Jake was at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor on November 16th. I last saw him two years ago a Hill on a cold snowy day. It took my two hours to travel the 50 miles from home to A2. This year it only took me an hour, and I had time to investigate the large group of students outside Angel Hall, and see Jessie Jackson speaking. I went to a nearby restaurant and had dinner and then sat outside and noodled around a bit. Getting some smiles from kids and a gentleman who I discovered was going to the concert as well as having been at the Michigan Philharmonic concert, Uke Can’t Be Serious!, the week before, an event I had also attended.
Arriving well before the concert started, I chatted with a number of ukulele folks I had met at previous ukulele events. When I purchased my ticket, all the seats in the section with the exception of two, had been sold already. But the entire row of 20 some seats had four people show up! The lights dimmed and the show started. For the sixth time I found myself totally entertained by the flashing fingers of this ukulele virtuoso.
Jake was fabulous as always. The lighting was good and the acoustics were even better. With Nolan on bass, Jake worked his way through a constant string of his ‘classics’ including Dragon and Bohemian Rhapsody. He gushed over the venue and entertained us with stories. The running joke was the difficulty they had in naming the songs for his new album, recently released. Nashville Sessions was recorded over a six day periods, in Nashville, and covers a wide variety of musical genres. Pick up a copy when you get the chance!
After a standing ovation, he played While My Ukulele Gently Weeps, the song that launched his career when it went viral in the early days of YouTube. I joined the growing line of fans eager to get his autograph, or a picture with him. When my time arrived I found myself tongue tied, but managed to thank him and how much I appreciated his work with music education and the example he set. One of the volunteers caught some excellent pictures for me, including the above.
