to find myself inducted into the Ukulele Hall of Fame in Nova Scotia; now that's some house-warming gift!

Melanie Doane, Chalmers Doane and myself gave a one-off trio performance on Friday night at the Astor Theatre. The show felt great and I was on a high for hours afterward; stayed up jamming 'til about 2:30am, napped, then left for the airport at 5:00am to play a show in Hartford, CT that evening. Long day!

The Ceilidh also gave Chalmers and I a chance to present some of the material from our upcoming method book series. Ukulele in the Classroom is a project we've been working on for years and, at long last, it's going to hit the shelves! Look for it in stores and on-line in January 2008.

P.S. Saw a great N.Z.-produced movie on the plane called Eagle vs. Shark. Quirky and very funny, even had some ukulele in the soundtrack. Two thumbs up. Top ^

July 31, 2007: This has been my busiest summer to date. I've got just a few days at home now (which instead of using to relax, I'm using to record the CDs for a method book project I have in the works). Good thing I love my job.

Mike DaSilva is a great luthier and a really good friend. Earlier in the month I spent a few days at his Berkeley shop (like a candy store for uke-heads) before heading down to Santa Cruz (bunch of uke-heads) for one crazy night at the famous Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz. What a fun night that was. Plenty of heckling -- the good kind -- gave the set a casual "who's-afraid-of-the-fourth-wall" vibe that I really enjoyed. Check out a video clip from the show here. Needless to say, the Santa Cruz uke club's reputation as one of the wildest, most receptive, most high-energy crowds around is well-deserved.

Just another surreal scene in Göteborg, Sweden (May 2007).

But if there's one club that holds a candle to Santa Cruz, it's the Ukulele Club of Göteborg, Sweden. Talk about fun times; I got my hands on some photos from our May gigs there and I'm reminded just what a party it was. Strummers took to the streets, concert-goers showed up in droves (4000 at the open-air festival), and the Ukulele Club of Göteborg celebrated their 10th anniversary in grand, grand style (dinner + wine + music + signal flares (indoors) + noisemakers + more wine = the way they roll in Göteborg). On the ukulele map of the world, "Göteborg" is printed in big block letters. Thanks to Nimrod, Pelle, Bengt, and everyone who made our stay so unforgettable. Top ^

June 26, 2007: Is the Portland Ukulele Festival the best thing to happen to the uke since the Ravenscrag? Maybe not, but it's still a great party. Three days and four nights of ukulele immersion on the picturesque Reed College campus. A few things really stood out: the immersion factor, the sequential classes, and the commeraderie among teachers.

The immersion factor is pretty obvious: three-and-a-half days without driving a car, spending money, collecting the mail, going to the mall, etc.; nothing but ukulele. The event had a real "retreat" kind of atmostphere. The scene was set.

There were some "by request" one-shot workshops, but most of the classes were sequential and cumulative over three days. In other words: "go to class, leave class, forget most of what you learned in class, practise, sleep on it, and return to class the next day with questions. Repeat." The multi-day format gives teachers a chance to cover more material in greater detail and gives students the time they need to properly absorb the stuff. Eureka!

Me, Ralph, and Aaron at the PUF (photo by our good friend Li'l Rev).

The really fun part for me was collaborating with the other teachers. Unlike most other events, there's an expectation at the Portland festival that, as a teacher / performer, you'll seek out other teachers and ask them to join you onstage at the faculty concert (a two-night, wicked-fun shindig open to the public). How many times do you go to a uke concert and have Lyle Ritz saunter on to play bass with Del Rey and Aaron Keim? Or see Michelle Kiba dancing an impromtu hula to Joel Eckhaus' rendition of the Everly Brothers' Devoted? At one point I found myself onstage playing a old-timey fiddle tune with Greg and Jere Canote, Lyle Ritz and John King. The Saturday night concert hit a fever pitch with Ralph Shaw, Del Rey, Aaron Keim, Piper Heisig, and Michelle Kiba delivering a supercharged cover of Viva Las Vegas. Good times.

