Ukulele Favorites

I like ukuleles. I think Mark Frauenfelder’s occasional ukulele posts on boingboing are what really perked my ears towards ukes. They’re such endearing little instruments. And, as someone who’s never played any other instrument, they’re not hard to learn!

Here are a few ukulele videos that I like. I suppose it does not go without saying that pretty girls with pretty voices playing pretty little ukes are usually what get my attention:

Sophie Madeleine is probably the best of the bunch. I really enjoy her album. On the internet, she’s probably best known for the beard song, but I like this one:

Musician known as “Danielle Ate the Sandwich” has some very nice original music, but her covers are certainly neat and whimsical, not to mention her sense of humor:

There’s also ‘chipswow‘. I don’t know anything about chipswow, but she’s an adorable teenager who is rather deft at doing ukulele covers of pop songs. I’ll skip the embed because it’s getting crowded around here.

‘Ukulele Ike’ Cliff Edwards had quite a life; he’s the voice of Jiminy Cricket among other things, and has a tragic riches-to-rags story. But I sure do enjoy this clip:

Of course, there’s also ukulele savant Jake Shimabukuro, the late big man Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and perhaps most importantly, The Jerk. Someone told me I should dress as Steve Martin for Halloween. That’s a mild non sequitur in August, but I think it makes a lot of sense.