Atwater Village

Christine, Mary Jo, Brit

Last Saturday I zoomed over to Atwater Village.  Atwater is just past the Los Feliz area of L.A., but before Glendale, bordering Griffith Park.  What was once a sketchy neighborhood has gentrified over the years and become a charming enclave.  There are tons of restaurants, shops and historic homes in the area.  My ukulele group, the Pluckin' Strummers meets on the second and fourth Saturday of the month at Christ's Church on Edenhurst Avenue.  Even though Atwater is about 15 miles from home, on a Saturday morning it only takes about 15-20 minutes to get there.  No traffic.  Thank you.

This Saturday, Christine joined us.  She's a new uke player, but she held her own on the singing!  Brit and Mary Jo were both strumming their new-ish ukuleles.  Mary Jo was GIFTED with this beautiful little Martin uke...probably from the 1920's.  It's in great shape and sounds very sweet.  Brit recently bought a Kamaka uke.  It's the top-of-the-line uke nowadays.  I expect to see both Mary Jo and Brit performing at some exclusive parlour soirée soon!

Mary Jo's vintage Martin Uke

Our song book is "The Daily Ukulele, Leap Year Edition."  The song list for the morning was good...heavy on hits from the 1960's, which is fine with me.  At least I know what each song is SUPPOSED to sound like.  We start out with easier, 3-chord songs.  The tunes get progressively more difficult with speedy chord changes and difficult chord configurations as the morning advances.  If only I would practice a bit between sessions!

Ukesters

I was mentally exhausted after group.  We needed sustenance.  The four of us hopped in my car and we drove over to Indochine Restaurant.   We had a lovely lunch of pho, bhan mi and more.  Thanks for a great day, my Ukulele Ladies!