Humble Uker || Birmingham Daddy (with Charlotte, Peter & Donna)

This video is from the November 2011 Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz open mic. night recorded by Sandor. The song was inspired by Lew Dite who has generously created a vast library of Old-Timey tunes on YouTube. Birmingham Daddy is from 1929 and was sung by Gene Autry. I asked LD about posting the lyrics for this song about a year ago because I enjoyed the playfulness of the lyrics and the pseudo-yodeling. Can you tell that I've never yodeled before?
Cornbread Charlotte is a member of a lodge that I attend in Lafayette, Ca. She was curious about what I had told her about the UCSC and was ready to join in even before hearing me sing. Along with making the best cornbread I've ever tasted, she has great courage and a better memory than I. Clearly, she also brought some style to the performance. Thank you Charlotte -- you were spectacular!
Peter and Donna are founding members of the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz. Meetings were held in their home long before the club meetings moving to Bocci's Cellar. They were very kind and willing to participate in my madness. I thought that their harmonica and spoon expertise would add to the feel of the era so I took a trip down to Santa Cruz and we played and sang the song 5-6 times and they were ready to go. Gracias El Presidente y Mamasita Primero.
Practicing and performing is much more fun than listening to my singing afterwards. I am playing a 1950's Favilla baritone ukulele with Worth "medium brown" strings, Low D set. The strings are all nylon and I like that rich tone that they provide. The Favilla has a real deep body (3-3/4") and a rich tone.
You can find Lew Dite's here...
Lew Dite on Banjo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MPpuH42Jkg
Lew Dite Birmingham Daddy karaoke style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs-y_IG8ek0
I had fun tweaking around with the song. Sometimes a subtle chord change will make a difference. I got out my chord book and found that a G5 [0033] adds a bit sharper sound. I played around and came up with the intro based on the wonderful line, "If love was liquor and I could drink, I'd be drunk all of the time."
If you like the sound of a baritone ukulele, check out my "Humble Baritonics" blog. I find videos, tutorials, photos of players, bands that have bari-uke players, sites with songs, and sites with tablature (TAB) specifically for the baritone ukulele. I also have a second blog called "The Baried DoGBonE" which focuses in on some of the more musical or prolific baritone ukulele players from around the world.
Practicing and performing is much more fun than listening to my singing afterwards. Any voice teachers out there? Wanna real project?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Birmingham
• Daddy
• Lew
• Dite
• LewDite
• Baritone
• Ukulele
• Bari-Uke
• Cornbread_Charlotte
• Cornbread
• Charlotte
• HumbleBaritonics
• Peter
• Donna
• Thomas
• Gene
• Autry
• Santa
• Cruz
• Berkeley

[bluffho]

Crantastic! Loved it, thanks for this! Hope to see you again at one of the upcoming gatherings!

[lewdite]

Enjoyed this…

[russbuss415]

nicely done Jeff & co., i like the outfit too!

[ajthefool]

Fun tune! Good job!

[Ukelectic]

Nice work...hoping to get a bit of a combo together at an open mic here in the new year..hope it goes as well