“ By that time, I was pretty active on some of the social media, making YouTube videos on the ukulele forums,” Hater said.“ So we had friends helping us out, buying ukuleles almost from the first week. We got a little traction and here we are about nine years later.”
The network led to something called the“ World Ukulele Congress,” a gathering of uke enthusiasts from across the country and literally around the globe.
“ The Congress— this will be number eight this year— has gotten bigger and bigger, and it’ s a free party,” Hater said.“ The ukulele people are fantastic. We have people come from as far away as Australia. One guy comes from Paris, France almost every year. We always have at least a half dozen international people. One girl comes from Alaska. We always have a few Canadians and lots of people from the West Coast. It really brings a lot of people to Brown County.”
“ Everybody’ s really supportive. It’ s just a good time.”
Although we think of Hawaii when we think of the ukulele( a word which may mean‘ jumping flea’ in Hawaiian) the original ukulele was based on a Portuguese instrument called the braguinha and built by expatriate sugar cane workers in the 1880s. The cheery sound of the pineapple-sized instrument soon conquered the Sandwich Islands, infecting even the Royal family, so that visitors to the paradisiacal islands carried it with them wherever they went.
By 1915, the flea had jumped to U. S. soil, making an appearance at the Panama-Pacific International
Ukulele World Congress flash mob at the Nashville courthouse, 2015. photo by Cindy Steele
Exposition in San Francisco, where it was a huge hit and launched a wave of ukulele fever across the mainland.
Vaudeville quickly embraced this amusing marvel, which had the ability to carry well in a large noisy concert hall before amplification, and took it to many new places. In the 1920s numerous musical companies began making ukuleles including Martin, Regal, Harmony, and Gibson.
Soldiers returning from the Pacific theater after WW II set off a second wave of ukulele popularity in the 1940s and 50s. Millions of ukuleles were produced and sold and stars like Arthur Godfrey, George Formby, Roy Smeck, and“ Ukulele Ike” entertained the nation.
Then came the Sixties, and the ukulele kind of dropped out of sight, emerging only recently with a new wave of ukulele mania here in America and across the world.
With the advent of the Internet and 21 st Century media like the YouTube, a new era of ukes is dawning, a crazy, topsy-turvy world where people are playing rock, reggae, blues, bluegrass and punk on the ukulele.
< UkuleleUnderground. com > and other web spots have created a new outlet for ukulele fanatics everywhere.
The World Ukulele Congress is officially Friday and Saturday, but the players love it so much, people start showing up a week ahead of time.
“ By Tuesday, there’ re about 200 people,” Hater said.“ It’ s lots of fun. It’ s got a great vibe and I want to keep that vibe.”
For that reason, Hater and his Congress want to keep the party focused on the instrument, and not on people who“ just want to come out and get wasted.”
“ It’ s a hoot,” Hater said.“ I’ ve got very few rules. We have an open mic and everybody gets two songs. It doesn’ t matter how good or how bad you are. It’ s just really fun.”
“ I think we had more or less 800 people last year. It’ s cool. And it is seriously, maybe one of the biggest ukulele events in the world, but certainly the best ukulele party in the world.”
The Mainland Ukuleles shop can be found online at < mainlandukuleles. com >. •
May / June 2016 • Our Brown County 63