SOTU 589 - Wedding Bells

[emba]

SOTU 589 - Wedding Bells

Hi, my name is Amanda and I’ve been doing seasons for a few months but this is my first week hosting.

Tis the (wedding) season, at least here in the United States, in fact I’m about to leave and attend one, so this week the challenge is “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue”.

This gives you four options for songs:

Something old - songs that are 100 or more years old ( I realize for some folk songs, provenance may be a little hazy, so if some sources speculate the song may be that old, that’s good enough.)

Something new - an original song presented for the first time this week. It doesn’t have to be written this week, but should never have appeared in the SOTU previously.

Something borrowed - a cover of a song written by a fellow Seasonista

Something blue - a song that has the word blue in title or lyrics

Please submit no more than an average of one song per day, for a total of no more than eight for the week. I’ll watch every video but I won’t promise to comment on more than one video per person.

Multitracking/multiple instruments allowed but as usual the uke must be front and center. Please only submit videos recorded for this season.

Contest begins 12:00 AM Hawaii time, Sunday May 28 (please do not submit any videos before this time) and ends at 11:59:59 pm Hawaii time on Sunday, June 4.

PLAYLIST

There will be a prize, a small quilted wall hanging I made, though it would also be equally happy to serve as a hot pad under dishes on the table. I’m willing to mail it anywhere in the world.

I do apologize, as I had not quilted much in several years and was out of practice. It’s a little wonkier than intended
I will choose a top six videos that strike me most favorably for whatever reason, and then roll a dice for the winner.

 

[Voran]

Something new...

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

Great theme, and super prize!

 

[emba]

Shhhh, Voran, you’re supposed to wait. . . It’s only 4:38 pm in Hawaii! But I will put you on the playlist I need to add it to the main post anyway.

 

[TCK]

Hi Amanda- Welcome to hosting!!! This is gonna be a fun and wild ride for you. Having hosted a few myself (my first was week 18), I would recommend a comment on every video. We are playing for you, and want to what you think. It really won’t take long as this theme is hard to dump 7 on you- like really hard. That said, I am going to do my best to do exactly that. Just found one of my favorite songs is a cover of a tune released in 1923

 

[LimousinLil]

Welcome to hosting, Amanda ... and with a very clever theme! I DO think that Dave has a point ... it is normal for the Host to comment on ALL the contributions; as he says, it is you, the Host, that we are playing for! (And I, too, am now off to find something from the wide choice you are offering ... I hope you'll enjoy your first week.) P.S.That wall hanging is GORGEOUS!

 

[UkeCan1]

I made videos with two different friends this fine Sunday afternoon beside beautiful BLUE Lake Gkula, where a bunch of us Woodford Folk Festival off-season volunteers had gathered for the weekend, to make music and contribute in various ways to the festival site, Woodfordia.

Susan, my new friend and fellow American, opted for something blue. One take, no run-through, or even read-through of what turned out to be, I'm guessing, the lesser known Carl Perkins version (not the Elvis one) of "Blue Suede Shoes". We had fun and hope you will too.

A short while later, Rebekah joined me. She choose something old - the well-known sea shanty "Drunken Sailor", which, according to Wikipedia "was sung onboard sailing ships since at least as early as the 1830s" - and we made it into something new - we wrote our own lyrics to fit our surroundings and compatriots.

We called it "Drunken Volly" - volly is what I call "Australian baby-talk slang" for "volunteer". Aussies like to abbreviate everything down to its first syllable plus "-y", "-a", or "-o", like you get prezzies for Chrissie, and your car registration is rego (pr "redge-o"), Barry is Bazza, etc. By the way the home base for the vollies at Woodford is called Vollywood.

The verses are:
"Throw 'im off the black bird into Lake Gkula" (you can see both the bird and the lake behind us)
"Make 'im weed the reeds and plant native species" (both of which were done by vollies this weekend)
... and well, I'll leave you to discover the third verse for yourself.

Now I guess I have to do something borrowed for a complete set!

 

[pabrizzer]

something old (1868)

 

[Flatbaroque]

Thanks Amanda for hosting. A clever approach to a theme giving us plenty of options. I went looking for something I hadn't heard before. Found this Nancy Griffith "blue" song. On guitalele.

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

The idea of " hosting lite" got a lot of support when we discussed it, the idea being that people can just throw a theme in and pretty much leave it at that, and just let the uke party run on its own. the main thing that's held me back from giving that a go is the issue of the playlist, other people have said they'll pick up the slack on that and run the playlist, but of course who wants to host lite if it puts the load on other people? but further to that, I'm kind of surprised that somebody that's come in and stepped up to host, and is saying that to help them do that, they'll just comment on the first video that everybody brings in, this person, this brave first time host, is being told that they shouldn't be doing that... I think we have to look at ways to make hosting easier, and a lighter load, because people aren't feeling they can step up. A host could very easily and legitimately say a one song per week per person limit - I believe that's how the seasons first started - plus I can remember times when we bought one official song each and anything above that went on a bonus playlist. so to generously allow one song per day, but only comment on the first one, seems to me a very sensible way of going about things, if it means you can sign up to host when you wouldn't otherwise feel you could do so. I personally totally support Emba's stated plan of how to host, and I thank her for stepping up this week.

 

[Tin Ear]

I don't participate in this activity but I like to wander in here and view some of the Uke plays every so often. I think anybody that goes to the trouble of "hosting" and offering such a nice prize should do it pretty much the way they like in usual reason and parameters. Let them run - all good. Hats off to the first time host here. And that looks like a dandy prize !

