Season 150 - New Year, New Jersey!

Mummers Day Parade

With the passing of UkeyDave its kinda put a few things into perspective for me so my News Years resolution is to spend more time travelling to London to see family more often especially as my mums not in the greatest of health rather than spend so much solitary time with my uke which I selfishly and obsessionally do way too much !!.........where do those minutes, hours, days disappear when you're uking in a world of your own ?? Lol

Here's a New Jersey song that was literally born in New Jersey. To quote from Wikipedia, "It was composed by (David) Mann and (Bob) Hilliard during a post-midnight session at Hilliard’s New Jersey home. Mann was about to depart for New York when Hilliard insisted he remain to try some impromptu songwriting. Mann reluctantly agreed and eventually came up with the tune, to which Hilliard quickly wrote a lyric."

This song was first recorded by Frank Sinatra, and became one of his signature songs.

A melancholy song, which is exactly what I need right now.

Golden Slippers Crash and Burn

mythinformed said:

With the passing of UkeyDave its kinda put a few things into perspective for me so my News Years resolution is to spend more time travelling to London to see family more often especially as my mums not in the greatest of health rather than spend so much solitary time with my uke which I selfishly and obsessionally do way too much !!.........where do those minutes, hours, days disappear when you're uking in a world of your own ?? Lol

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By all means, take your uke with you and play it for your mum and family.

THat last post didn't quite work out the way I intended. Not the Video, the post.

Hey SpruceCreekPickers I think you stayed at my house one time. Used the Loo. If you ever did the Odyssey program For the Philadelpia Folksong Society it was youse. Happy, Healthy and Properous New Year any which way.

What are you grateful for in 2014? What did you learn? What gifts did life bring you?

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1. I am clinically crazy, (genetic birth defect -comes and goes). I didn't harm anybody AFAIK in 2014.
2. I know I managed to help a bunch of people in 2014.
3. I met or reestablished contact with a lot of people all over the world, either in person or on the net.
4. I managed to teach a number of people how to sing, play, perform and tell stories. - on going project.
5 I had horrible medical problems from May to September. There were several different problems one of which involved acute chronic pain for three weeks at a time. Much bad medical management. When Finally someone suggested X I said I think your right. Changed one little thing. Three weeks later medical problems gone.- Very Grateful for that.
6 I obtained a Whyte Laydie No. 2 Banjo and a Martin Guitar - uke. Two long time goals.
7. I discovered Ukulele and UU.
8. I joined a really great online folk club. SOTU.
9. I didn't drive my wife Susan too nuts.

What are you creating in 2015? What are your intentions, hopes, dreams, plans, wishes for the New Year?

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1. I want to take my wife too Florence Italy.
2. I want to go to C.U.B.A. with my blond haired blue eyed friend Jorge Muniz. He has not been back for 55 years. We gonna do our drinking like a man, have some barefoot stellas light our panatellas and check out the Beuna Vista Social Club.
3. Continue studying banjo, ukulele and Storytelling.
4. Meet, Help old and new friends and not Harm anyone.
5. I want to climb the Tower at the Gettysburg Seminary College.
6. I want to see comets, meteors, whales, rainbows, pretty women, charming young people,....
7. I want to keep my wife Susan Happy.

I'm thinking this Season set the record for Most Number of Playlists. I think I've only posted on one playlist.

This song didn't seem so hard to do when I was 16 and blasting the radio with the car windows open......

Recorded with my new Ohana soprano travel ukulele.

IamNoMan said:

Bernie: Thanks for including the lyrics on "Jersey Shore" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gIv1HAOn03Y.

Your travel blog was wonderful.

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My pleasure. Hey I used to go up every year to Allendale for the Fire Festivities. The various bars in the town would become dedicated to a different aspect of folk music for the night. There's be the Irish sessions bar, the English Morris tradition and our bar - the singers bar. Happy days.

Hello: This is my first Season entry. I hope I've done this right. George David Weiss is from New Jersey and he wrote this wonderful song recorded by Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World.

Okay, since this is kind of a wacky, wide-open Season, I tried something experimental, and I think it even kind of fits the theme. The song here is called Robert Maxwell's Solfeggio , also known as the Song of the Nairobi Trio. The lyrics are the the note frequencies (think "Do a deer, a female deer"), hence it's a solfeggio.So, was Robert Maxwell from New Jersey? Nope, he was a New York harpist and songwriter, best known for "Ebb Tide" and Shangri-La." The Jersey connection? Ernie Kovaks.

Ernie Kovaks was a television pioneer, a funny man, host and innovator. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey. One of the recurring bits on his TV show in the 1950s was called "The Nairobi Trio," in which Kovaks dressed as a gorilla, complete with derby and trench coat, and conducted his ape-band. I included a Kovaks clip at the end of my video in case you've never seen it.

So, there you have it, my tribute to a New Jersey genius conducting fake mechanical monkeys to the tune that I'm playing for you. I got a little experimental with the recording, too, adding reverb and echo, as well as percussion and a timpani. Hope you like it.

Wendy, I'm not sure if this goes under NJ artists or the Sinatra Rule. I'll let you sort it out! Happy New Year!

This is my second entry. Now, it's not like New Jersey has frequently been associated with a criminal element, although a friend of mine in the 80s was foreman of a grand jury that indicted the mayor and the entire city council of Union City on racketeering charges. (I'm sure that was a fluke.) But the Boss of New Jersey did a great song about paranoia that he named after an infamous hit squad.

I've been playing the tune on uke for years, so I thought I'd give it a spin. I grabbed some suitably paranoid footage from an old film noir as background. I apologize for the several flubs in here, but, you know, sometimes your best take still ain't that good. Hope you all enjoy it anyways.

