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| We're all singing the Sgt. Pepper Reprise!!! FABULOUS AND INCREDIBLE!!!! |
As I slowly made my way down the hill, I could feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, impending traffic court dates, the brake job I didn’t get on my car what was I thinking? And it’s not my fault I forgot about that stupid ticket from 2007. No one reminded me! When I finally got to the campsite, I felt a little lost – it’s huge! But finally at the top of the hill I saw Jeff West, the Humble Uker and I waved madly and said hello! I could hear people singing and playing ukuleles in the distance – already it had begun on Thursday.
Jeff rode with me in the car to help me find the cabin I was supposed to stay in with three other chicks, Roz, Judy and Susan. The only person I knew was Judy who was in our Silicon Valley Uke Club – but that was okay. I was just so excited to be a part of the magic of Burning Uke in spite of all the obstacles that I encountered. And in no time the stress and the weight on my shoulder lifted – and I found my happy place again, and throughout the weekend, more than once, I found myself wondering why LIFE can’t be like it is at Burning Uke.
No one was in the cabin when we arrived -- no doubt everyone was at the ukulele gathering site, which I hadn’t seen yet. I parked my car and we walked up the hill to the main area, past multiple picnic tables, lots of trees – good thing I bought that flashlight at the grocery store on my way up here, I thought – it’s pretty dark out here.
We found a walk-in refrigerator where I put my bags of groceries for the weekend – a lot different than Plaskett Creek Park at Big Sur, I thought. We grabbed our ukuleles and headed up a small hill where we found the main gathering area – a huge stage all lit up and dozens of people. A beautiful lit up sign hung behind the stage welcomed us all with “Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz.” The audience area was huge – lit up Tiki torches lined the very back area behind picnic tables and benches – so many places for lots of people to sit.
A whole group of ukulele people stood up on the stage and sang and played, with Sandor and Peter Thomas leading – I saw my friend Steve happily playing his bass ukulele – oh good, he found the place – and a bunch of my ukulele friends. Others sat in folding chairs or on benches, their lights dancing away as they played and sang their hearts out. Jeff and I caught the tail end of that first evening – but excitement still filled the air as the jam ended. This was only the beginning!
Somehow I ended up hanging out with Sandor, Julie and her husband on the first night, sharing fun stories and good cheer – they even fed me and offered me good drink. What awesome people – just reminding me of how fortunate I am to be a part of the “ukulele” community.
Walking around at night in the pitch dark was freaky – and I wouldn’t have managed without a flashlight. But looking up at the millions of stars, so bright in the sky – some looking more like planets than stars blew my mind. I missed the space shuttle flying right by my workplace on Friday, but hanging at Little Basin with at least 100 other ukulele players definitely made up for it. I was in a special, magical place.
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| The Endeavor as it flew past my workplace Friday (thanks to Vic Balgot, IT for taking the picture!) |
I tumbled into my bottom bunk bed awakening the others in the cabin by attempting to open the door and slept until everyone awoke the next morning – so grateful to be awakened by my roomies because I didn’t have a real alarm clock and the trees kept the cabin shady and dark – I didn’t want to miss a thing!
I walked through the woods towards my car and the big meeting area, marveling at how beautiful it was – the trees with the sun shining through them. It took my breath away. Dave F. from our Silicon Valley group stopped his van in front of my car when he saw me getting my ukuleles, my chair, songbooks and a music stand out. He asked if I wanted a ride up the hill and I gratefully said yes – just another reminder of the cool people here at Burning Uke. We drove past several people riding bikes with ukuleles on their backs or walking and everyone waved and said hello. And when I got to the main kitchen area, I saw a bunch of my friends – even Nancy and Vicki from the San Francisco Ukulele group – and Steve, of course, and the gang from the Silicon Valley Group and many from Santa Cruz – High Desert and beyond. I said hello to everyone, Carolee and Pat who rode a bike around and assured me that yes, we were definitely doing the Beatles jam.
Excitement filled the air as people ate breakfast – there was plenty of food and drink for all – no one ever did without at Burning Uke even if they weren’t able to bring food. That’s just the way it is – like when I was a kid and the hippies would bring in free dinners for everyone in the neighborhood – not just the other hippies, but for the kids and for the families – everyone. And there was free cotton candy and colorful balloons as kids ran around the park while the music played constantly and the twirlers twirled – Burning Uke captures that essence – I thought of this as I sat with all of my fabulous, colorful friends – with ukuleles.
