Ukulele Tonya

Note: This is long; it’s written for those folks who wonder what it’s really like to attend an ukulele festival and like to know the details. If you just want the photos, go here.

Pre-Festival:
Sunny weather, warm aloha and hot ukulele playing were on this weekend’s agenda as I traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area for the Northern California Ukulele Festival. Held in Hayward, this festival is the 15th annual for this group, making it the longest-running mainland ukulele event. While the day-long festival is on Sunday, there were some great pre-festival activities slated the day before the event so I headed out from Paradise early on Saturday morning. While I love my merlot special edition Miata (and the UKALADY license plates would have been especially appropriate for the weekend’s activities), it feels like an awfully tiny car to be slipping in and out of lanes on high-speed Bay Area freeways—so I toodled down in the ever-trusty 1986 Mazda 626; not a lot of style to the car but it got a whopping 41 miles per gallon—and at almost $4 gallon, that was more than appreciated. It’s about 3-1/2 hours to Berkeley, so I loaded up on a wealth of Hawaiian and ukulele CDs, aimed the steering wheel south and ventured out of the Sierra foothills and toward the Big City.

To get me in the mood for a Hawaiian weekend (as if Bryan Tolentino’s “Ka Ukulele Lele” hadn’t done it), I stopped by an L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Vacaville for an early lunch. Freeway-close and predictably tasty loco moco made it a good choice. Plus, they subscribe to the “Honolulu Advertiser” and, as I enjoyed the brown gravy, rice, hamburger patty, egg and mac salad, I caught up on a bit of island news (albeit one week old).

Next stop on my whirlwind Hawaiian weekend was at Mike Dasilva’s ukulele shop/venue in Berkeley. Mike staged an open house throughout Saturday afternoon with refreshments, informal tours of the shop, instruments to try and an open mic stage. I met a delightful woman from a small ukulele club over in Sausalito, enjoyed talking with Genaro (he, Sil and Evan played some great Hawaiian tunes on the small stage) and saw first-hand some wonderful ukuleles in progress.

Mike has brought in a slew of ukulele cases which are different from any I’ve seen; they’re fiberglass-based, but are that “formed” shape like you see on Bolle sunglass cases. They appear really sturdy and yet aren’t overly heavy. He has them for all sizes.

Leaving Mike’s shop I continued south on 880, checking in at the Fremont LaQuinta ($59/night!) to leave my roll-along in the room by itself while I grabbed my ukulele and happily anticipated the upcoming party at John G. and Katie’s delightful home in Campbell. Every year these two host a pre-festival barbecue. Not only are they wonderful hosts, but the afternoon and evening features good-natured bocce ball games, the most awesome barbecue beans I’ve ever enjoyed, wonderful libations, plates of thinly-sliced grilled tri-tip and, best of all, kanikapila well into the night.

As a “lifetime” invitee to this event, I consider myself a lucky gal. Jeff Turner and his wife, Deena, traveled up from Woodland Hills (we missed super ukulele collector Roger, who chose a bad time to pick up a flu bug); Curtis and his wife, Elizabeth, were there, as, usual (with Kendra, Curtis’ talented ukulele student); Toebone and his wife, Tracey, dropped in as did Dominator and wife, Joanne. Dom was anticipating his solo performance coming up on Sunday morning at the festival and admitted to being a bit nervous. We played and sang (some better than others; well, really, everyone better than me, but I just consider that I make the others feel really good about their musical abilities in comparison) until well after 10 pm. Since some of the attendees had early-morning volunteer roles at the next day’s festival, it wasn’t a really late night.

Festival:
Sunday morning’s sunny skies promised plenty of warm weather for that day’s festival in Hayward. I was in the parking lot by 9:45 (meaning I got a parking space!) and I paid my $5 (what a deal!) and lined up with the others waiting to enter the auditorium. The doors weren’t scheduled to open until 10:30 but I knew Dominator was second on the schedule and I wanted to scout out a good seat. Joanne was in line beside me and, when the doors finally opened, we found ourselves front row seats on the aisle. As an aside, Joanne is one of those “really prepared” people; ‘need a tissue? She’ll pull one out of her purse. Aspirin? Same thing. We’d both had an overload of ink from the entrance stamp on our wrists and Joanne’s had smeared onto her jeans. She had a packet of Shout! out in no time to remove the stain. Wow. I think Joanne must have a Boy Scout background.

The festival’s program features a variety of ukulele-playing individuals and groups; each applies to be on the program and then agrees to play a 10-minute set; this allows for a huge number and variety of performers throughout the day. The auditorium is lushly decorated with greenery, flowers, kahili and Hawaiian quilts and the audience is typically appreciative to each act—whether it’s a large group of enthusiastic youngsters, a mellow trio, a group of aunties and uncles with nahenahe tunes or an ukulele soloist. Dominator was second up that morning and walked on with aplomb—and no hint of any nervousness. His playing of his first selection,  ”Blue Roses Falling,” was a joy. Audience members seemed to be leaning forward to catch every nuance on the fretboard. He played “Something” for his second selection and, for his third, he performed “Star-Spangled Banner,” dedicating the song to those who are serving our country at this time.