Hello Wendy!!! My second entry for New Year, New Jersey! This time there is a reference to New Jersey Hope you all enjoy! Joo

mythinformed said:

With the passing of UkeyDave its kinda put a few things into perspective for me so my News Years resolution is to spend more time travelling to London to see family more often especially as my mums not in the greatest of health rather than spend so much solitary time with my uke which I selfishly and obsessionally do way too much !!.........where do those minutes, hours, days disappear when you're uking in a world of your own ?? Lol

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that's a lovely sentiment mark

time on the uke is some kind of magical mystical time, i dunno where it goes, but it goes a LOT!

Jazzbanjorex said:

I'm thinking this Season set the record for Most Number of Playlists. I think I've only posted on one playlist.

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i think you're right, it's a lot of playlists!

I'm so sorry to be an absentee host today! Blame my obsessive nature. I woke up planning to spend my morning (before spending much of the day at a fun local New Year's day party, where I got to play lots of ukes with the host, who has recently obtained one) viewing and commenting on all the wonderful stuff you all have been posting - much of it as I was scrambling to get myself out the door to the New Year's Eve dance last night - you all were prolific in the last few hours of 2014!

But ... I woke up to a PM from a fellow Seasonista requesting my help with a song I'd suggested he write for this Season - and ended up spending the morning doing my first co-write, being 2.5 hours late for the party, and then finishing up our co-write after I got back. Bad host! - working on an entry to my own Season instead of hosting!

I'll be back on the job tomorrow ... just don't anybody give me any more songwriting ideas ... I have absolutely zero self-control once one of those takes hold of me. I simply cannot do anything else until it's done!

Jazzbanjorex said:

I'm thinking this Season set the record for Most Number of Playlists. I think I've only posted on one playlist.

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I'm pretty sure we are on track for all sorts of records - number of playlists, most / longest opening videos and posts, most obsessive crazy host. I'm feeling pretty confident we are going to set an outrageous record for first-time Seasonistas, as I'd hoped (so long as you don't count the first few Seasons, when everybody was new). And I will not be at all surprised if we set a record for total new videos entered - the numbers have been astounding since day 1. (Does anybody know what the record is? Was it Linda's '50's week?)

And probably also for fewest hours of sleep and least non-Seasons work accomplished by a host.

IamNoMan said:

Hey SpruceCreekPickers I think you stayed at my house one time. Used the Loo. If you ever did the Odyssey program For the Philadelpia Folksong Society it was youse. Happy, Healthy and Properous New Year any which way.

5 I had horrible medical problems from May to September. There were several different problems one of which involved acute chronic pain for three weeks at a time. Much bad medical management. When Finally someone suggested X I said I think your right. Changed one little thing. Three weeks later medical problems gone.- Very Grateful for that.

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Omigosh - Tommy, did you meet Priscilla and Chris?! That is so cool! What fun. We really are going to have to arrange some sort of NJ/PA/NY-area uke gathering. I met P&C at the Ohio Ukulele Campout ... but that was an 8-hour drive! I would love to organize something like that out here. There are surely enough of us to pull it off.

Tommy, I suspect a lot of us are going to want to know what "X" was in your 2014 win #5.

Happy New Year Everybody!! May 2015 bring much joy and love and music to your lives.

Funny how songs present themselves for different Seasons. Serendipity, I suppose. I was looking for Connie Francis songs earlier this week and found a compilation album she was on with this song as one of the tracks. Someone else was singing it but I looked it up since I had never heard of it. I found a great version by the McGuire Sisters http://youtu.be/cezVN2txOSM They are not from NJ BUT the songwriter, Dick Charles, was born in Newark.
So this can go on both the New Year's playlist and the NJ songwriters playlist.

hey myrna i'm gonna thank you here too, for the supercute visual mention at the start of that vid! thanks so much and something else i'm gonna say again - that is SUCH a lovely song!

for Ukey Dave and all our friends in the Angel Band



JooJoo that was fun!

Omigosh - Tommy, did you meet Priscilla and Chris?! That is so cool! What fun. We really are going to have to arrange some sort of NJ/PA/NY-area uke gathering. I met P&C at the Ohio Ukulele Campout ... but that was an 8-hour drive! I would love to organize something like that out here. There are surely enough of us to pull it off.

Tommy, I suspect a lot of us are going to want to know what "X" was in your 2014 win #5.

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X is a story unto itself. I may post it in the Spoken Word Corner thread but it will be a while. I think Priscilla and Chris and their dog stayed outside our house for a couple of days maybe 25 - 30 years ago. My wife calls them "Toilet Guests" - folks who sleep in their truck/camper for a while but come in to eat, socialize and uhh ... well... use the Loo. If we're talking about the same folks they were living in TX at the time. Last name escapes me. See em at festivals now and again. THing is faces change over the years but their style is very familiar. Who Knows?

Wendy You said something about a Tri-State-Uke Meet. Good Idea! Formal or informal? Location? - City folks don't necessarily like to travel too far and we are taliking about Philly and The City here. Philadelphia Folksong Society - (talk to Noah, mention my name if you want), Appal Farm, Godfrey Daniels -Lehigh Valley might be a good place, Folk Project. These are just resources for thinking about. Anybody here want to bell the cat?

UkeCan1 said:

- Get the world talking about the Prosperous Artist Revolution - and help thousands of musicians prosper making music

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wot?

I think Wendy's been in Jersey too long. PAR is a lovely notion but I've been promoting a living wage for performers for years, Hey Rube is another outfit. - tried to get group medical for performers. - don't know if they still exist.

My rule of thumb has always been: "Don't quit your day job".