Tickets purchased months in advance, passports dusted off, my ukulele pal and I headed south from Vancouver to Bellingham. A lovely fall afternoon, the roads were dry, the leaves were red, the border crossing was quick and here we are outside of the Mount Baker Theatre in plenty of time for the evening concert.
Being a total Jake fangurl, I had watched all of his YouTube videos, listened to every album and read all of his Facebook posts but nothing, absolutely nothing, comes close to seeing and hearing Jake live. His technical skill as a musician is extraordinary and the energy he puts into each piece is simply stunning.
It was no surprise to see many Vancouverites in the audience and afterwards in the long line for photos and autographs with Jake we had a chance to talk to quite a few of our ukulele meetup pals. The Itsy Bitsy uke was a magnet for uke lovers and it again lived up to its reputation of being 'Big Fun in a Small Package'.
Here is Jen, the cofounder of the Cutie Ukes http://cutiecircle.com/ having a swell time with the Itsy Bitsy:
and David from Oakland was among the Itsy Bitsy fans too:
This short scale version of the Itsy Bitsy found its best fit under the nimble fingers of the kids in the crowd. The younger players absconded with the wee uke so quickly I wasn't even able to snap a pic!
I've had quite a few inquires about the Itsy Bitsy ukulele which is a completely playable instrument totally handmade by Allan Page in the UK.
For those adults interested in a longer scale version, you find photos of the instrument's construction and contact info for Allan Page the maker of the Itsy Bitsy uke on Facebook (just search for "Itsy Bitsy"). And for anyone thinking of a teeny uke for the smaller people in their lives, I highly recommend the short scale model.
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