Chris Tarman
Well-known member
After a much-longer-than-normal drive home over the mountains, due to a LOT of snow, I'm back from the Denver Uke Fest.
What a great weekend! Friday night, the festivities started with a stripped-down version of the Ooks of Hazzard opening up for Led Kaapana. The Ooks were great fun, and Led was mind-blowing on slack-key guitar (and no slouch on ukulele either!).
Saturday was the main event. I met MGM in person (and bought a new uke!), and attended a clawhammer workshop by Aaron Keim (maker of Beansprout ukuleles, and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire for The Boulder Acoustic Society), and a strumming workshop taught by our very own Aldrine Guerrero. I hung out and visited with folks, and met a lot of great people. One thing I wish could be different... I am sure there were several UUers there, but there was no way of identifying them! I did meet Ukunuke accidentally, and ended up hanging out with her for the rest of the festival. We went into the main auditorium just as they were starting sound checks for the concert, and we grabbed some good seats and just hung out. I don't know if some of the people running things thought we were artists or what, but we were sort of treated like "elite". I went to grab a couple of beers from the VIP area (we DID both have VIP passes), and some guy handed me a whole six-pack!
The concert was great, and all the artists were wonderful. I was particularly impressed with The Boulder Acoustic Society and Aldrine (and his impromptu guitarist Aaron- Great job!). The full version of The Ooks of Hazzard played (5 ukes, accordion, U Bass and cajon), and were tons of fun. Danielle Ate The Sandwich were great... EVERYONE was great! I knew NOTHING about the last act, Leftover Cuties, but WOW! I had so much fun watching their drummer... you just need to see them to understand!
Most of the groups playing used ukulele in rather unconventional ways, and I thought that was fantastic. I enjoy seeing it in new contexts. The M.C. for the night was from a local hard rock radio station, and I had the feeling that he was surprised by the things the li'l ukulele could do!
Here's a crappy picture of Aldrine and me. He was very nice and gracious, and even plucked my '50s Martin Style 1 a little bit on Friday night. I'll never wash that ukulele again!
AND! The entire event was relatively terrorist-free! (See my earlier thread: http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?41215-I-would-have-rather-had-a-Tiny-Tim-joke...)
What a great weekend! Friday night, the festivities started with a stripped-down version of the Ooks of Hazzard opening up for Led Kaapana. The Ooks were great fun, and Led was mind-blowing on slack-key guitar (and no slouch on ukulele either!).
Saturday was the main event. I met MGM in person (and bought a new uke!), and attended a clawhammer workshop by Aaron Keim (maker of Beansprout ukuleles, and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire for The Boulder Acoustic Society), and a strumming workshop taught by our very own Aldrine Guerrero. I hung out and visited with folks, and met a lot of great people. One thing I wish could be different... I am sure there were several UUers there, but there was no way of identifying them! I did meet Ukunuke accidentally, and ended up hanging out with her for the rest of the festival. We went into the main auditorium just as they were starting sound checks for the concert, and we grabbed some good seats and just hung out. I don't know if some of the people running things thought we were artists or what, but we were sort of treated like "elite". I went to grab a couple of beers from the VIP area (we DID both have VIP passes), and some guy handed me a whole six-pack!
The concert was great, and all the artists were wonderful. I was particularly impressed with The Boulder Acoustic Society and Aldrine (and his impromptu guitarist Aaron- Great job!). The full version of The Ooks of Hazzard played (5 ukes, accordion, U Bass and cajon), and were tons of fun. Danielle Ate The Sandwich were great... EVERYONE was great! I knew NOTHING about the last act, Leftover Cuties, but WOW! I had so much fun watching their drummer... you just need to see them to understand!
Most of the groups playing used ukulele in rather unconventional ways, and I thought that was fantastic. I enjoy seeing it in new contexts. The M.C. for the night was from a local hard rock radio station, and I had the feeling that he was surprised by the things the li'l ukulele could do!
Here's a crappy picture of Aldrine and me. He was very nice and gracious, and even plucked my '50s Martin Style 1 a little bit on Friday night. I'll never wash that ukulele again!
AND! The entire event was relatively terrorist-free! (See my earlier thread: http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?41215-I-would-have-rather-had-a-Tiny-Tim-joke...)