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| Janet Lenore teaches the first workshop of the day |
We all gathered in the main area for the workshops – first Janet Lenore – a fabulous ukulele player whom I remembered from the San Francisco Free Folk Music Festival – she ran the very first ukulele jam the festival has ever known – over 50 people showed up with ukuleles! She taught us how to play and sing Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” – only two chords, F and G, but with a nice little riff in between – and then we learned a new riff for Daydream Believer. That was followed by an amazing songwriting workshop – about how to write down bits and pieces as you think of them to create a song – words floating about.
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| Me and Bill -- random jamming on ukes! |
Some of us jammed on ukuleles at lunchtime while eating – one must always keep a ukulele on hand here. After lunch my good friend Albert taught a workshop on Latin songs – he had all of us playing “Guatanamera” on ukulele while he sang the words in Portuguese! He taught us some other cool songs too – some in Spanish. Someone from the High Desert Ukulele Club had come up with the idea of a Latin music workshop – he was supposed to help Albert teach it, but he just started a new job. So Albert did an amazing job all on his own, writing chord diagrams out and showing us stuff.
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| Albert was FABULOUS teaching us all those Latin strums on ukulele! |
The High Desert Ukulele Club, run by John, had a “pre 1940s” jam before dinner – every year they have really good jams – with interesting music and they share their music with all of us. We all ate an amazing pot luck dinner – with more food than anyone could possibly want or ask for! We all looked forward to the night’s festivities complete with the amazing burning ukulele that Jay Holliday created – and the welcoming to…Burning Uke X!!!! It was a night of singalongs, performances and fun. Pearl’s Hula dancers’ gang performed what they learned in just one hour – and I wished I had gotten over to that workshop. Somehow I got stuck somewhere playing ukulele. And Leonard sang his famous, “Cows With Guns” song that I’d heard in San Jose – he had everyone laughing and cheering. Never fails. My good friend Steve blew EVERYONE away with his own amazing rendition of Yesterday mixed with some other songs – a ukulele solo that would make Jake Shimoburo proud, superb. I was happy that he got to show his stuff up there. He truly is incredible and he may not know it, but I’ve learned a lot from him. With Steve, though, you have to learn fast – he doesn’t explain much, he just gets right to it.
Afterwards, a group of us jammed in the kitchen area until 1:30am! My friend Bill walked me back to my cabin in the dark – I had a flashlight. We stopped to gaze at the stars for a few minutes – you don’t see the stars like that where I live, although we do see stars and they do look cool.
I probably only got five hours of sleep when finally I awoke at 8:00 a.m., I was told by one of my roommates. I groaned – but I got up because I didn’t want to miss anything – and there were blueberry pancakes for breakfast (along with everything else one can imagine, of course). Today would be even more exciting because of the Beatles jam that I always looked forward to the most!!
Then Mary Jo and Dena from our very own Silicon Valley Uke Club taught a workshop on how to jam with bluegrass players – and we learned some really cool riffs. It was a nice way to begin the day. Then Carolee did her “build a band” thing and had us get into groups to form our own bands – and she explained what it’s like to be in a band. I never get tired of hearing her talk about being in a band – even though I’ve heard her more than once. I love Carolee – she is so colorful and fun and well, cool. She is light a bright shining star. She put me on the spot when she said, “And Mary will want to do rock n’ roll!” I laughed. Of course I’ll want to do rock n’ roll and I knew just the right song – it was all about rock n’ roll.
We had played the song the night before at our late night jam – a handful of us diehards still left – me, Leonard, Steve and Bill – maybe one or two other people. Finally there weren’t as many of us, so we played out of Leonard’s really cool songbook – the one he uses for the “after jam” at the beach in Santa Cruz – I had a printed copy of it as well. It was that Bob Seger song, “Old time Rock n’ Roll!” a fun song that said it all – and only three chords so everyone would be able to sing and play it with no trouble – yes, this was the song. So a whole group of people ran over to me and said, “Are we doing rock n’ roll?” And I searched through Leonard’s songbook attempting to find the song – but couldn’t find it.
