Smoldering Uke 2014

Smoldering Uke 2014 -- the holdouts!!!
We jammed til the end!

Carolee was not physically able to join us at Smoldering Uke this year (We really missed her!) but she was there in spirit! (me and Carolee at Burning Uke X)

What can I say about Smoldering Uke 2014? When I tell people around me, like at work, that I'm going to Smoldering Uke, they either laugh or they smile. of course they don't really get it -- that Smoldering Uke happens in the spring and Burning Uke happens in the fall. It's like there's a whole group of us, more like a "ukulele culture" who get together whenever we can to play ukuleles -- or in some cases, the U-bass or whatever other instrument -- sometimes guitar depending upon where we're at. But there's something magical and special that happens when we all get together. We leave our regular lives behind -- even our families and our jobs and all the other "stuff" in our lives to gather together as a group and play music in whatever capacity. For me, of course, it's all about the Beatles and the rock n' roll, but I enjoy playing the old songs that I wouldn't have known before, and even some Hawaiian songs. It doesn't really matter what the song is.

This was my third year at Smoldering Uke and my friend Margaret's first year.  I only missed Smoldering Uke that one year when I got stuck in the snow attempting to get to the Reno Ukulele Festival in 2011. Although I had missed the festival, everyone was stuck at Johnny Ascuaga's Nugget because the roads closed so we jammed and played ukes everywhere! What started as a nightmare turned into a beautiful experience and I made some lifelong friends that weekend. It happens every time, no matter where I go or what group I play with.

I've also gone to all the Burning Ukes starting in 2010 when I traveled to Big Sur to play ukuleles with a group of people I didn't even know well back then. By the end of that four-day weekend, I could play ukulele and I had made all these new, wonderful friends who always welcome me with open arms no matter how much time has gone by. Time is irrelevant -- everything happens organically in the ukulele playing world. People are generally happy and have fun playing music, and that's what I love about it.

Margaret and I pulled into the Hidden Valley Music Camp in Carmel Valley around 4pm on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.

It had been a crazy busy work weeks for me, and I was utterly swamped pretty much every day. But I'd taken Friday off for Smoldering Uke weekend, and am I ever glad I did. I brought about 40 copies of a Beatles song packet to share and 30 copies of an 80s music song packet for Nancy. Always come prepared to jam! Of course one never knows or has any idea what will happen or exactly how things transpire. There is a schedule, but that's just for the main things.

I was so excited to pull into this beautiful place where a whole group of us -- Marty said about 65 people this year -- would play our ukuleles, attend a few fun workshops, eat super good food, jam and have a wonderful time. We stay in dorm rooms close to everything. I saw so many familiar people there from Santa Cruz -- Alan Ferentz from southern CA who has been at every Burning and Smoldering Uke I've been to plus Reno Uke Festival as well -- along with his gang, Sandor and Marty, of course, but no Carolee this time which made me very sad. I missed her terribly. 

A whole group of my friends from the San Francisco Ukulele Rebellion were there. Jeannie and Nancy pulled in right after we did, and Mark S. as well. Steve arrived a little later. And Leonard was there, traveling from the Roseville area where he lives now. Linda and Charlie were there -- Linda with her 8-string ukulele like mine, and Diana and Steve from the Silicon Valley gang -- not as many from Silicon Valley Uke Club this year.  No Dave F. or some of the other usual suspects. Vickie from San Francisco arrived later in the evening after work -- it took her a long time with traffic and she said got a little lost which I can understand at night down in Carmel Valley.

So good to see him there. He is always down for jamming and the "Leonard Book" is sort of famous in the ukulele world. It includes lots of 70's songs, more contemporary songs and a mix of pretty much everything like the Santa Cruz ukulele books which are STANDARD and everyone uses at these events. Mark even purchased a set. The Santa Cruz Ukulele books have a special place in my heart because they were the first ukulele books I ever owned.  They contain around 600 songs, lots of rock n' roll, Beatles and 60's music and folk songs, along with old-time songs, a few Hawaiian songs. Not sure if there are any songs after maybe the 1970s. But great songbooks!

So, Margaret and me lugged our stuff into our small but very nice, shady dorm room with a bathroom which is all you need at Smoldering Uke. We were right across from the main "barn" or building where we would all gather as a large group for our big jams and workshops, etc. The acoustics in that room are amazing and this place is filled with jam rooms specifically designed for playing music.

