The Ukulele Entertainer e-Newsletter is back. Everybody say, “Yaaaay Ralph”
The story so far:
I’ve spent my adult life making a living playing the ukulele, first as children’s entertainer Ralph the Clown (back when clowns were more funny than scary) and from 1997 onwards as strumming crooner: The King of the Ukulele. I’ve had my share of highs and lows making my way as an outsider musician in Vancouver on Canada’s west coast and touring Canada, the USA and Australia.
In August 2009 I began the Ukulele Entertainer e-Newsletter as a way to stay in touch with my audience around the world by providing performance tips and stories from my life as an entertainer. In exchange I received all sorts of benefits including gigs, festivals and friends as well as the unexpected side effect of 2 books of collected newsletters that I published thanks to funds raised from my newsletter readers.
After keeping these e-newsletters going for 9 years I had to call it quits in 2017 when I moved to England to help out my aging parents. They’ve been living with dementia for a while and I, rightly as it turned out, figured I’d have too much on my plate to keep the newsletter going.
Well three and a half years have flown by and my parents are doing fine, thanks to the great team of neighbours, friends and professionals around me. When suddenly, thanks to a pandemic, life has taken another turn.
Those gigs that were starting to come in as my name became more known in these parts were all suddenly cancelled and I’ve been left with a particular void that I don’t feel moved to fill with Skype lessons, Zoom performances or public Vloggings. So here I am to entertain and inform you again via the glorious medium of email (everybody say it again, “Yaaaay Ralph”)
But let me reiterate my plea from the top – that if there’s any reason at all you don’t want to be getting this then Please Unsubscribe at the link on the end of this email. The last thing I want to do is to be spamming you and, if this email has given you a feeling of, “Oh no, not another thing I have to read and deal with” then I warmly invite you to go ahead and tiptoe quietly away. Also, I’m going to be culling my list of email addresses that show up as non-opened or bounced so there’s the possibility that your email address may accidentally get deleted by me. If you suspect this to be the case then you are welcome to re-subscribe (by either emailing me or filling in the sign-up form that will eventually appear on my website.)
But, and I can’t emphasize my “but” strongly enough, if you still want to come along for the ride then I am thrilled to bits, over the moon and dancing on air because as most people know about me there’s nothing I love more than a happy audience. So, if you choose to remain in my virtual theatre then I will give you my all.
What can you expect from this latest burst of activity?
When I started this e-journey it was mostly about giving ukulele playing tips and performance or singing techniques. But times move on and everything changes and the intervening years have sent forth an explosion of ukulele teachers. Therefore, I’ll be focussing less on those techniques (that frankly you can get anywhere now) and more on offering you my personal insight into what it is to be an entertainer. It’s going to be a broader canvas and to be honest I don’t really have a clear picture of where we’re headed but I’ll do my best to make it as enjoyable as possible.
So, if you’re choosing to stick around then thanks. And you’ll be hearing from me again very soon.
Keep Smiling and Strumming!
© Ralph Shaw Music 2020