An original Instrumental played on soprano ukulele.

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composed by Wilbur Sweatman around 1913.

I think James Reese Europe's 12-inch 1913 Victor recording of this number is one of the all-time great string band recordings. At the time Europe lead the house band at the Castle House in New York City, where dancers Vernon and Irene Castle gave instruction and held dances.

Vernon and Irene Castle's 1914 book "Modern Dance" has some photos that perhaps are of Europe's band. See page 46, for example:
http://books.google.com/books? hl=en&id=XhBnlE5uN6cC&dq=Irene +Castle+dance&printsec=frontco ver&source=web&ots=yYMESKtmH2& sig=3e3PH5dOz_ZYdZXE84GlHrLxBf Y&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1 0&ct=result#PPA46,M1

Fred Van Eps plays a 5-string banjo version on a 1913 The Van Eps Trio recording available from the University of California Santa Barbara Library:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb. edu/search.php?queryType=@attr %201=4&query=Down%20Home%20Rag &num=1&start=1&sortBy=cnum&sor tOrder=ia

A 1918 recording of this tune by Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orchestra is available freely from Archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details /EarlFullersRectorNoveltyOrch- DownHomeRag1918

The Hoosier Hotshots and The Mad Tea Party have also recorded good versions of this tune.

I recorded a banjo-orchestra version of this a few years back on an album called "Music Box Rag", available at http://heftone.com/orchestra
The mp3 of Down Home Rag is at http://heftone.com/recordings/ down_home_rag_uke.mp3

Here I play it on solo banjo-ukulele.

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An original tune played on soprano ukulele.

The new Dave Talsma ukulele I'm playing here has a tulip inlay on the front of the headstock, and the headstock itself is tulip-shaped. This ukulele goes by the name "The Tulip".

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A rag by Scott Joplin published in 1909. Played on a very fine soprano ukulele built by Dave Talsma, who finished it a few days ago.

I learned this from a piano score from the Mutopia Project at ibiblio.org:
http://www.ibiblio.org/mutopia /cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1543

I posted some photos of this ukulele to my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b rianhef/sets/72157610764413252 /

Dave Talsma's web site:
http://davetalsma.com

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I heard this creepy number on an old Emmett Miller record.

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A "slow drag" written by E.H. Kelly in about 1901. Vess Ossman recorded a fine version of this on 5-string banjo back when the tune was new. I worked this up for ukulele a few years back from Trebor Jay Tichenor's excellent compilation piano book "Ragtime Rarities", published by Dover Publications, Inc.

I just discovered an mp3 of a wonderful 1903 recording of this tune by the Edision Grand Concert Band at the Cylinder Preservation and Digitation Project, University of California, Santa Barbara:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb. edu/search.php?queryType=@attr %201=1020&query=cylinder2707&n um=1&start=1&sortBy=&sortOrder =id

Piano sheet music is avaliable online at the website of the Maine Music Box, Folger Libray, University of Maine:
http://musicbox1.library.umain e.edu/musicbox/pages/full_reco rd.asp?id=KAS_008276

This is one of my favorite rags.

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I heard this song on an old Johnny Marvin Record.

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Composed in 1908 by Ted Snyder. I'm playing it on a nice new Martin 3C ukulele. The uke's body and neck are made of cherry wood.

Sheet music for Wild Cherries Rag is available online from The Charles H. Templeton Sr. Music Museum at Mississippi State University:
http://digital.library.msstate .edu/cdm-SheetMusic/item_viewe r.php?CISOROOT=/SheetMusic&CIS OPTR=27039&CISOBOX=1&REC=6

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An original tune played on soprano ukulele.

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A hot 1910 rag by Henry Lodge.

I wanted to learn this after hearing 5-string banjoist Fred Van Eps' ferocious 1911 recording, which is hard to image ever being surpassed. The recording is available in the "Collected Works of Fred Van Eps" at archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details /FredVanEps

I learned this from sheet music from the University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection:
http://ucblibraries.colorado.e du/cgi-bin/sheetmusic.pl?RagRe dPepper&Rag&main

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A 1909 rag from Georgia, USA by Nellie Weldon Cocroft. I learned this by ear from Virginia Tichenor's "Live at San Francisco's Pier 23" CD, which is a real favorite of mine.

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A lovely ragtime waltz by the prolific Charles L. Johnson, published in 1909. Played on Soprano Ukulele.

Ted Tjaden has an excellent page on the music of Charles L. Johnson at
http://www.ragtimepiano.ca/rag s/johnson.htm

I learned this from this pdf of the original piano sheet music:
http://www.ragtimepiano.ca/ima ges/tobasco.pdf

I do love Louisiana Tabasco hot pepper sauce.

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