Then we all gathered in the kitchen where wine and cheese and snacks etc. welcomed us! How cool was that? Dinner of course was marvelous -- the food at this camp is always amazing, and this weekend was no different. You could go up for seconds if you wanted, no problem. It was relatively healthy food too, drink choices mostly coffee, tea and water (and wine). We all sat at large round tables, chatted and a lot of people had ukuleles with them of course. 

Then we all gathered in the "Barn" the main room with the wonderful acoustics for the evening festivities. Sandor and Marty and Marilyn (whom I bought my small Martin guitar from about a year ago) were leading -- totally NOT the same without Carolee, but still the spirits were high! We all played a few songs out of the Santa Cruz Ukulele songbooks together, and Steve played U-bass and accompanied everyone. 

Marty told us they were going to do "build a band" differently this year than they ever had where people get into groups and learn a song to perform on Saturday night. this time we would all put our names into a hat -- and only check off whether we were beginners, "been there done that" people, advanced, pro or whatever. Then we would be randomly put into groups, so who knows who one would end up with? I thought that sounded pretty cool, and everyone agreed. We had slips of paper to put into a hat on the piano in the kitchen by breakfast the next morning.

Jammin' in the Fireside Room!

After our night's festivities, the jamming began in the fireside room adjacent to the kitchen. Steve played his U-bass and we played a bunch of songs Leonard brought and a few Beatles songs too -- a whole group of us joined in. I met some new people, this guy named Fred who played really well, and Steve from Santa Barbara who played a resonator uke, along with the regular gang. Sooo much fun! Unfortunately, even though Marty had deliberately not put anyone in a room right next to the fireside room, people still heard the bass (those attempting to sleep) playing til well after 1:00 a.m., so we were asked to take the jam somewhere else Saturday night. No problem. Plenty of places to jam.

Leonard playin' the drum!!!! who knew? he kept great time!

Sandor joined us! 

Fred and Steve waiting for the next song!

But the most amazing thing to see at this jam was Marty himself!!!! He jammed with us on his slide guitar thingie until well after midnight on Friday night! This is the first time in the history of all the Burning and Smoldering Ukes, etc., I've been to that I've ever seen Marty at a late night jam. He usually doesn't even make it through the evening festivities before retiring to his motor home.  But there he was jamming away on every song! It was wonderful to have him there with us, very special!

Marty jamming at 12:30 a.m. -- Steve's iPad is PROOF that he's still up and at 'em!

Marty is such a warm, kind-hearted person who always makes the Smoldering and Burning uke events happen, not to mention the annual ukulele Christmas party and the Santa Cruz Uke Club stuff. Without him, they probably wouldn't. He coordinates everything and he rarely if ever turns anyone away... People have to send checks to him in the mail -- he doesn't do the online stuff, just email.  He and the Santa Cruz Ukulele gang have to be some of the coolest people I've ever known. So what fun to jam with him on a Friday night (and he was up late Saturday too!)

Marty and me! "A selfie" he shouted when I took this
pic on my iPhone! hehe!

It was an awesome night. We also played songs out of the "Book of Nancy" -- lots of good stuff in there, especially Crocodile Rock and Stuck in the Middle With You among many others!  Margaret was already hooked and so glad I brought her -- said she always wanted to come back every year. We barely got up on time for breakfast the next morning, had to dash in and grab something to eat before the first workshop with Alan Ferentz who always has something cool for us.  I sat in pretty much the same place all weekend, with Mark Segalman to the left of me and Margaret to the right. And I attempted to utilize my tablet as much as possible instead of books -- which is new for me. It worked for the most part, but I had access to the Santa Cruz books. Mark was playing his beautiful Kamaka 8-string ukulele and I played my 8-string. In fact, we had four 8-string ukuleles in the house for Smoldering Uke, which is kind of unusual -- with me and Linda and our Lanakai 8-strings, Mark with his Kamaka and Fred with a very special custom 8-string.

I don't know what it is, but although I love the sound of all ukuleles, there is something special about the 8-string -- the fullness. I can see how the four-string would be better for extensive fingerpicking though. I managed to bust a string on my 8-string on the first night of jamming -- the high C string which is not easy to replace unless you buy a whole 8-string set. So I played my Nalu ukulele for a while and that sounded lovely too with its typical high G tuning. 

Some time during the day Steve mentioned "Freedom Rock" a compilation of rock songs from the 60s and 70s that came out around 1987, the era of the eight track.  We jokingly spoke of doing every single song from that complication on ukulele! is it possible? can we pull it off?

here are the songs from that "CD" compilation, most of them 60s and 70s.

