OokTown - The Ukulele Podcast

After a couple year hiatus, we're back at the Denver Ukulele Festival 2023, and with us are first time guests Bobby Alu from Down Under, Honoka from the great state of Hawaii, and long-time guest and supporter of the show, Casey Cormier.

The heat goes on through the hottest summer on record, and we can't get enough of GNUF. So we invited Mary Agnes, one of the founders of the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival, and Robin, long-time GNUF volunteer, along with a rich tranche of topics.

From far across the Pond, we bring you this special edition of the OokTown Podcast recorded at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield, England, with many new and returning guests, all interviewed by my co-host Doug Brown!

It's our spring edition, and we continue our theme of the healing power of the ukulele with our guest David Blake, philanthropist and founder of an organization dedicated to bringing innovative ukulele based therapy programs to hospitals, veteran groups

While the snows falls on Los Angeles and solar flares pummel the earth, we find our warm and safe spot for wellness with the CEO of the Ukulele Kids Club, Marlén, and learn about the history, programs, and Big Hairy Audacious Goal of the UKC for 2023.

Hey, Internet, we're back! And we have a GREAT show for you with the amazing Brittni Paiva, Hawaii homegrown ukulele performer, producer, and songwriter who has shared the stage with Santana and Tommy Immanuel, and she's just getting started!

On the show this fine spring day is James Hill to tell us about his collaborative ukulele album called Uke Heads, where you can get your ticket to a once-in-a-lifetime experience to help him make music! Plus, we learn that Tony Danza had a talk show.

Like the arrival of Spring, we welcome back long-time friend of the show Victoria Vox, who brings us songs that she performs live from her upcoming new album, and talk about how art inspired her to write new songs.

Coming to you straight outta Culver City, Cali Rose comes to talk to us about the power of the ukulele in music therapy, takes us through her journey from studying nursing to full-time musician. So buckle and enjoy the ride!

Not even a power outage could prevent Marlowe from joining the show! And stay to the end to hear an exclusive sneak peak of a song about making her big leap from Michigan to seek her fortune in LA, all coming up on the OokTown Podcast.

On the show is YouTube sensation and ukulele teacher Bernadette. We get to hear her incredible story of teaching school in a small town in California, to getting ukuleles in the classroom in Okinawa, Japan, and then coming home to conquer the Internet.

On this show, well, we must have said his name three times, because Kimo Hussey is making an appearance to school us on teaching music, ukulele, and the origins of Hawaiian ukulele music.

Welcome to part two of our 100th episode! We have Gerald Ross, Victoria Vox and Matt Stead. Our show is loaded with reflections on past shows, what new things we started doing, more on collaborating over the internet, and plenty of ukulele!

We've reached a milestone I never expected to happen: This is our 100th episode and 10th anniversary show. Come join Lucy of Lucy and La Mer, Aaron Keim of the Quiet American duo as they join us for a very special two-part show.

Like Meghan Trainor says, it's "All About That Bass." That's right, it's time we revisited the U-Bass. We have first time guests Michael Kohan, a U-Bass gear-geek and Patron of the show, and Stephen Cox, bass instructor with his own YouTube chan

There're all kinds of things about online ukulele instruction that've been fermenting while in lockdown, and guests Lisa Kljaich and Phil Doleman to let us know what been growing. Plus, ideas for your video lessons and workshops, bear safety, and more

We welcome first time guests Meredith Harper and Brad Bordessa, plus is back Molly Lewis is back! Sit tight for some deep dives into the motivations for their podcasts, nerdy gear talk, and learn how Molly and Meredith escaped COVID on the JoCo Cruise.

'Twas the night before solstice and all through the Podcast, we had Mary Agnes and Gerald Ross give us an amazing fun broadcast. Come with us as we salvage this dumpster fire of a year, with laughter, hope, and good news to all lovers of the ukulele!

It's our Kama'aina episode with Andy Andrews and Aldrine Guerrero to talk about thankfulness, maintaining your ukulele, the state of the ukulele in Hawaii, and an original song about Loco Moco performed by Aldrine, but you gotta stay till the end!

It's Halloween, a blue moon, and we've got fire in the sky! Hear what singer-songwriter Dani Joy and and ukulele instrumentalist Marlowe have to say about scary gig stories, what to do with your ukulele in lockdown, how to arrange cover songs, and mor

On the show we've got Matt Stead, Ben Hassenger, and Jeff Krebs. Come join us for a conversation about how they've been dealing the changes to their ukulele shops brought on by COVID-19.

We're taking a break from the Pandemic to talk about ukuleles and music therapy with Stephanie Epstein, president of the Ukulele Kids Club charity, and regular guest Heidi Swedberg. Come along and learn all about the healing power of the ukulele.

This could be the start of a Bromance as we welcome back Ben from Ukulele Roadtrips to have another Nice-olation podcast on ukuleles and the Pandemic. It soon goes off the rails in the first 15 minutes. You might just have to watch this one on YouTube.

On the Summer Solstice in the year of the pandemic, it's part two of our "Nice-olation" podcasts with our focus is on performers. We get great punditry from Erin and Jeff, AKA Victor and Penny, and Mandi and George, AKA Opera-lele.