“Can’t we do another song?” someone asked. No, that was the song we had to do – I knew it. Bill offered to run down to Leonard’s tent and see if he could retrieve a copy – which he did! Found out it wasn’t in Leonard’s regular songbook, but it was a new song. Bill saved the day. We thought about doing a mash-up of Old time rock n’ roll with Rock n’ Roll Music, but it didn’t quite work out – we changed the key of the song to the key of C so everyone could sing it, and I was super proud of my group because they had to play different chords than the ones that appeared on the one and only copy of the song we had! In the end our group consisted of my friend Bill, Jeanette and Margaret from the Dana St. Roasting Coffee Shop Silicon Valley Group, another guy whose name I can’t remember and Carolee as well. And we got my friend Steve to play bass uke with us as well – we sounded pretty darned good if I do say so myself, rockin’ too.
Then it was lunchtime again – the weekend slipping by so quickly, all too quickly. There was another jam while we ate lunch – and I grabbed my 8-string ukulele and played along. Then after lunch Alan Ferentz taught a workshop on the chords to a song called “Bye Bye Blues.” He is always amazing – and whenever he teaches a workshop, I always come away with something that I’ll never forget – last year at Burning Uke it was that G7 chord up the neck a little that runs down to an F7 – with Hesitation Blues. So this year it was a whole new thing – and I knew that I’d learned new chord progressions I hadn’t even known about before. He comes all the way up from Ventura, California – for Burning Uke and Smoldering Uke, etc. Then my good friend Jeff, the Humble Uker, had a hillbilly jam where we got to sing fun songs – even to the music of the theme song of the Andy Griffith Show – about the fishing hole! And his own rendition of Ghost Chickens in the Sky – that song cracks me up every time I hear it.
Then…it was all about serious business – the BEATLES JAM!!!! What I always look forward to all weekend and get excited about. Don’t get me wrong. I love all the music and everything – and I’d learned so much already – Latin music, hillbilly songs, bluegrass stuff, a blues song, and I was even a part of a band which we called the “UKEalyptus rockers!” it was Margaret’s idea because she’s from Australia – and a fabulous one at that. Margaret is at Dana St. Roasting Coffee shop each month – and she sings beautifully – she sang harmony on Old time Rock n’ Roll and it rocked! I was losing my voice already.
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| It doesn't get any better than this! :) I got to be a part of the Beatles jam! |
Anyway, Pat said I could help lead the Beatles jam which always thrills me to no end. He passed out song sheets so everyone could join in and play if they wanted. I went up with my 8-string ukulele and I have to admit I was a little nervous because it was just me, Carolee, Pat, Eileen on congas and Gary C. on uke bass. I had my own microphones – one for singing and one for my ukulele. I always tell myself, you’re not a pro – you don’t really belong here – but then once I get up there and Pat leads us in to the first Beatles song, I immediately get past it and I just sing along and play – and everything is beautiful and it doesn’t matter – because it’s Beatles music…and this is all for the love of the Beatles music.
Pat talked about the Beatles songs which he also knows so intimately well – and just a month or so ago, the Santa Cruz Uke Club had a Beatles Revue night – incredible – with Sandor teaching a workshop on playing Here Comes the Sun on ukulele. This is what it’s all about, I thought as I stood up there on stage and played and sang…
When we got to the song, “Something” my friend Steve boldly walked up on the stage and asked to play the uke bass – just like he did at that Beatles party! So Steve played uke bass while we all played and sang “Something” followed by the last three songs of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely heart Club Band, Good Morning, Sgt. Pepper Reprise and Day in the Life!!!! It was absolutely AMAZING and wonderful!!! Blew my mind that I could even play those on ukulele – all thanks to Pat Tracy who put them all together so we COULD play them on ukulele! That finale on Day in the Life with Steve rockin’ it on uke bass was beyond FABULOUS! Another Beatles jam success that I will keep in my heart all year until we meet again for Burning Uke XI…along with so much more.
My friend Rick showed up at Burning Uke with his new girlfriend Dawn –and he and Steve got to jam a little.