Here's the track listing:
Freedom Rock(1987;Sessions;OPCD-4510) CD
Disc 1:
The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is A Season) 
Ten Years After - I'd Love To Change The World 
Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath 
Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 
Edwin Starr - War 
Santana - Black Magic Woman 
Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire 
Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water 
The Brotherhood Of Man - United We Stand 
Coven - One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of Billy Jack) 
Jefferson Airplane – Somebody To Love 
Canned Heat - Going Up The Country 
Friend And Lover - Reach Out Of The Darkness 
America - A Horse With No Name 
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird 
The Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man 
The Guess Who - Share The Land 
Elton John - Friends 
The Ocean - Put Your Hand In The Hand 
Three Dog Night - Black & White 


Disc 2:
Derek And The Dominos - Layla 
The Moody Blues - The Story In Your Eyes 
Five Man Electrical Band - Signs 
Jonathan Edwards - Sunshine 
The O'Jays - Love Train 
Cream - White Room 
Jeffrerson Airplane - White Rabbit 
Judy Collins - Both Sides Now 
Seals & Crofts - We May Never Pass This Way Again 
Zager & Evans - In The Year 2525 
Alice Cooper - Eighteen 
Deep Purple - Hush 
The Youngbloods - Get Together 
Sonny & Cher - The Beat Goes On 
Dion - Abraham, Martin & John 
Melanie - Lay Down 
Spirit - I Got A Line On You 
James Taylor - Fire And Rain 
Lobo - Me And You And A Dog Named Boo 
Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

I attended a fun dance class with Marilyn -- a nice break from sitting down and then there was lunch.

At lunch lists were posted with all of our groups. we all gathered around like we were in school or something to find out which group we were in and then we were supposed to sit at the same table at lunch with our group members. How fun! 

Turns out I was in Group 1 along with Alan Ferentz and Lynn whom I just met for the first time along with other people I had never met before -- I only knew Alan Ferentz who is known for playing jazzy songs and teaches us chords up the neck. In fact, Alan probably doesn't even know this, but truth be told, he is part of the reason I'm pretty good at playing chords up the neck -- he taught us some cool chords up the neck at a Burning Uke a couple of years ago, and I loved it so much I wanted to do more of them. I think it was the F7 to G7 shape if I remember correctly. But everyone also knows that Alan is not into Beatles songs (which is okay, not everyone is!) and that I am into Beatles songs. So of course with me and Alan together in the same group, I was pushing hard for a Beatles song (we only get one song) and he was pushing hard for something else and all the other people in our group were sort of in the middle.

So we finally decided to actually play a couple of songs together as a group in the afternoon and see which one would work best for us.  First, we played I Wanna Hold Your Hand which Lynn and a couple of the others really liked and wanted to try. Then we tried this funny version of "You Are My Sunshine" which was Alan's suggestion -- where we'd play it all happy in the chorus and then go into minor keys and play it all sad during the verses. It was pretty funny. We took a vote -- man that was hard because everyone wanted to do both of them, but finally we decided we'd do Alan's and I relented (being the last hold out) agreeing that it was different and funny. Steve came over to play U-bass for us (he had a remote on his U-bass so he could walk around with it, so cool) to practice it with us and he thought it was pretty funny too. 

Leonard ended his ragtime workshop with a Beatles song, Lady Madonna, which I thought was SUPER COOL. and then a whole bunch of people came running up to me asking when the Beatles jam was happening and where! I was like, umm...sure, it's happening, but where? Not sure. We decided it was beautiful out on the deck outside the kitchen with lots of tables and chairs and shade, so I brought out the Beatles song packets and a whole group of played a bunch of Beatles songs! 

Jammin' with Beatles songs, YAAAYYYY!!!!!

Steve was sidetracked and didn't join us on U-bass til the end, but that was okay. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon until dinner. We did not get through my packet and everyone was having fun. A couple of people thanked me for bringing the Beatles songs, and that always warms my heart -- even if one person likes it! 

Another delicious dinner in Carmel Valley at Smoldering Uke and the evening gathering once again starting with the performances of all six bands and we were number one!! "We're number one!" Alan chanted, too funny!

Mark generously offered to let me play his beautiful 8-string Kamaka ukulele for our performance on Saturday night, which was sooo cool of him! I had reverted from the Nalu to my "7 string ukulele" and was very thrilled to strum a really nice instrument like that.  

So we played our song and everyone laughed and seemed to love it -- the You Are My Sunshine thing was a success with the C minor and F minor in the verses in place of of C and F. 