After listening to Dominator, I headed out to the courtyard where the vendor booths and informal jamming takes place. My first stop was Kamaka Ukulele, where I was warmly greeted by Asa Young (’such a talented player and singer and yet so modest). I spoke with Chris Kamaka for a bit about perhaps building a tenor with satin finish and a dark binding (hmm….) and then wandered by the booths. I spoke with Tiki King (I really like the new Bark Cloth Flea he designed for FMM), the gal from Hawaiian Airlines (their credit card earns us “free” mileage since we pay it off in full every month) and Tony Graziano. Over on the “other” side of the courtyard I stopped in at Hawaiian Eye Designs (I love their shirts and stickers) where I was surprised to see BruddahMark (does that guy travel all over or what?); he said he’d just flown up for the day since he had never been to the Hayward festival.

At the KP Ukulele booth, John was showing off a variety of Ken’s instruments; two new concerts, including a cutaway, were available. John shared space with Aldon Sanders, who was playing songs from his new CD, “The Uke Files.” The CD includes original songs, some Hawaiian tunes and even a few Mexican melodies; I’ve met Aldon before at John’s party and I knew his playing and singing is wonderful, so of course I had to buy it. You should, too.

On the way back from foraging for lunch (chili plate with mac salad and rice), I spotted Little River Ukuleles‘ booth. Luthier Dave Sigman displayed some absolutely delectable ukuleles—most of them tenors. His inlay work, I’d heard earlier, is impeccable and, I can tell you from first-hand experience, that’s no exaggeration. But these are not just good-lookin’ ukuleles, Dave’s instruments sound superb. The action is just how I like it and the neck and construction made even my soprano-primed fingers feel at home on the fretboard. I went back three times to play a koa tenor with a lovely hula girl on the headstock and an even lovelier sound. I know one is never supposed to have regrets, but that instrument is the closest I’ve come to sharing my heart with another ukulele. Unfortunately, I dallied and it went home with someone else. Passing through the courtyard again, Tom B spotted me and, after catching up on a bit of news, I took him over to the Little River Ukuleles booth to introduce him to Dave. Tom B typically only buys vintage ukuleles, but he fell in love with a walnut tenor (made from wood from nearby Chico) inlaid with the sweetest barn swallow in flight—and, after much thought, he bought it; I felt a bit like an ukulele matchmaker, helping along what will surely be a great relationship.

But the day wasn’t over—there were still great performances on stage to enjoy as well as friends to jam with in the courtyard. The Marin ukulele group (Ukulele Friends Ohana) was at the “usual” spot in the shade at the far end of the courtyard and they welcomed any who wanted to join them in kanikapila—even me! BruddaBu and Dave from Petaluma were among the welcoming strummers in the shade. And, they even played kazoos at the same time they strummed ukuleles!

My total purchases for the day? A tuberose lei (and it still smells good—’though it looks a bit worn out), two bottles of water, Aldon’s CD and the chili plate lunch. Not much damage to the credit card this year at Hayward—but I’m still thinking of a new tenor!

As an attendee at 15 ukulele festivals and workshops in the past few years (from Rhode Island to the Big Island), I can guarantee that, if you play ukulele—no matter what level player you are—the Southern California Ukulele Festival should be a “don’t miss it” event on your lifetime list.What follows is a lengthy account (to make *you* want to attend an ukulele festival, too!); if you’d rather just skip to the album of photos, click HERE! Note: There are more photos in the album than I’ve included on this page so browse around—I can’t figure out how to get captions in the album so you’ll have to look at the name of the .jpg when you’ve opened it and read “who” is in the photo up in the URL bar.   (Read on …)

Who goes to Hayward (California) to play the ukulele? Thousands of us did on April 29—and if you weren’t there, you missed an event that’s as rich in Hawaiian culture as it is in four-string delights. Held at the Hayward Adult Learning Center, this year’s event was the 14th annual, making it the longest-running (and oldest!) ukulele festival on the mainland. This festival has a true ohana feel. While some of the out-of-the-auditorium jamming was definitely non-island oriented (Beatles, anyone? Petula Clark? John Denver?), the performers inside are members of the many Bay Area-based ukulele schools and clubs and their performance repertoire was almost entirely Hawaiian (including contemporary and hapa haole as well as some lovely old melodies that just made me sigh and want to collapse beneath a coconut palm).