Portland Uke Fest 2007 = happy teachers. Happy teachers = happy students! The good news? PUF 2008 is just around the corner. Top ^

June 12, 2007: I'm waiting to get my hands on photos from our Sweden concerts (without proof I don't think you'll believe how nuts they are for the uke... the term "strum-drunk" comes to mind). The ukulele club in Göteborg along with the Pustervik Theatre showed us the warmest, most generous hospitality (can you say "champagne, fresh fruit, and full-body massage chair backstage"?). The first night at Pustervik was sold-out and felt more like a rock concert than a uke show. They were clapping and stomping and yelling and singing along and cheering... an unforgettable audience. Must be what it's like to be in the UOGB.

Anyhow, besides our own shows at the Pustervik Theatre we also played at the 2007 Ukulelefestivalen, an outdoor morning-to-mid-afternoon buffet (smörgåsbord?) of ukulele acts attended by no less than four thousand of Göteborg's legion of uke lovers.

As Ukulele Eck would say, mo' lata. Top ^

May 13, 2007: Anne and I leave for Sweden tomorrow to play at Ukulelefestivalen 2007 in Göteborg - should be new and exciting. I haven't started packing yet but I do have a few photos from the Japan tour to share with you (I can't believe it's been a month since I was there...).

The timing of the tour was bang-on... I caught the blossoming of the sakura (cherry blossoms). Appropriately, one of the songs I played throughout the tour was the traditional Japanese folk song Sakura, Sakura. The song (and the Japanese audience's emotional response to the tune) makes a lot more sense once you've seen the cherry trees in bloom. Here's a snapshot of me and my tour mates (left to right) Shimada-san, Derek Shimizu (who joined us for the second week of the tour), Takuya-san, and Sato-san.

I'm told that of all the Zen gardens in Japan, the Ryoan-ji garden in Kyoto is the most striking. Since we had very limited time for sight-seeing, we made a b-line for it as soon as we had some free time in Kyoto. The gardens are breathtaking as promised - could've spent a lot more time there. Walking along the edge of the rock garden I snapped this photo (left) which I thought captured the struggle between tradition and technology that seems to define modern Japan.

Toward the end of the trip we visited the famous Himeji castle with its intentionally confusing maze of walkways and massive stone foundation. It struck me that, however beautiful the castle may be, it (and pretty well everything inside it) was built with violence in mind. The visit prompted me to read up on Japanese history (particularly Samurai history and legend) once I returned home. Here's a photo of us at the base of the main castle building. We were all a little breathless by the time we made it to the top of the keep some 20 minutes later!

Judging by the number of foreign languages in the air, Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavillion Temple) is on every tourist's "to do" list. I was no exception, of course. The sun was setting as we arrived on the temple grounds and - along with everyone else - I snapped away, trying to capture a little bit of golden temple on Sato-san's camera. At one point I looked down to see these little green shoots poking through the surface of the sakura-petal-covered main pond. It's my favourite photo from Kinaku-ji.

Perhaps the most memorable experience of the tour was in Mito. There we met Akiyama-san, a Buddhist priest and ukulele buff, and his family. They treated us to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony inside the monastery at Mito. Sadako-san (pictured) patiently (and forgivingly) guided us through the formalities of the ceremony; it was an intense, humbling, and delicious experience! Afterwards I played a couple of tunes on Akiyama-san's custom double-necked Graziano ukulele.

To all the fans from all over Japan who came out to support me on the tour, my heartfelt thanks; hope to see you all again soon! To the staff at Yamaha, a special thank you for believing in me and for making this visit possible. Otsukaresamadeshta!

See more photos from the trip on the snapshots page. Top ^

April 28, 2007: Back in Ottawa via Japan and Vancouver and playing the usual post-tour email catch-up game. The tour to Japan was great. I felt a lot more comfortable this time around. I guess it's just getting more familiar... the language, the customs, everything. And I've always loved the food... mmm... the food. Anyhow, I'm just getting back into the swing of things here in Ottawa and I'll post photos and more details about the Japan trip as soon as I get my hands on the tour photos. More anon. Top ^

March 4, 2007: Big News: the James Hill Signature Model Ukulele (JH-SM1) is no longer just a figment of my imagination! Thanks to Derek Shimizu of GString Ukuleles, the new instrument has turned out beautifully - even better than I expected and, having been spoiled for so long by the one-of-a-kind custom tenor uke that Derek made for me in 2002, I was expecting a lot!

