RETURN TO ANDREWS OF STRATFORD

 

SMUG returned to Andrews of Stratford today after a three year layoff, mostly 

due to COVID. Director Kelly Galloway put together a collection of new and 

old songs which were all enjoyed by the many residents who turned out to enjoy

the music. They all showed appreciation  for the fine performance by both new                                         and old members  of SMUG, many who have been performing at Andrews  

since 2009.   SMUG is now in its fifteenth year as pointed out by Sharon,Woods-

Bryenton the wonderful Activity Director at Andrews of Stratford.

                                               

Heartz  Godkin was present at the performance. He is a well known Island Bass Player who

has been playing with Island groups for over 50 years and now a resident at Andrews.

Heartz plays with The Andrews Strummers every Wednesday morning.

NEW UKULELE FRIENDS FROM DOWN UNDER

 This morning at SMUG we were privileged to have new ukulele friends from New Zealand who are here in Canada for an extended stay as they tour the maritimes, visit a son in Alberta and carry on to Vancouver. Jan sent us a note a week ago asking if they could come to our weekly gathering and join in ........it was just great to meet them. Jim and Jan Gillanders live in Nelson, New Zealand and are members of Nelson's Plinkers Ukulele Group. As we rehearsed for our presentation at Hillsborough Hospital next Monday JAN AND JIM joined us for the morning. We would love  to have them with us for that presentation but unfortunately they are off to Nova Scotia right away. Just great to meet these two and hope they one day might return, but in the meantime we wish them safe travels and Happy Ukuleleing!

Thanks for dropping by.....HAPPY CANADA DAY!

                                        JIM AND JAN GILLANDERS

THE HILLSBORO QUINTET CATCHING UP

Here we are in the Circle May 3,2023

                          THE HILLSBORO QUINTET

This morning SMUG had a rather small turnout to our proposed "In The Circle " program, so we formed a small group we will call The HILLSBORO QUINTET. It was quite obvious as Kelly and Iain were away on a holiday in Germany that we were not able to attract Smuggers to fill the 18 chairs we put out.. but those of us in the Quintet enjoyed coffee and cookies in the kitchen and managed to get away a bit early. Although we had a laugh or two and sung vigorously we decided to disband the Quintet for the future.

                                CENTRAL QUEENS 2011

                                Click on photos to enlarge

CORONATION DAY AT SMUG

            

                                         KELLY DOING THE DIRECTING OF "SUNDOWN"

Saturday, May 6, 2023 was Coronation Day in The Commonwealth. The first Coronation in 70 years for King Charles III .It's also the week that Gordon Lightfoot , a famous Canadian  and well-known music composer in this country passed away. Kelly brought three of his best known tunes along for SMUG this morning , making a statement  about our deep respect for this well thought of Canadian. Gordon Lightfoot was 84. 

Attached are some photos we took that are much less than perfect, but after many hours it was the best I could come up with. My Mac does not lend itself to allowing a Blog to be presented in a normal way.....at least the writer can't seem to make it work properly.

 DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGEN

KELLY GOES TO AUSTIN

KELLY AND IAIN

KELLY WITH THE LADIES FROM GALVESTON UKULELE GROUP

 Kelly and Iain Joined up with The Austin Ukulele Society in Austin Texas two weeks ago when Kelly 

taught the 125-150 ukulele players to play and sing  THE LOG DRIVER'S WALTZ. What an experience 

that must have been for Kelly. She brought lots of photos back with her and we hope she will download them here on the SMUG blog. You can look this up on You Tube and see the whole performance.

ENJOY! CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE.

ALOHA OE: NEW UKULELE FRIENDS

This is an early group we had back in  the spring when we tried to be getting together. We had a lot of fun but the camera didn't cooperate and the group was missing many familiar faces as a reluctance of members to challenge Covid, and rightly so. This kept up off and on depending on what the status of |Covid19 was until the last morning we had only three turn up. As a result  we shut down for the summer which was not unusual  except the year of the PWC reunion  we always took the summer off and returned in early October. It is our hope we will be able to get back again in late September or early October this year.

But two weeks ago we had an email from a lady in Los Angeles who asked if she and her husband could drop in to one of our jams and play along with us as they were coning to the Island for four or five days the following week. After much discussion there didn't seem to be a way to put anything together, so I offered to pick them up some evening and bring them to the house along with Kelly and Dennis, who she also included in her letter. A response from her  Lydia) told us they would be in Montague area, so such an adventure was probably not going to  take place and we were on and off on getting together all week until Thursday, Kelly came up with the idea of meeting them when they were on their way to the airport on Friday, at The Lucky Bean. in Stratford for coffee. Kelly's suggestion couldn't have worked out better. 

                                                   DANIEL HO   and KELLY GALLOWAY

Daniel and Lydia Ho were their names and most of you ukulele players will recognize Daniel as one of Hawaii's foremost ukulele/guitar/piano  players. He has just designed a most beautiful Tenor Ukulele recently as well as a baritone size guitar, both in hand when they arrived. They are being hand crafted by Pepe Romero and they have a gorgeous sound. We didn't ask the price! I first "ran into" Daniel when we were adding Aloha Oe to our repertoire, DaNIEL PLAYED BEAUTIFULLY AND TIA CARRERE sang       beautifully in several You Tube videos. Look It UP!

Daniel and Lydia were accompanied by their Island hosts that I had a hard time picking up their names but I will refer to them as CK and KC. So in the above photo is Dennis, CK and KC, Daniel Ho, Kelly  and Daniel's wife Lydia Miyashiro -Ho. We spent a wonderful hour with them and of course Daniel demonstrated his instruments, then we all played together,Black Rum and Bueberry pie. Daniel gave the three of us a copy of his latest CD which I imagine Kelly will bring along to the next SMUG. 

Their hosts live and work in Brudenell, and both are involved with music and we might expect to see them at   SMUG or BUGS sometime soon. Daniel and Lydia really enjoyed their week on PEI and they feel they will be returning! TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DANIEL VISIT HIS WEBSITE, DANIELHO.COM AND SEE WHAT A VERSATILE MUSICIAN HE IS

FAREWELL OLD FRIEND.....REST IN PEACE

Today the family and friends of Barry and Leah said goodby in a most wonderful funeral service for Barry at the  HILLSBORO FUNERAL HOME. The Pastor was the Reverend Roger MacPhee from Belfast and organist Leslie Hiscott , a neighbour of Barry and Leah's. The Retrofrets , a ukulele group which Barry and Leah started many years ago provided three memorable pieces that were in keeping with Barry's life and style. A close friend of the Zieglers, Marjorie MacLean, gave the eulogy most appropriate for the great guy and friend of all who knew him.  Barry will be sadly missed by all who were associated with him and his music. Barry and Leah were also founding members of the SMUG group in 2008