Ukulele Noir Wheeler

		...Robert Wheeler's first installment...
Being well into the second century of my interest in the ukulele, I pause and consider the importance of this small musical instrument to me and the world. Really not very. Having gathered together perhaps two hundred and fifty or so ukes, and their relations, created from 1860’s to 2006 all over the world: Portugal, Hawaii, Philippines, Marquis Islands, Central America, Italy, Germany, Spain, Samoa Islands, United States of America, China, Japan, and Mexico, to name a few, I ponder on how this has enriched my life. Possessions that appear to piss some people off. Newspaper articles, which either featured my ukulele interest, or gave it brief note, have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the Littleton Independent, which may not be as well known as the two previously mentioned, being my home town paper and not being independent as it is part of a chain of suburban newspapers. I have also been featured in a film (actually magnetic tape) documentary titled ROCK THAT UKE. Has this media madness altered, for ill or good, my life? Not that one would notice. Over the years I would seek out gatherings of folk who exhibited an interest in the ukulele. While these events provided some pleasures, after attending two hundred and fifty or so of them, on both coasts, I had to decide if I would attend another such gathering. I don’t think so. I struggled to learn to play the ukulele, and memorize the lyrics for appropriate ukulele era songs, and sought out venues at which to perform. bars, folk festivals, bars, nursing homes, bars, retirement communities, bars, and taverns. I gathered together a wardrobe of appropriate performance attire. I had to give up my performance career. While the main reason that I had to give up my performance career was that I wasn’t very good at singing or playing the ukulele, the final straw (…like on the camel’s back) was that venue audiences could be staggeringly disrespectful. Example. Last performance, (prior to encountering Ukulele Noir – an encounter that has given me a whole new lease to my ukulele life….), in a high school class room at a folk festival, the room was near filled to capacity. As I played on, people would get up and walk out the door. Not all at once. But a constant flow. As I saw this movement, I wanted to stop them and say …”If you want to leave the class room, you should raise your hand.” As I finished my last number their were only two people left in the room. Each of whom had something of value in the room that they could not leave without. The sound man and my 4th wife. As I said earlier, Ukulele Noir has given me a whole new lease on things ukulele. In addition the people of Noir, and Craig Robertson the founder of Noir, share and enhance my Ukulele Consciousness. Greatly.
Robert Wheeler – founder – before Ukulele Noir Frank Doring - http://doeringphoto.com/rtu/rtu.html Robert Wheeler – founder – at Ukulele Noir photo by Gary Moebus

...Robert Wheeler's first installment...

Being well into the second century of my interest in the ukulele, I pause and consider the importance of this small musical instrument to me and the world. Really not very.

Having gathered together perhaps two hundred and fifty or so ukes, and their relations, created from 1860’s to 2006 all over the world: Portugal, Hawaii, Philippines, Marquis Islands, Central America, Italy, Germany, Spain, Samoa Islands, United States of America, China, Japan, and Mexico, to name a few, I ponder on how this has enriched my life. Possessions that appear to piss some people off.

Newspaper articles, which either featured my ukulele interest, or gave it brief note, have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the Littleton Independent, which may not be as well known as the two previously mentioned, being my home town paper and not being independent as it is part of a chain of suburban newspapers. I have also been featured in a film (actually magnetic tape) documentary titled ROCK THAT UKE. Has this media madness altered, for ill or good, my life? Not that one would notice.

Over the years I would seek out gatherings of folk who exhibited an interest in the ukulele. While these events provided some pleasures, after attending two hundred and fifty or so of them, on both coasts, I had to decide if I would attend another such gathering. I don’t think so.

I struggled to learn to play the ukulele, and memorize the lyrics for appropriate ukulele era songs, and sought out venues at which to perform. bars, folk festivals, bars, nursing homes, bars, retirement communities, bars, and taverns. I gathered together a wardrobe of appropriate performance attire. I had to give up my performance career.

While the main reason that I had to give up my performance career was that I wasn’t very good at singing or playing the ukulele, the final straw (…like on the camel’s back) was that venue audiences could be staggeringly disrespectful. Example. Last performance, (prior to encountering Ukulele Noir – an encounter that has given me a whole new lease to my ukulele life….), in a high school class room at a folk festival, the room was near filled to capacity. As I played on, people would get up and walk out the door. Not all at once. But a constant flow. As I saw this movement, I wanted to stop them and say …”If you want to leave the class room, you should raise your hand.”

As I finished my last number their were only two people left in the room. Each of whom had something of value in the room that they could not leave without. The sound man and my 4th wife.

As I said earlier, Ukulele Noir has given me a whole new lease on things ukulele. In addition the people of Noir, and Craig Robertson the founder of Noir, share and enhance my Ukulele Consciousness. Greatly.

Robert Wheeler – founder – before Ukulele Noir
Frank Doring - http://doeringphoto.com/rtu/rtu.html

Robert Wheeler – founder – at Ukulele Noir
photo by Gary Moebus