Derek and I worked on the design for months, tailoring the uke to my needs and blending classic design with modern technology. I've been playing in more and more "porch jams" and wanted a brighter, louder sound so we chose a spruce top. We wanted to give it a touch of Canadiana so we went with figured maple for the back and sides. The distinctive pickguards are made of koa (couldn't do without a little touch of Hawaii) and the elegant slotted headstock is capped with ebony. The fretboard of my 2002 custom tenor is flat the fretboard on the JH-SM1 is radiused which makes it a bit more comfortable to play. When it came to chosing a pickup, we didn't mess with a good thing - the JH-SM1 comes standard with the same Fishman Prefix ProBlend pickup that's served me so well on stage for years.

The JH-SM1 is a deluxe uke, no question. That said, Derek and I both wanted it to have "wood-on-wood" look as opposed to a "bling-bling-shiny-shell" look. We also wanted to keep the price within a reasonable high-end range; after all, it's an instrument to be played, not something to be locked up and looked at. In the end, I think we managed a pretty delicate balance between looks and playability, luxury and accessibility. I'll admit, I wish we could sell the thing for less but neither of us wanted to compromise the quality of the instrument.

So, enjoy the photos (and snazzy desktop wallpaper!) and when you're ready to invest in a high-end handmade instrument, keep this uke in mind. Top ^

January 22, 2007: Just got home from my first-ever NAMM experience. For those unfamiliar with the NAMM trade-show, it's a logistical, commercial masterpiece - a huge-beyond-belief music industry circus that occupied what seemed like every square foot of the Anaheim Convention Center. From time-to-time I ventured bravely up to the second (and most bewildering) of three floors but for the most part confined myself to the smaller (!) basement level. I caught up with friends from Flea Market Music, Kamaka Ukulele, Ko'olau Ukulele, and RISA Instruments (all of whom had booths at the show) and had a chance to visit with the KoAloha contingent, Mike DaSilva of DaSilva Ukulele Co., friends from Yamaha Japan, friends from Kiwaya Co. (Japan), musician colleagues from all over the continent and many, many others. Especially enjoyed hanging out with the team of builders from GString Ukuleles - John, Stuart, Tash, Kevin, Henry, Josh; they do such great work and they represented the GString brand with pride and enthusiasm.

Played a concert on Saturday night in a near-perfect setting: small crowd, good sound system, friends in the audience. For me it was shelter from the unrelenting pace of the trade show and I felt really good about the set.

I remember a couple of years ago watching from the wings as my good friend Li'l Rev played a set. He invited a guy (whom he'd just met) up on stage to play along. I was stunned - they hadn't even rehearsed together! They didn't hit everything but, hey, you never do and the vibe on stage was well worth the risk. Since then I've taken to inviting folks up for a tune or two if at all possible. On Saturday, Hawaiian percussionist / strummer Abe Lagrimas was kind enough to indulge me on a few numbers and we had a blast.

Anyhow, it was a whirlwind worthy of the music industry's most enormous and ostentatious event. In spite of some working-visa hiccups (it was pretty touch-and-go this time which is why I didn't notify many friends in the area about my visit) everything came together and, thanks in large part to Derek Shimizu's hard work, the stage is set for an even stronger showing by uke makers and players in years to come.

P.S. (How could I forget?) The NAMM show marked the official release of GString's James Hill Signature Model ukulele! It's something Derek and I have been talking about for a long time and the results are better than I dared to imagine. Tenor scale neck and body (with optional cutaway which I recommend!), spruce top, curly maple back and sides (optional koa upgrade), radiused ebony fretboard, koa rosette, a very classy slotted headstock and a top-flight pickup with on-board preamp and EQ. Whew. I'll post more details, photos and ordering info real soon. Top ^