We're still hunkered down and talking about virtual ukulele strum along and festivals! And we've got an all-star panel of guests with Sarah Goodroad of BUG, Mary Agnes Krell of GNUF, and Ben Hassenger, the self-proclaimed Ukulele Ambassador of Michiga

A special Podcasters summit to talk about Ukulele in the time of the Pandemic. Ray Ortega of the Podcasters' Studio, Abe Deshotel of the Ukulele Podcast, my co-host Doug Brown share their thoughts, plus we totally geek out on Podcasting equipment.

We've got a content-rich podcast with Cynthia Kinnunen, Amber Rozel, and JHUI founder James Hill, PLUS first time guest and Music Teacher, Jimmy Brink. So join us on this Ukulele Education journey as we talk about the why's and how's of teaching mus

We welcome back our friends Phil Doleman, Heidi Swedberg, and Daniel Ward for a holiday-Christmas themed exploration of mentors and mentoring, ukulele in the UK, the way cool and hopeful London Ukulele Project, and the annual Whamageddon game.

It's a fun-filled episode with Matt Stead of the Uke Room and Andy Andrews of PUKA. We talk about creating an ukulele experience, looking at ways of inspiring us, creativity traps, ways of using the ukulele to connect people and end loneliness, and more.

We explore the world of Zen workshops, harnessing the healing power of ukulele music, discuss some unexpected ways of teaching ukulele, and D minor, the saddest key of all.

Sam Muir and Terry Carter go over their recent ukulele festival experiences, delve into finger style and classical ukulele, compare notes on music education, and get me hankering for Tim Tam, vegemite and visiting the folks down under at Valla Beach.

We take a deep dive into songs with Jodie Lee and my co-host Doug Brown as we dig into the top ukulele songs playlist, try to guess who's playlist we're looking at, talk about John Atkins and Grace Vanderwaal, and deconstructing and reconstructing son

Moon landings! Zero-G ukulele! Plus, lots of discussions on festivals, Master Classes, and much more!

As the heat and allergies of summer roll in, we welcome back two great singer-songwriters to the show: Victoria Vox and Hope Dunbar! We talk about ukulele travels, tackling writers block, ideas on expanding listernship, collaborating on songwriting.

We're at the Denver UkeFest with first time guest Stu Fuchs, plus Aldrine Guerreo, Aaron Nakamura, and Casey Cormier to talk about song arranging using fish bowls, ukulele festival cruises and sea sickness, Scandinavian bluegrass heavy metal, and more!

We have new guests Steve Espaniola, Clark Holmes of the Naked Waiters, returning guests Cynthia Kinnunen of the Royal City Uke Fest, Ben Hassenger of the Mighty Uke Day festival. So of course we talk UkeFests, plus the JHUI program, NAMM 2019, and mo

We have first time visitors to the Podcast George Bartle and Mandi Harkett (aka Opera-lele) for some laugh snortin' good fun as we meander through talking about performing, finding your style, Huffle Puff, new stuff we've seen or gotten, and

Heidi  Swedberg and Daniel Ward, along with Mary Agnes Krell of GNUF join us to discuss ukuleles and public libraries, upcoming events and guests at GNUF, the Denver Ukulele Fest, finding the "Why" for your ukulele groups, and much more

It's a mini-summit on Ukulele Podcasting with guest and ukulele paddler, Jodie Lee, as we talk about the shared experience of Wonderstruck, a guest appearance by Doug Brown. PLUS, I reveal the name of the 15 year old ukulele prodigy.

We talk about our top five ukulele gadgets and songs; send shoutouts our guests, patrons, and listeners, our families; and celebrate our time together just laughing and talking about the ukulele with regular guest Gerald Ross and co-host Doug Brown.

Lucy Laforge and Victoria Vox talk about what it's like being a female ukulele artist, explore the ins and outs of getting onto the Ukulele Festival Circuit, and much more.

You'll get a sneak peak at what it was like at Wonderstruck, get some tips on performing, building a better ukulele club, and so much more.

Our theme for this episode is appropriately about traveling. And who better to bring on the show than Ben from "Ukulele Roadtrips," and our regular guest Gerald Ross.

It's all kinds of talk about wrassling, Wonderstruck, UkeFest 2.0, busking, and lots, lots more!

Bridging the partisan divide with ukulele playing, revisit the ukulele bass, talk about gear to record ukulele videos, and much more!

The dog days of summer are upon us, and to be the heat we've got some cool guests on the show like Zoe Bestel and Ukulele Abe, along with my co-host Doug Brown. We talk about physicality when performing, Kala ukulele basses, and much more.

Broadcasting from Daniel's Hall at Swallow Hill Music, we bring you the OokTown Podcast recorded in front of a live audience during the 11th Annual Denver Ukulele Festival.

It's our 7th anniversary Podcast! Watch us stumble through our first LIVE Podcast with returning guests Victoria Vox and Ben Hassenger, and my co-host Doug Brown, as we reflect back on our seven years of Podcasting.

We're here with returning guests Aaron Keim, Phil Doleman, and Mary Agnes Krell to talk about ukulele strings for busking, beginner workshops, Guh-nuf 2018, and so much more!

Returning guests Andy Andrews and Gerald Ross talk about Burt Bacharach songs, Andy Andrews first Ukulele Festival, the evolving Ukulele Workshop instructor, ukulele amps, Warren Buffett, and much more!