Finding the non-electric performances

It wasn't until recently that I realized how much ukulele music--like guitar music-- generally is electrified. I guess electricity has become so important to contemporary/pop music that it is inevitable, but I've sometimes tried to replicate a sound only to--DOH!, smack on head-- realize I cannot with an acoustic instrument. It's not just volume, either.
Nothing the matter with all the electric uke songs/CDs out there, (I own lots of uke CD music that is electric) but my question to the list is:
What CDs or single uke songs do you like that are not electrified and that you would recommend? I'm looking for good, natural acoustic sound ukulele, most any song style.

Thanks to a great list.

Huh? Where are you searching for uke recordings? Isn't most of Jakes latest stuff acoustic? Aldrine's cd available here at UU is also mostly acoustic. I mean I think it's plugged in but effects would be minimal. Bosko & Honey's cd is acoustic, and Uni & Her Ukulele's cd is also acoustic. I was just at a pub tonight where there was plenty of acoustic gigging going on.

I've got an electric uke and feel the opposite, not a lot of electric stuff going on.

Plainsong said:

Isn't most of Jakes latest stuff acoustic? Aldrine's cd available here at UU is also mostly acoustic. I mean I think it's plugged in but effects would be minimal.

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Even miked (which, obviously, you have to do something like that if you're recording) you've introduced a step between you and the pure acoustic sound. For that matter, the recording itself is a step between you and the pure acoustic sound.

Once you plug in, no matter how groovy your gear is, you've added at least one more step between you and the acoustic sound.

Jake plugs in live. Don't know about his recordings. If you say Aldrine plugged in for his recordings, I'll believe it (unless he comes by and says, "Uh uh!").

This is not a dis on either of them. Both of them have simply mad skillz and, on a bad day, could play circles around my butt even if I was having an especially good day. It's simply a statement of fact.

It's one of the reasons that things like "can record all of your ukes so we can hear the different sounds?" can only come out to be an approximation.

If you want to hear the pure acoustic sound you have to be sitting in a room with the musician who is not plugged in nor miked in any fashion.

House concerts can be awesome for that. Or, if you're in the Seattle area, send me an email and I'll tell you when Snake Suspenderz is next going to be busking.

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure that Brian Hefferan (of the Fabulous Heftones) doesn't plug in. Also Patsy Monteleone. Neither of the two CDs my band Snake Suspenderz has turned out contain plugged in ukulele. I'm sure there's lots more.

But all of us had to use a mike to get the sounds into the recording device. That's the best you can hope for in a recording.

Well I know the difference between recorded and live. I mean audio is my other hobby. But it does bring up another question then. How do you record an acoustic instrument? Anything used to record the instrument is another signal in the source chain, so how do you record if not through a mic or through a pickup?

I don't know if Aldrine mic'd or used a pickup for the recordings. You'd have to ask him, but there was certainly some audio device picking up the sound and pushing it to the mixer. That would be true of any recorded performance.

I don't see any cords coming out the side of Jake's uke in one Youtube video, but there was a mic on the camera, so that's a signal in the source chain, and then your own audio equipment is a further barrier of course.