We all convened together for another amazing evening – which included an incredible “musical” performance by Sandor and Beth – and she played her tie-dye ukulele (just like mine) for all of her songs – oh yeah, Beth also taught a harmonica workshop that day – and a whole group of people actually learned to play harmonica (I didn’t go to this because my brain is already filled with so much information). Yet she is also an amazing singer and all around musician as is Sandor. They sang bits and pieces of songs to form a story. So wonderful.
The hula hoopers did their thing – even with glow-in-the-dark hula hoops which also reminded me of the 1960’s in San Francisco – so much!
And, the harmonica players all went up and played what they’d learned – I was so impressed! I didn’t go up for the workshop performances – on the first night, I offered to sing “Daydream Believer” in honor of Janet Lenore who had to leave that same afternoon for another gig – saying she was sorry to have to leave. A group of us went up and did that on Friday evening. Then Carolee called up the “bands” to play – the ones we’d all put together earlier in the day. Steve was part of a group called “Zed Leppelin” and they played and sang “Chinese Laundry Blues,” a favorite of Steve’s – it was great! Another group did a fun and rollicking rendition of Proud Mary, and another sang a funny song about cups – it was the hugest group. Our group was pretty small – I thought we did a great job with Old Time Rock n’ Roll! Little did I know that I’d end up on stage yet again when Carolee happened to pick the song number “198” from the Santa Cruz Ukulele songbook which happened to be “If You’re Going to San Francisco Be Sure to Wear a Flower in your Hair!” She asked if I’d come up to sing it with her, and I was more than happy to – it’s one of my favorite songs of course. I had a yellow flower in my hair with my yellow Burning Uke X hat and Carolee wore an orange flower in her hair with her orange Burning Uke X hat! It was perfect! J Total love.
THEN the evening ended with…those final three Sgt. Pepper songs yet again!!! It doesn’t get any better than that. Other people joined us on stage too – and we all sang it and played it…ending Burning Uke X’s final evening event with Sgt. Pepper and Day in the Life…
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| We're all singing the Sgt. Pepper Reprise!!! FABULOUS AND INCREDIBLE!!!! |
A lot more people stayed to jam afterwards on Saturday night – a fire built in the fire pit below the stage this time. We played and sang until well after midnight – I was amazed I still had any energy at all and my fingers were sore from playing so much, but still we kept on…in the end it was only me, Leonard and Bill – Bill’s voice was gone too, and we agreed it was finally time to take off. Albert played his snare drum, Steve played his Rick Turner ukulele – I passed out some songs I’d made copies of – so we all got to do Secret Agent Man and Hey Jude. We played everything – from Mustang Sally to the Crawdad song and Leavin’ on a Jet Plane – we played a lot of songs from Dave’s Burning Uke X jam book too.
I was so tired by the time I sneaked back into the cabin, my roomies all asleep, that I crashed the moment my head hit the pillow and didn’t wake up until everyone else got up.
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| Me with Marty, Albert and Steve at Burning Uke X!!!!! |
Sunday morning – the last day – oh how I wished life could be like this, I thought as I walked one last time from my cabin to my car and then up the hill. I didn’t mind the walk at all. It was so beautiful. I got my stuff into the car and had breakfast with my friends – our last meal we would all share together, hanging with Marty and my friends Steve and Albert and the whole gang. Then we all gathered for Rhan Wilson’s and Rick Zeeb’s awesome Matthew Mark Uke and John gathering – which they do every month at a park in Santa Cruz – they have a songbook and lead everyone in various spiritual songs, and I got super excited when I saw George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” in their songbook as well as “Let it Be!” We all sat underneath the beautiful trees and sang and played…a perfect way to end a perfect weekend…in a beautiful world filled with good people, music, friendship, love and passion…for life, for the music.
So I said my good-byes, lingering for as long as possible, waving at folks as they drove by in their cars, vans and motor homes – attempting to capture one last bit of those special moments before taking off back up the hill to the main road, driving towards home.
But that’s not all! The adventure was supposed to end here – I go back to reality and that’s it, right? Wrong.
I decided to stop in Niles, which is only 1.5 miles from my house on my way home. Some flyer I’d seen in the area mentioned live music all day long – I had just discovered the beauty and intrigue of Niles (Historic Niles District, technically a part of Fremont, but the folks in Niles think of this place as their town) a couple of weeks ago. A folksy rock band played as I drove down the main drag of Niles and I swung into a parking place right across the street from the Plaza and train station where all the festivities took place.
