The Light of the Morning - original instrumental by Eugeneukulele

The Light of the Morning - original instrumental by Eugeneukulele,
(Jon Duncan) featured on this blog many times before....



Jon used to have a great YouTube channel under his name eugeneukulele... then suddenly on day, adjusting his settings, he lost the whole thing. If you have tried to look at his videos via this blog lately, that's why you find them gone. His great website was also lost. BUT - the good news is, he has a new one! Check it out here - there's lots of interesting stuff on there - Jon's choice of videos, info on the ukes he likes - go and look!

He has a new YouTube channel now, under the name butterflybandito, and he has been uploading his old videos to it. There are 97 on there to date! Do check it out.... Jon is great songster, musician and ukulele player, and one of the very nicest people to get to know, in the way one does across this planet with the internet.... I do plan to check through here to replace all the dead video links with live ones to Jon's new channel, just give me time!

This new instrumental is so aptly named, don't you think? The Light of the Morning... where Jon is, that's autumn light... and it's there, isn't it, in the music... beautiful.

For "improvers" like me, there's so much to be learned just from watching fantastic players like Jon. I love the way he combines fingerpicking with different strumming techniques, and chord-melody style.... I've watched this twice already. And in The Light of the Morning , to hear it is a particular joy!

Thanks for sharing it with us, Jon. I hope the rest of the day is as good as the beginning...

PS - "You're the Cream in my Coffee", posted 9th May 2012 - replaced now with live video! One down - quite a few to go!

"Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" - Eugeneukulele

I'm delighted to post another great offering from one of my favourite ukers, "eugeneukulele" of Tasmania. Like all my favourite players, he just seems to have the music coursing through his veins all the time - and there's no doubt about about it; to be good, you have to play a LOT. One of the most famous players of all time, the great Roy Smeck, played for five hours a day, every day - no wonder he was good!

This blues is so happy, and I think that's a very nice change actually. Don't want to be blue all the time. The uke is a little soprano Bruko, solid walnut - and it has a great sound......

Eugene (Jon) writes about the song thus.......

"1920's. One of the early American Industrial Ballads.

Another in the long lineage of worker's complaint songs, this one has been performed by Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and others. Specific authorship is unknown - as with many of these songs - but clearly was written by some sharp-tongued worker as a wry musical ode to his time spent in Winnsboro's textile mills. The country-blues melody of the song is borrowed directly from a song called "Alcoholic Blues" which was popular at the time."

Yes - need to get back to my practice. Definitely.

Eugene Ukulele now has his own website!

Oh yes, good news; one of my favourite uke players now has his own website. If you have enjoyed Eugene Ukulele's videos on this blog, on Youtube or anywhere else, get yourself over there and have a look.

The tag-cloud at the bottom of the page will take you to a few videos if you haven't seen any. Just look for eugeneukulele.

His website is called eugene's old-time ukulele and it really is great! I won't tell you any more - just get over there and take a look!

What's more - eugene (Jon) is one of the nicest folk around.

Here's one of his original songs, which you see over there... I love this!

"Every Now And Again" it's Eugene Ukulele

Please enjoy this lovely original song, written and performed here by "Eugene Ukukele" (eugeneukulele on the UU Forum)...

Some people have just got it - and he's just got it, no doubt....

It's the last day of summer, but......"Yes Sir, That's My Baby" - from Eugene Ukulele

Another stunning performance by one of my favourite ukulele players! Played on a custom Bruko curly maple soprano ukulele.

Popular standard written in 1925; music Walter Donaldson, lyrics Gus Kahn. Those two wrote wrote some wonderful songs that have lasted nearly 90 years...Another one is "My Baby Just Cares for Me"... see some more songs with lyrics by Gus Kahn here.

And for this wonderful morning, the last day of summer, when at 10.00 a.m in my garden the sky and the air were so beautiful it just took my breath away..... this video is just perfect.

The song has basic chords and a common chord progression - it's what Eugene does with them that's so, so skilful... the finger-picking between the chords and the "add-ons".... that performance is brilliant in my book, and it's one I'm going to study!

Thanks for sharing, Eugene! And a wonderful morning to you down under, too! Down there, spring must be in the air! Aaah.....

Another one to knock your socks off - St. James Infirmary Blues - Eugene Ukulele

I just love Eugene's work, and there are many more folk who do, too... here's another great piece, St James Infirmary Blues. Eugene writes "This song has been adapted and performed by countless jazz, blues and folk musicians. Consequently, numerous versions abound with variant verses that focus on different aspects of the story. In my rendition I have left out the bar room scenes to highlight the death of the girl and the meditations of the protagonist on his mortality."The song was first collected in England in its version as "The Unfortunate Rake" by Henry Hammond by a Mr. William Curtis at Lyme Regis, Dorset in March 1906. Read more here.

Eugene has a great talent for putting over a blues song - he has a feel for the music and the lyrics that in the delivery of them just grabs you and won't let let you go until you've listened - at least twice.

Please Eugene, keep these comin'....... and your original songs, too!

"The Shearin's No' For You" - traditional Scottish folksong, Eugene Ukulele

I have loved traditional Scottish ballads and lullabies ever since my folk club days back in the late 60's. I rarely hear them now, and this one I have never heard before....but every now and then you hear a song that affects you so deeply that it actually catches your breath. This rendition of "The Shearin's No' For You" by "Eugene Ukulele" is so hauntingly beautiful that I watched and listened to it twice straight off, and woke up this morning with it on the brain. Just a gorgeous song - but it's Eugene's singing and playing that makes it so very moving. The baritone ukulele is a perfect choice - and it comes straight from the heart - you can tell.

Wow. Just Wow. This is why he is one of my Ukulele Heroes.......

"You're The Cream In My Coffee" with Eugene Ukulele

Here in the UK, days are still rather chilly but it's spring. Apple blossom time and all that. In Tasmania, home of "Eugene Ukulele" it's autumn... and Eugene has spiced up his delightful rendition of "You're the Cream in my Coffee" with the appropriate autumnal setting and colours, especially the little red soprano ukulele!

Another catchy song from the 1920's to become a standard, the music was written in 1928 by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Buddy G deSilva and Lew Brown. Eugene gives it his own special treatment! Guaranteed to bring a smile!

Enjoy....

Here's eugeneukulele - On The Sunny Side Of The Street

This song is such a bright, happy number - written in 1930 by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, it's one of those songs that is embedded in my childhood memories, a standard often heard on the radio. At my tap class it's a warm-up number, always guaranteed to bring a smile to the rainiest day, along with the tapping feet.

I love this version by eugeneukulele. He's a wonderfully talented ukulele player from Tasmania. There will be more of him on here... on my own ukulele journey I'm coming across so many amazing and talented people. They inspire me, show what's possible and give me something to aim for - aiming for the moon, methinks; I'll never get to these exalted heights, but the fun is in the journey, after all.

I trotted along to my newly discovered ukulele group this afternoon. Nineteen ukers, practising away for Sunday's performance at a village fete in Leicestershire. All easy two, three and four chord songs - until the last, which caught me stumbling and staggering from one chord to the next - chord changes which I'm not used to at speed, from Em to F for example - awkward. But good to be doing something that was stretching me and showing up weaknesses - just as I was starting to get cocky about blithely changing chords by feel alone - that'll teach me!

"It's A Sin To Tell A Lie"

This will take those rainy day blues away!



Written in 1936 by Billy Mayhew.

A popular song that has been recorded by many, including Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, The Ink Spots, Vera Lynn and John Denver.

The clip was filmed in eugenie's studio and played on a Mahalo soprano.

How he makes that little ukulele sing! I just love this fella!