On this eve of my daughter's bridal shower we met for an open jam and had several wonderful and diverse songs to play. Joining us on this occasion was Tim (with his laptop), Janet, long lost friends Rochel and Arty, new Arty, Wendy Sue, Dan, Larry, Jack, Vin, Scott with his guitar, Sam with his bass, and Louise.

A few of our members are going to the Ashokan Uke Fest in 2 weeks. Check it out: http://ashokan.org/uke-fest/

We started the evening with 2 selections from Dan. I'LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER YOU released in 1964 by The Seekers. I often enjoy Dan's taste and this was no exception. Even better, it was easy and we sounded great. It should be on a future playlist.

Next a bit of a challenge with Skeeter Davis' 1965 THE END OF THE WORLD. A pretty song about a lost love. We did the last verse a capella due to a key change that threw us all off. But it sounded great up to that point.

Next, a few from me. First, a melodious 1962 British folk song IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN. Easy and fun. The next one was a result of searching for a fun song to play at a retirement party we're throwing at work in a few weeks. The teacher has a great love of all things Hawaiian . I was looking for something fun to play for her that others can sing or hula dance to, along with me. I found ALOHA WEEK HULA. I wasn't at all familiar with it but after watching a video on You Tube I enjoyed the tune. I think others did as well. Next came Sesame Street's I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ON THE MOON. I added a Csus4 to the C at the end of several verses for extra flavor. Look how fancy I've gotten!

I think Wendy Sue enjoyed my next song the most: BLAME IT ON THE UKULELE a parody of Eydie Gormé's BLAME IT ON THE BOSA NOVA). Another good one for a playlist. And my last for this evening should definitely be on a playlist, the Beatles' I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. We cannot go wrong with that one. We sounded great and everyone loved it.

Louise brought us Bob Dylan's ONE MORE NIGHT. There were a few issues which resulted in this being a solo. A pretty song that but many of us were not familiar with it and then there were the missing chords in the last 2 verses.

Dan gave us Steely Dan's 1972 hit DIRTY WORK. Another I did not remember but it was a pretty one. I was a big fan of this group back in the day.

Vin handed out a short version of The Rolling Stones HONKY TONK WOMAN. A nice one but I wish we had more of the verses. He also handed out another fun one, Creedence Clear Water Revival's DOWN ON THE CORNER from 1969. I hate to be so repetitive but another good playlist addition.

From Janet, Joni Mitchell's THE CIRCLE GAME. The chords were easy enough but it's helpful to be more familiar with the tune to play it well. But thank you Janet. It's pretty song.

Another good one was MOONSHADOW released by Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam) in 1970 from Scott.

In our final minutes we played WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS (War - 1975) handed out by Scott.

Our next theme is rather versatile: anything related to water (surf, waves, water vapor, steam, seas, rain, tears, ice, floods,drips, drops, etc.). Sort of an open jam for all things wet.

Until then - you keep strumming,

Arlene.