A train roared by right behind the band as they played, and the dazzling blue sky and rich green grass of the area almost blinded me – people sat in fold-out chairs or on the cement benches. Some stretched blankets out and sat on those – or miniature tents. Small kids ran and played and danced to the music, families, dogs, people of all ages. This was a beautiful, low key family music event, I thought. As I sat on a bench, listened and watched, I thought of Burning Uke yet again and felt a little sadness because I already missed all of my wonderful ukulele friends and here I was sitting alone on a bench – Yet again, I wished life could be like Burning Uke where everyone is happy and no one cares about your background, no one judges – it’s all about togetherness and playing the music. I could feel a sense of it here in this place…Niles.
“Hi there, we meet again!” I heard someone say. I looked over and saw Margaret wearing a sunhat – she loves to play the ukulele! I knew Margaret from the San Francisco Folk Music Group. She and her sister had facilitated a ukulele singalong jam at the SF Folk Music campout last July. Margaret drives a BART subway train – and she brings her ukulele to work, playing it when she’s on the side track (but she assures me she doesn’t play it while driving the BART train).
“Hi there!” I realized I was still wearing my yellow Burning Uke X camp, and that my hair was completely unkempt and tangled as it always is after a weekend of camping. “I just came from Burning Uke!”
Margaret said she wished she could’ve gone, but that she would definitely go next year. Then she asked if I’d heard the band previous to the one playing. “This one lady played the ukulele, and she was really good!”
“Sorry to miss that – I just got here.”
The band finished playing and a guy with a cowboy hat went up on the stage. Apparently his name was Mike McNevin and Margaret told me he had jams at a place called the Mud Puddle in Niles – funny that she’s the second person to tell me that. That guy from the band which played Beatles music, No Fly List, had also mentioned him.
People cheered, small kids ran around and parents chased them – two little girls banged on small tambourines and a guy wearing bright-colored tie-dye sat next to his dog who also wore a tie-dye dog jacket.
“Hey, there’s the lady who played the ukulele – c’mon, let’s go talk to her!” I followed Margaret and there I saw – Janet Lenore!! Oh my gosh – she was our first workshop person at Burning Uke X!!! And here she was in Niles. Janet had to leave Burning Uke on Friday after her workshop because she had another gig. I also remembered Janet Lenore from the San Francisco Folk Music Festival – she ran a huge ukulele jam, the first of its kind at the San Francisco Free Folk Music Festival. Over 50 people showed up with ukuleles. Her boyfriend Jeff played the uke bass, and he was with Janet – they are such cool people.
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| Me with Margaret, Janet and Jeff in Niles!!! |
Janet was happy to see me too, and joked that I was stalking her. I told her I’d just now come from Burning Uke and she said she wished she could’ve stayed, but there’s next year. Suddenly I wasn’t alone and the adventure had not quite ended yet. Another guy I knew from the SF Folk Music Group, Don – walked over and hung out with us. Then Margaret asked me if I wanted to go over to a place called “The Vine” across the street to hang out and Janet and Jeff said they’d go over there too and play some music. I paused for a moment, thinking I should go home and get cleaned up – I probably looked pretty bad.
“Oh c’mon. If you went home, you’d probably just be doing laundry!” Margaret said. We laughed, and I agreed. Okay, yes, I will go over to the Vine! We waited until all the bands played and then walked across the street. The Vine looks like a restaurant when you first walk in, but then when you walk through to the back, it’s like a completely different world – an outdoor area shaded by giant palm trees, inviting, with tables, chairs, a fire pit, small chairs for kids and even some dogs! The wooden stage looked like the back porch of an old house replica – so beautiful and quaint. Margaret and I sat on chairs in front of the fire pit. She ordered a beer and I ordered a wine – it was the kind of place where one could almost put their feet up. She told me about the alley ways around Niles and how cool it is to wander down them – she lived right down the road and knew the area well.
Janet and Jeff arrived – Janet with her ukulele, Jeff with his bass. Don played a little soft guitar on the stage, and then guys with guitars in cases showed up. Looked like there was going to be some music and even a jam session perhaps.