My friend, Cynthia, volunteered to go along this year (she accompanied me in 2005, too—I guess she doesn’t learn, does she?) and we started off the day with a bit of (REI and Royal Robbins Outlet) shopping in Berkeley on the way to Campbell, where John G. holds his annual pre-Hayward-festival barbecue/kanikapila on the Saturday evening prior to the festival. Katie and John are such great hosts—the food is ono-licious and the company is beyond compare. There’s a lot of ukulele talk story that goes on and I’ve always been fortunate to see some astounding collectible and modern instruments brought by other attendees.

This year was no different—at one point we noticed that Roger, Jeff and John had all disappeared from the barbecue area; we found them out in the front yard, figuratively drooling over the wealth of ukuleles Roger was toting in the back of his car. It looked a little like some drug deal was going down, with the trunk open, all the guys hanging around it and the furtive glances back to the house to see if any of the rest of us had noticed. I have evidence: I captured it on camera.

After we enjoyed the talking and great food in their lovely backyard, John invited all of us inside to his music room addition and we pulled up chairs and music stands for hours of great playing; in addition to the previously mentioned uke folks was John Baxter, of UkeFarm fame. Curtis and John play together frequently (they’ve even been *paid* for doing so–people only pay me to quit playing!) and their lovely voices and island-style playing carried us all along as we sang song after song from the He Mele Aloha book. John and Curtis taught me some new (to me!) chords to embellish some songs and their lovely strumming had me even strumming in rhythm. I wish this happened more than once a year…

Sunday morning we squeezed into the already almost-full parking lot at the Hayward Adult School, where the festival is held and, getting out of the car heard the sound of a harmonica in a parking lot jam session with a couple of ukuleles. Almost every car sported a Hawaiian sticker of some sort and most people carried an ukulele case at their side as they entered the schoolgrounds. We were definitely in the right place. As soon as I entered, I bought myself a tuberose lei—the creamy flowers don’t “age” well, but the fragrance hammers at my heart as I remember the times my husband, Mark, has given me a tuberose lei while we were in Hawaii; it was $10 very well spent!

Admission to the day-long performances and event is only $5. For that price, you can watch performances all day inside, peruse the vendor booths outside or just sit and talk (and jam) with friends. It’s a bargain! I thought this year’s food offerings a big skimpy compared to previous years. There were plenty of soft drinks and shaved ice, but only two stands selling lunch items so the lines were pretty long. I went to the shorter line and had saimin and Spam. Saimin’s really a nice, homey-type of item in broth but this version was a bit dry and gummy due to the preparation limitations. The Spam was nice and pink, though. And salty!

In addition to Cynthia and I, two other members of Ukuleles of Paradise made the drive to Hayward—John and Jim. I only saw John long enough for a short “howdy,” but Jim and his wife, Cathy, visited a few of the vendor booths with Cynthia and I. Arcata-resident Gary Rogers, of Jumping Flea,, spent lots of time with Jim, explaining different Bushman models and tuning each up so Jim could sample different sounds and types of ukulele. Jim left the booth with a Jenny tenor in matte finish—Gary gave him the pick of the litter and Jim’s ukulele sounds as great as it looks.

Rick and Mark, of Hawaiian Eye Designs (they make those great t-shirts and “uke player” stickers”) sang me an impromptu song as Rick played my little LoPrinzi (he hadn’t seen one before and asked to play it). How many times do people who sell you things entertain you so nicely, too??? Down the aisle, John G. had a selection of KP Ukuleles for folks to try. Only one was available for sale by mid-afternoon—these are lovely instruments and Ken’s attention to a great sound really shows in his ukuleles. I saw Asa, who plays guitar frequently with Bryan Tolentino, staffing the Kamaka booth near the auditorium. While I was there, Chris Kamaka signed his new CD for me, “Hema Pa’a.”

As the afternoon went on, I was lucky enough to be able to meet and talk in person (and have fun strumming) with so many people who I “know” online through the FleaMarket Music board, the TaroPatch, UkeTalk, EZFolk, and 4th Peg.

Meeting Dominator, of course, causes everyone to genuflect when they realize they’re talking to the “real” Dominator (and who wouldn’t with all those great tabs to his credit—and now he’s building ukulele, too), but he’s the sweetest guy and I’m proud that he calls me a friend (he even listened to my still-learning version of “Drop, Baby Drop” which I was frankly nervous to play in front of the great Dominator). Then there was Gary from Petaluma, Shindig, Pete, Brudda Bu (I watched as he purchased a new “old” Kumalae from John), Tom B, Teacher, Old Smelly Bob, Jeff West, Tiki King and others. A small group of us played some tunes in the shade of the courtyard and then, too soon, it was time to head back into the auditorium and join hands to sing, “Hawaii Aloha,” the traditional ending to so many Hawaiian events.

I’ll definitely be heading back to Hayward 2008—why don’t you consider it, too? For more photos, click HERE!