Telephone Road

Americana Steve Earle style for Independence Day. The low G Blackbird and high G Kanile’a really contrast. I bought the Blackbird as a quality travel ukulele (I don’t have to worry about too hot or cold or dry), and also for a contrasting timbre. Someday I’ll overdub them for a song. Playing is different – the Kanile’a has shallow frets and a wider fret board. I like the wide fret board because of my small hands and stubby fingers. The shallow frets I have to compensate with heavy gauge strings. The Blackbird’s low G really booms, something that would have to be controlled if playing songs requiring a more staccato sound, like jazz or jazz influenced pre-war pop (tin pan alley).  Song chart. I truncated the instrumentals and the intro. There is B5 A5 G5 chord picking in the original intro, and I would not be able to learn that in a hurry. Social distancing prevents my baritone ukulele partner from joining me. My song of the month pattern is disrupted. The more frequent zoom meetings means more songs to prepare, so I have to dig into my archive. I miss the live experience, but Zoom makes it practical to join the SF based Ukulele Rebellion and Gilroy Jam.  Duh! I realized I could video myself directly from the laptop.  Saves me the trouble of hauling out the Handycam and tripod.  Much easier to start the video in time for my song as well, and edit it.