Two or three years ago my friend Cheryl approached me to play some ukulele tunes in Norwich for her church’s pie auction fundraiser – stop already, you had me at “pie auction”!!
And it was really fun. The spokesman would announce an entertainer – who was allowed no more than 10 minutes – immediately followed by auctioning of baked goods by the pastor.
Of course, Cheryl’s husband Bill was always trying to get something for “two bits!” Cheryl said that as the years went by the talent show part of the fundraiser kept growing so that the time of the event kept moving back. So the first time I attended with her I think it started at 4 p.m. and I think it went on til 9 p.m. at night and the place was packed.
The songs we did that year were Ghost Chickens, which I made available in my first Song book, and Side by Side. This year our “hit” was Ukulele Lady as performed by Cheryl’s brother doing the hula in a grass skirt, wig and coconut bra. Who doesn’t want a pie after seeing that??!!!!
Here is Side By Side, from the online ukulele songbook Hits of the Blitz, available from the Worthington Uke Jam website:
under the Songbooks tab. They have many songbooks available to download.
Cat’s favourite “Ukulele Lady” version:
Cheryl’s favourite version:
This “Ukulele Lady” version for soprano ukulele we doctor’d to suit ourselves for performing at the Pie Auction. In the first verse you’ll see a C-G7 above “a-long”, which is a slide off C up to the G7 and you sing it by going up with your voice from C up to G for the word “long”. In the chorus, the triangle symbol before the words “Maybe” means a pause, so you strum the new chord first and then start singing.
Cat's Ukulele Songs 