![]() Free for children age 12 and under who areħ:30 p.m. TICKETS: $15 (Friday only), $65 (all day Saturday only), $25 (Saturday evening concert only), $75 (both days). WHERE: Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Hall, 21 Normandy Heights Road, Live performances, music workshops (for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels), and a screening of the documentary “Mighty Uke.” On-site food vendors. WHAT: Two-day celebration of folk and acoustic music, spotlighting the ukulele. It’s a social instrument, and that carries over to the people who play it.” “The ukulele is so accessible that ‘stuff’ is not an option. “Some music festivals can be stuffy,” she says. Marxer says she is looking forward to Uke New Jersey, Too. This year’s festival, besides workshops and performances, will offer raffles of ukulele-related merchandise, such as books,trings, cases and straps.Īs he did last year, Ferguson will also screen the 2010 documentary “Mighty Uke,” which details the history of the instrument. Spreading the word about the appeal of the instrument is the chief reason why Ferguson started Uke New Jersey and why he plans to continue it. It doesn’t always have to be happy, but it always sounds sweet.” “If you love the sound of it, you want to hear it. “I love the sound of the ukulele,” she says. “I love it to see pros push the instrument as far as they want to,” she says. I love to see someone pick it up for the first time and be able to play a two-chord song.”Īt the same time, the ukulele also can be a showcase for virtuoso performers, Marxer adds. The ukulele’s advantage over many other stringed instruments is the ease with which it can be learned, Marxer says. and Hohner stopped treating ukuleles as toys and started marketing them as serious musical instruments. Marxer says that, at that time, manufacturers such as the Oscar Schmidt Co. The situation started changing in the late 1980s. ![]() “In those days, you could buy a good-quality ukulele for not a lot of money.” “There were pockets of people playing the ukulele in the 1970s in California, in Michigan, in New York,” says Marxer. They have seen the popularity of the instrument gradually grow over the years. Other artists at Uke New Jersey, Too, will include the husband-and-wife team of Pete and Maura Kennedy (playing as the Stringbusters), singer-songwriter Honor Finegan, and newcomer Stuart Fuchs.Ĭathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, who are playing Friday night, have been playing ukulele together since 1980. For example, he refers to the duo of Jim and Liz Beloff, who also played last year, as “the heart of the ukulele world.” To illustrate his point, Uke New Jersey, Too, will include workshops that teach participants to play songs of Johnny Cash, George Harrison and others on the instrument.įerguson says that he is proud of the line-up of musicians that will perform at this year’s festival. “The audience for the ukulele is getting broader and broader,” says Ferguson. Artists as diverse as Eddie Vedder and Taylor Swift have been playing the ukulele in concert. The interest in Uke New Jersey is a testament to the growing popularity of the ukulele, according to Ferguson. The workshops during the day drew about 70 patrons. Ferguson chairs special activities for the Folk Project, the Morristown-based nonprofit collective that promotes acoustic music.įerguson estimates that as many as 170 people attended last year’s headline concerts. The event is the follow-up to last year’s inaugural festival, which was organized by Scott “Scooter” Ferguson of Mount Olive. “Uke New Jersey, Too,” as this year’s festival is called, takes place August 29 and 30 at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. The two-day celebration of the ukulele will return to Morristown under the sponsorship of the Folk Project. ![]() That is because there is only one Uke New Jersey. ![]() Only one music festival offers workshops with such puckish names as “Game of Ukes,” “The Uke in Black,” “A Funky Uke Time” and “Something in the Way She Ukes.” ![]()
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