NYT article - "Ukulele Crazy"

Hey folks -

Ran across this in the New York Times from April.... talks about Eddie Vedder's new album, Amanda Palmer, and others - the general resurgence of the uke as a pop instrument and the democratization of music.... interesting read.

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/arts/music/eddie-vedder-amanda-palmer-and-magnetic-fields-join-ukulele-craze.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Don't recall seeing this posted, sorry if I'm doubling up.....

"Or, as Mr. Vedder explained: “My inspiration was to wrestle with the thing, to give it something different from the way it’s been played before. Can I make this happy little instrument as depressed as I am?” "

aww that is so sad! and his picture in the artical , he looks all pathetic hanging his head down with his sad lil depressed ukulele some one needs to give him a hug once in a while. and not cause he is some famous dude either.

They mention saturation point for the ukulele, and I hear that often....I feel the ukulele will grow even bigger than ever before...with this resurgence and generation...Happy Strummings..MM Stan..

yeah what saturation point?? no one I know even plays or knows a thing about ukulele, i am just now starting to see them in local music stores.

now guitar, that is saturated!

I'm surprised the article didn't mention Jack Johnson.... as one who is a recent convert and one of the bits of driftwood caught on this rising tide, I think his popularity had a lot to do with it. I play guitar with some guys and we do JJ tunes and I do some of the tunes with uke parts on my 6 string..... been working on returning them to their natural state for playing with my friends.

In Atlanta, even the little mom and pop music stores have a couple of decent ukuleles up on the wall, although no one seems to stock the better strings. Glad Uke Republic is here in town....