The Group 1 Band Playin' the light and dark renditions of You Are My Sunshine! Steve Lussie on the left playing u-bass, there I am with the Kamka 8-string and Alan, Lynn, Bob and the gang! 

I wish I could remember everyone's names because a couple of them were at the Beatles jam.

Unfortunately, though I know the chorus, I don't now the verses to You Are My Sunshine by heart!
So thrilled to play that Kamaka 8-string!

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Okay we know this!

Somehow, Nancy, Jeannie and Vickie all ended up in the same group! 

All the groups sounded great! A nice rendition of Bye Bye Love here.  There's Mark from the SF gang on the left! I thought for sure he'd want to play his Kamaka 8-string and was hanging on to it for dear life, but instead he played his Compass Rose. :)

This group did a medley of St. Paddy's Day songs. Thank heavens someone remembered it was St. Patrick's Day weekend! We are in our own world here at Smoldering Uke -- the outside world goes on without us this weekend!

Here's Mark and the gang performing the wonderful song that he wrote himself and shared with everyone. :) Steve on U-bass, Nancy and Jeannie accompanying.

Mark also accompanied me on a Beatles song, Things We Said Today, which I played later after a "game show" Sandor and Marilyn put on -- having to do with the ukulele which was long, but loads of fun. I got to play the Kamaka 8-string! 

Steve played a couple of stellar solos and Sandor and Jeanie did a song together as well. It was a fun night. Afterwards a group of us gathered in the "Octagon" Room for an 80's jam led by Nancy which I joined in on. apparently Leonard and gang were still in the Fireside Room, so we were sort of separated but everyone had a good time.  We got to play all the songs in Nancy's jam packet -- even Psycho Killer and "Yoda" (for Lola).  lots of fun!

Then Fred brought his 8-string ukulele and let me play it after I had to hand over the Kamaka. How lucky I was to play yet another beautiful 8-string. 

check out this beautiful 8-string ukulele!! How nice of Fred to allow me to play it! Made by this dude from Whales! Mark said this was even better than his Kamaka. Heck, I don't know! they both sounded great to me!

Marty stayed up late again on Saturday night to jam!

Sandor!

I think I got to bed around 1:30 a.m. and again barely awoke for breakfast the next morning -- thank heavens Margaret woke me up! Coffee and breakfast go good together. We had more festivities on Sunday!  Marty did this awesome songwriting workshop where he talked about writing songs in a way that we can understand. I loved it!

Since Rhan Wilson and Rick couldn't make it for "Matthew Mark Uke and John" Marilyn put together an awesome "Joyous Music" packet. It was really cool, especially when Marilyn and Sandor held up chords for "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." absolutely hilarious! wish I could get them over to our Bronco Billy's Jam!

Very fun and entertaining!!!!! (Sandor and Marilyn)

it was a fabulous way to end an incredible weekend, but WAIT! it wasn't over yet! we still had to eat lunch -- an awesome chicken barbecue lunch with salad and the works. And we still had more jamming to do. we were told we could stay as long as we wanted as long as we cleared our rooms out. it was a gorgeous, perfect day, so how could we leave right away?

Katie and Vickie and another lady whose name I just cannot remember! Katie lives in Hawaii but still has land in Santa Cruz. Vickie sometimes lives in Hawaii but mostly lives in San Francisco! what a fun time we had!

Some of us said our good-byes, but Katie wanted to play and sing some more Beatles songs, so we sat outside in the shade and played some songs -- she shared one I didn't have, "It Don't Come Easy," an awesome Ringo Starr song written by George Harrison. REALLY nice. Leonard and a few people jammed in the fireside room until I told them it was much cooler outside in the shade, and then we were joined by Steve, Nancy, Mark, Charlie, Linda and Jeannie. We jammed until around 3pm when everyone said they had to leave, sigh... 

Me, Vickie and Mark

The Stragglers who stayed til the end! Nancy took this pic. Steve, Margaret, me, Mark, Leonard, Linda, Charlie and Jeannie

Vickie and me

It was hard to part ways. Steve, Margaret and I lingered and chatted for a while and then we all went our separate ways, back to real life.

good bye til next year Hidden Valley...

and in the end the love you take, is equal to the love you make!!!!!

BUT WAIT! Margaret and I weren't quite ready for the magical weekend to end, so I drove down to the beach in Carmel and we took a super long walk on the beach. How could we be so close to Carmel and not go to the beach? It reminded me of those first two burning Ukes at Big Sur with the beach and the ocean so close by... more good, magical times, and so many more to come!

at the beautiful beach in Carmel!