Abbey Rd. On Ukuleles Lives!

Earlier this evening, on December 3, 2012, history was made at the Poorhouse Bistro in San Jose when a group of us played the last 11 minutes of the Abbey Road medley on ukuleles – with a little help from a guitar and some percussion! This all happened because James Johnson who frequents the Poorhouse Bistro ukulele open mic jams came up with an idea to do this!!! This was all put together in a couple of weeks – James and I practiced a couple of times together, but most of us had never actually played together.

As James shared with all of us, "This performance was also inspired by the unreleased Jake Shimabukuro track from Jake's latest album "Grand Ukulele" (produced by Alan Parsons).."

Of course this is not perfect by any means and it is not professionally done (this was shot by my friend John Chen on my new Canon Powershot Elph 110 camera, a wonderful compact little camera with HD video)…and yes I admit I blew it a little on the vocals at a couple of times, but somehow managed to get back on track…but I will say that the experience and the opportunity to do this was amazing and magical for me.

Never in a million years did I ever believe that (a lifetime Beatles fan who listened to the Abbey Rd. album so much when it came out in 1969 that I pretty much wore out the record) it would be possible for me to play this medley – I figured it was way beyond my reach musically and I was okay with that, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming…

But tonight my dream came true… !!! and I am thrilled and honored just to be a part of this most wonderful experience…and a part of me is still that 12-year-old girl singing along with the Abbey Rd. record at the top of my lungs and playing it over and over again in the living room of our flat on 2^nd Avenue in San Francisco, driving my whole family nuts… HER dream came true!!!

I was around the same age as James’ lovely daughter Kat who sang Octopus’ Garden with me and announced that we should sing it with a British accent, like Ringo!!! (the video of that is on the way).

Kat and me play and sing Octopus' Garden at Poorhouse Bistro!

and Here it is:

Abbey Rd. on Ukuleles at Poorhouse Bistro!

“and in the end the love you take

Is equal to the love you make…

Ahhh ahhh, ahhh ahhh ahh!!!”

Me and James at my house on Saturday practicing for the big night!!!

Me and Kat singing Octopus’ Garden! What fun we had! Kat said we should sing this with a British accent! and we did!

Kat, know that when I was your age I listened to the Abbey Rd. record practically every single day. J This is what it’s all about, passing the music to the next generation.