All of you who do this - keep doing it. There are those who do not participate out there but like to watch and listen here. Good luck all. All of you have fun !

 

[Bystander]

Thanks for hosting Amanda and thank you for giving me a push to finally learn this song that's been on my to try list forever. I'm still trying to shake off a lingering cold so the singing is more iffy than usual, hence this short arrangement.

 

[jtsteam]

Hi Amanda, thanks for stepping up, and thanks for the nice creative theme. Here's one for the "Something New" category. It's definitely new because I wrote it yesterday, and I didn't think I'd get a chance to post it quite so soon...

Anyway, I was at the railway station yesterday and bought a ticket, then absent mindedly thanked the ticket machine. While thinking that was an odd thing to do, I realised that at least if I was nice to the machines, they might remember when when the AI uprising comes. And that idea wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote this down...

(By the way, I also said when I last hosted that I would only promise one comment, and I know others have done it too. I did that mostly to take the pressure off myself if there was a glut of posts, but I think it's a reasonable thing to promise, just in case.)

 

[Tin Ear]

Hi Amanda, thanks for stepping up, and thanks for the nice creative theme. Here's one for the "Something New" category. It's definitely new because I wrote it yesterday, and I didn't think I'd get a chance to post it quite so soon...

Anyway, I was at the railway station yesterday and bought a ticket, then absent mindedly thanked the ticket machine. While thinking that was an odd thing to do, I realised that at least if I was nice to the machines, they might remember when when the AI uprising comes. And that idea wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote this down...

(By the way, I also said when I last hosted that I would only promise one comment, and I know others have done it too. I did that mostly to take the pressure off myself if there was a glut of posts, but I think it's a reasonable thing to promise, just in case.)

Very nice ! Your tempo and rhythm when playing is very consistent, even and done very well ! Nice job for an original and I like the theme. Really good. You put it all together very nicely.

 

[LimousinLil]

Hello again, Amanda, and, oh dear ... I now feel excessively mean for commenting previously; it is, obviously, entirely up to you how you host and the main thing is that you are prepared to do it at all; please just ignore me! This song comes under the "something old" category as it is from 1912. There is a gorgeous story attached to it. Apparently, the song's composer, Ernie Burnett, lost his memory and his dog tags in the First World War ... a visiting pianist at his place of convalescence played "Melancholy Baby" and Burnett recognised it as his song; he regained his memory!

 

[emba]

Thanks to everyone who has posted songs! We’re off to a good start.

Thanks also to everyone who posted, on both sides, about the number of comments a host’s duty should include. I’ve particularly enjoyed weeks hosted by both TCK and LimousinLil, so don’t think I am disregarding your opinions entirely. I do hope to comment more than once per poster of multiple videos, but in the interests of me not burning out, not committing to something I can’t fulfill, and being authentic, I’m only promising one. I do think this community functions best with active engagement from hosts and participants, and everyone has their own slightly different idea of how things should be done and what they want out of the week, but there’s a balance to be stuck between what the people want (to post many videos and get many comments and feel seen and appreciated) and what is sustainable for the host. And really obligatory comments feel about as authentic to me as obligatory gifts at holidays. I don’t enjoy them as a giver or recipient.

So, that said, I’m glad everyone is here and hope that we can all enjoy this week’s challenge.

 

[jtsteam]

Thanks to everyone who has posted songs! We’re off to a good start.

Thanks also to everyone who posted, on both sides, about the number of comments a host’s duty should include. I’ve particularly enjoyed weeks hosted by both TCK and LimousinLil, so don’t think I am disregarding your opinions entirely. I do hope to comment more than once per poster of multiple videos, but in the interests of me not burning out, not committing to something I can’t fulfill, and being authentic, I’m only promising one. I do think this community functions best with active engagement from hosts and participants, and everyone has their own slightly different idea of how things should be done and what they want out of the week, but there’s a balance to be stuck between what the people want (to post many videos and get many comments and feel seen and appreciated) and what is sustainable for the host. And really obligatory comments feel about as authentic to me as obligatory gifts at holidays. I don’t enjoy them as a giver or recipient.

So, that said, I’m glad everyone is here and hope that we can all enjoy this week’s challenge.

I agree with everyone . The thing that makes this such a wonderful community, and probably the reason we're currently in week 589 of a 6 week contest, is all the engagement not only from the host but also from the participants listening to and commenting on each other's videos. It's definitely inspired me to learn more and you've all kept me entertained while stuck in my flat for the last couple of years and are keeping me entertained now theat we're allowed out again...

Anyway. I have another song on this theme that I really want to post now but I'm sticking to the rules and will save it for later .

 

[AlanDP]

This is a two-for-one video but both songs are quite short, both more than 100 years old and there's a reason they go together, explained in the video.

 

[Canada Jim]

My Buddy - Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson 1922

My buddy George is on my mind these days. He is in hospice and three of us took our guitars over yesterday and played him some tunes. George is a blues guy, so we did mostly blues and he really appreciated it. I'm glad we did it yesterday, because he didn't recognise us today. We'll really miss him and I'm playing this 101 year old song on a ukulele, that was built by Joe Zier for George, that he swapped me for a Gretsch arch top guitar that I wasn't using. I finally made it through without tearing up.
Thanks a lot for hosting Amanda.

 

[Joe T]

Fantastic job on a heart touching song Jim. Sincerely appreciate you sharing your talent with us.