I’m recently back from a visit to Vancouver. It was pretty brief and I had plenty to do so I knew that meeting the many friends I have made in three decades of life there was going to be impossible. That’s why I tried to keep the visit hush-hush. It nearly worked too....

Del Rey has been a reader of The Ukulele Entertainer eNewsletter since it began in 2009. In How to be Del Rey Part 1 she told us about her start as a musician: learning classical guitar from the TV in the rec. room of the trailer court where she lived. Today she talks...

I was proud to be asked to headline a brand-new ukulele festival on Saturday: Walkington Ukulele Festival. Walkington has the picturesque look of one of those quaint English chocolate-box villages that TV has us trained to believe hosts exactly one murder a week...

I moved up to Seattle from Southern California in 1997; same year I sold my car. I partially picked this city because it had functional transportation. I grew up mostly in the south-west of the United States between Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,...

It was always fashionable to ridicule Prince Charles. Even as a child I remember laughing at his sticky-out ears and at the comedians and impressionists who imitated and got us giggling at Charles’ thoughtful but faltering style of speech. I never stopped to think of...

  There’s a musician’s joke that if you want your onstage performance to be as good as it was when practicing at home then you must practise 200% because you’re only half as good when you play in front of people. The truth is that statistically our performances...

I joined the Village Male Voice Choir last May. As someone who’s life is already full of music it may seem an unusual hobby to take up. But I love it. Choir singing is an abstract art, in the sense that you cannot experience the result of your work any more than a cog...

We've booked a young trio of lads in their twenties to open for McShane & Shaw at the town’s Arts Week on March 23. They play fiddle, accordion, vocals, drums and do traditional and original folk songs with a bias towards rural material. One of them even owns a...

If you’re a regular reader you may have been wondering where I’ve been. Thank you for your patience by the way. What can I say? It’s been an unusually busy November and December. After the strangeness of the covid lockdowns things have gone back to the weirdest kind...

While listening to an old BBC interview I heard Muhammed Ali tell David Frost how he started with his boastful, trash talking poetry. Ali's words led me down a rabbit hole of memories and investigation on the subject of showmanship. Here it is: When I was a student, I...

McShane & Shaw are proud to present…. Dad Dancing  a new album of original tracks covering diverse styles such as jazz-swing, classical, comedy, country, disco & reggae all superbly recorded and mixed by Ian Rafferty. It's an audio variety show evocative of...

No matter how you view the life of Queen Elizabeth II you have to admit, she was a good ‘un. Her character, intelligence, sense of duty and ultimately her longevity were admired by millions across the globe. Even the staunchest republican has to admit that, as a...

Most musicians have so much more to consider than making music - if they want to make their way in the world. The peripheral stuff can be exhausting and all-consuming. Today I bring you an inside look at what happens when a musical duo (the unstoppable McShane &...

Long before prime-minister Boris Johnson stepped down this morning, the UK has felt like it is slowly falling apart. And this little tale of a ukulele player with a broken car touches on the growing sense that our transport and other public systems are not what they...

During the first corona lockdown, when those of us fortunate enough to have a garden were enjoying the idyllic spring weather, Jane expressed her delight at hearing me communicate back and forth with a song-thrush. I’d imitate its calls and after a while it started to...

Many ukulele players are attracted to outsider instruments that on the surface seem easy to play but which turn out to be deceptively difficult. (The kazoo is a good example of an instrument that is easy to play – badly.)   I wish hereby to make a case for the...

Today I describe how I use musical performance to shake off the feelings caused by the doom and gloom in the news. If I don’t have a gig then I go out and hit the street. Here is a recent and true tale about the reality of making music on the street and the benefits,...

Regular readers will have noticed that The Ukulele Entertainer has been a bit thin on the ground in recent weeks. After waiting two years to get back to some kind of “normal” it seems we’ve landed with everything but. The invasion of Ukraine is both a present and a...

Penistone Paramount Cinema (built 1915) is one of the oldest cinemas in the UK. Having gone there from early childhood it has been my temple of delights and a mecca of mirth to the point where, in my mind's eye, it seems much larger than it actually is. While others...

For most people the start of a new year is a time to think about new directions. But it can also be a time of reflection, as we ponder past choices and wonder how things might have been different… Oh, and by the way: McSwing is here! Watch the new music video by...