Saturday, August 29th, 2009 1st Annual SouthEastern UkeFestival

Last Saturday, there was a "Southeastern ukulele festival" held for those who play the ukulele and live in the South Eastern United States.
Last Saturday was one of the best Saturdays I have ever experienced. I had the chance to meet so many wonderful, friendly, and talented people.
And Last Saturday, I was surrounded by simply the best people in the entire world.

We sang, we drank (sodas and water), and we played our ukuleles until the sun went down. Well, at least when the rain started to roll in. There were all sorts of makes of ukuleles available for one's viewing and playing pleasure. Some were even hand crafted and home-made. The list of ukuleles are as follows, but not limited to: Kala, Pono, Martin (both a backpacker and a soprano), KoAloha, Kamaka, Mainland, "banjoleles", Mitchell, Ohana, and many others.

I had never been surrounded by so many ukuleles. It was a joy to try each and every one of them. I had once been so protective of my ukulele that I had forgotten what it meant "to be ukulele". The joy of the ukulele must be shared. The first ukulele that I tried belonged to DeG, his mainland soprano. And I must say, it was so loud, such a wonderful ukulele, and definitely one that I will have to acquire through the later months of this year. And I had a chance to play HaoleJohn's Koaloha Concert, just a beautiful instrument. And he was kind enough to give me the privilege to play his new 8-string Pono, which he had bought recently. Mr. Kharmachanic even brought along his Kamaka Concert, in which he was so gracious to let me play, and I must say, it's one hell of an instrument.

I met Tsani, Captain Lovehandles, Deg, HaoleJohn, Citrus, Darkwater, Dbeall, Wagster, Joe (who makes an awesome corn mix dip), his wife, a Hawaiian by the name of Grace, Kharmachanic, Cecil, and those who I don't think have a UU screen name.

So in summary; I learned Tsani was Cherokee; Captain Lovehandles has a really cool name in RL as well; DeG smokes cigars (well, he made a cigar box uke); Haolejohn has a heart of gold, Citrus knows his way around his Mitchell; Darkwater was another owner of a koaloha tenor, Dbeall is from the same town I'm from, before college; Wagster is one lucky fella, Joe makes an awesome corn mix, and he also crafted his own cigar box ukulele; I also learned how to make KauKau Pig from Grace; Kharmachanic's kamaka concert is one that I will have to come to aquire, Cecil owns a really neat Mini; and others without names, who were all really incredible to meet and play with.

So now that my Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome is started to kick in again after about 5 months remission; it's time to start saving up and looking for that next ukulele to play and share with all of my new found friends.

-Mike