Tampa Bay Ukulele Day takes place this Sunday in downtown Dunedin! It’s a day of workshops where you can hone your uke skills, a “strum and stroll” event where you can see scenic Dunedin while playing, and see local talent, including Tom Hood and the Tropical Suns, which includes Yours Truly on accordion!
The schedule
There’s a lot going on, and it’s happening all day. I’ll be with Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons at Dunedin Brewery at the start, then moving to Pioneer Park later on in the day.
| When | What | Where |
| 10:00 a.m. | “Plays Well With Others” workshop | Scottish Cultural Center |
| 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Ladies of Uke | Nature’s Food Patch |
| 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Anne Milanese, SpermWhale and D’Uke’Leles | Dunedin History Museum |
| 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons (and me on accordion!) play 3 sets: 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30 | Dunedin Brewery |
| 11:30 a.m. | “Finding Your Inner Chord” workshop | Scottish Cultural Center |
| 12:00 noon | Free beginner ukulele lesson with Norine and friends | Pioneer Park |
| 1:00 p.m. | Family concert with Julie Austin and Connie Mason | Pioneer Park |
| 1:00 p.m. | Percussion workshop | Scottish Cultural Center |
| 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Big Tiki and The Mai Tais | Honu Restuarant and Tiki Bar |
| 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Jct 27 | Fenway Hotel |
| 2:00 p.m. | Dunedin Ukes lead a strum and stroll through Dunedin | Starts at Pioneer Park |
| 2:00 p.m. | Children’s Art Music Shaker | Pioneer Park |
| 2:00 p.m. | Emmitt Carlisle Uke the Planet | Pioneer Park |
| 2:30 p.m. | Chris Tracy — funk to punk | Pioneer Park |
| 3:00 p.m. | Dunedin Ukes playalong jam | Pioneer Park |
| 4:00 p.m. | Renee and the Rollers | Pioneer Park |
| 4:30 p.m. | Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons (and me on accordion!) | Pioneer Park |
| 5:00 p.m. | Jay Nunes Jam Band | Pioneer Park |
| 6:00 p.m. | The Flea Bitten Dawgs | Pioneer Park |
| 7:00 p.m. | Super Uke Dance Band | Pioneer Park |
Workshops with The Flea Bitten Dawgs!
Improve your skills with these workshops hosted by The Flea Bitten Dawgs, a band who describe themselves as “ukulele jazz Americana!” The fee is $30 per workshop, or you can attend all three for $60:
- Plays Well with Others (10:00 a.m.): This workshop is created to help a group of players playing the same instruments to sound exciting to an audience. The challenge is to become a group with individuals playing separate parts of a song. We’ll break into different groups, with each group learning their section of the arrangement, and we’ll then put it all together to create the song.
- Finding Your Inner Chord (11:30 a.m.): This workshop is about think of chords as sounds instead of a form on the neck. You’ll learn how to make your songs interesting and how to get away from the habit of just strumming through a song. If you write songs, you’ll find a better voice for your chord progressions. While this is not a class about theory, we will touch on the basics of chord construction.
- Percussion Workshop (1:00 p.m.): Explore how different beats give a song its character. Learn how beats move the music and engage better with the audience. We’ll start with basic rhythms and work into more complex ones. Our goal is to move away from strumming four beats to a measure and dig into the structure of the song. While this is a percussion workshop, you can use this knowledge with any instrument you play. We recommend you bring a shaker, or small hand drum, but tapping on your ukulele will work. This workshop comes with take-home lesson sheets.
Register for any or all of the workshops here.
The Flea Bitten Dawgs are:
- David Henry Spangler on ukulele and lead vocal,
- Thom Pallozola on lead ukulele and vocals, and
- Lee Kram on percussion and vocals.
Their song list crosses ten decades of music. They mix originals in with the covers they love. One of Thom’s songs was recorded by Supe Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and two of David’s songs were recorded by the group for the Narrow Boat Sessions, Great Britain’s premier folk music organization. PBS produced a segment of Thom’s involvement with the ukulele which featured The Flea Bitten Dawgs.
Raffles!
You can buy raffle tickets — $5 each or 5 for $20 — to win one of the following:
- Ukuleles!
- a $100 gift certificate to Pisces Sushi Bistro
- Two tickets to Jake Shimabukuro’s show at the Capitol Theatre on April 14th
Accordions and beer!
And of course, I’ll be there, with a couple of accordions, playing first at Dunedin Brewery from 11:30 until about 2 or 2:30, then at Pioneer Park around 4:30. Join me!