A couple sitting next to me with a golden retriever asked me about “Burning Uke” and the guy told me about how he loved the ukulele and always wanted to play. Janet went up with her ukulele and played –she’s really good! Jeff played bass…then she played the mandolin for one song. Amazing!! I was glad I’d stopped in here when suddenly I got put on the spot when Margaret said I should go get my ukulele. Me? Oh here we go again with that scared feeling – that, “oh no, I’m really not good enough for this” feeling – but I still ran out to my car and got my 8-string ukulele anyway. Janet closed out with her rocking rendition of “White Rabbit” on ukulele – sooo cool!
Mike McNevin arrived with others – and everyone sat casually sat around as Bruce and another guy played guitars and sang.
Then a tall guy with a cowboy hat named Bruce went up to play guitar, alongside another guy whose name I didn’t know. Bruce apparently owns almost all the buildings on the block, Margaret shared with me – so if he wants to play or sing, he gets to. He also built the stage! I felt as if I was in a small town where everyone knows each other – sort of like that wonderful original song I’d heard one band play and sing – about moving someplace where the waitress calls you “honey” and everyone knows you. Sort of like Burning Uke X even – if people don’t know you, they make it a point to get to know you – or to at least play ukulele alongside you.
I had no intention of going up on the stage with my ukulele, figured I’d just play along whenever I could – no biggie. But then suddenly someone said, I think it was Mike McNevin, but am not sure, “Hey uke lady, come on up and sing some songs!”
I felt a big lump in my throat – I had no song sheets to look at, I thought – as I found myself sitting on a stool on the stage with my ukulele, like I belonged there when I so obviously did not. This was not the same as Burning Uke at all. Bruce said he wanted to do a song and I asked him what key it was in. He said, “I don’t know, what’s this?” and played a chord I did not recognize (and I do know guitar chords). A feeling of dread washed over me as I looked over at Jeff, the bass player, hoping for some guidance in this rather urgent and scary issue for me.
Somehow I managed to play along ,finally sort of figuring out what key the song was in – or at least I hoped so. I remembered Janet Lenore had said, “sometimes less is better,” so I just thought I’d look good and strum a chord every now and again.
Then somebody shouted, “Okay now the uke lady gets to sing a song!” Oh great, I thought! I announced that I’d just returned from Burning Uke Campout and everyone cheered for Burning Uke. I decided to do a stand-by song I really know, A Hard Day’s Night – a guy who played one of those horns with a piano thingie on it suddenly showed up alongside us on stage as I sang and played and Bruce attempted to play along. Jeff, the bass player, was right on the mark – thank heavens! He kept me in line as I made my way through the song, and I could see some people singing along. Whew!
After people sang and played, everyone sat around in a circle around the gas fire pit and played songs and I just strummed along – that was my favorite part, just jamming with the other people – Mike McNevin played and sang a fabulous famous song he wrote about the “town” of Niles, and a very cute young lady who worked at The Vine explained that the song was used in a movie, and that she had always asked Mike to use her name, Annie, in a song – well he didn’t use her first name in the song, but he used her middle name, “Hawaii.” So that was good. I loved the song and I’m grateful for these people for keeping this town alive, along with the guy I met two weeks ago in Niles, Red – and another guy who ran one of the antique stores – who had told me all about the history of this place.
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| Jammin' at the Vine on Uke -- WHO KNEW this would happen? Two years ago, before the ukulele, I wouldn't have been caught dead doing this! SERIOUSLY!!! |
Just two years ago, I wouldn't be caught dead jamming with musicians like this -- not even. And there I was playing music with people I didn't know!
Finally, the tiredness of the weekend washed over me and it was time to head home. Yet I knew I’d be back – here, and wherever the music played. I said good night to my friends, even the new ones I’d just made. Within five minutes I pulled into the driveway of my house, still wearing the yellow Burning Uke X hat which I will treasure forever.
Finally, the tiredness of the weekend washed over me and it was time to head home. Yet I knew I’d be back – here, and wherever the music played. I said good night to my friends, even the new ones I’d just made. Within five minutes I pulled into the driveway of my house, still wearing the yellow Burning Uke X hat which I will treasure forever.
And so ends the fabulous magical Burning Uke X adventure.
Check out all the pictures from Burning Uke X here!
Check out all the pictures from Burning Uke X here!
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