Artists
Jack & The Vox
Ukulele-toting-mouth-trumpeting-songster Victoria Vox and guitar-slinging-singing-jokester Jack Maher reconnected 18 years after first meeting at the Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA). Both established performers in their own right, the moniker Jack & the Vox was almost too good to be true! Since eloping in 2016, the two have been writing and performing together in between their own gigs. Stylistically it’s a bit Americana, jazz, folk, and pop, but really, there are no boundaries. Both hold degrees in Songwriting from Berklee and have the passion for making music. In 2019, the two carved out 6 weeks together to tour the East Coast (US), Canada, Czech Republic, the U.K., and Germany, just a few months before being confined to their home during the Coronavirus pandemic. The two took to the internet performing a series of shows called “the Best Medicine Show”, which they have filmed a total of 151 episodes to date.
For more information and links to music, please visit: jackandthevox.com
The Aloha Boys
Thirty years ago, the then very young daughters of The Aloha Boys began to study hula. A Halau or Hawaiian cultural school was established to meet that goal. Musicians were asked to provide live music for classes.
The three of us discovered that we loved each other’s company and that we thoroughly enjoyed playing all kinds of music together. Thus, The Aloha Boys we born.
Michael August
Musician and class instructor Michael August attributes his flexible style to his lifelong interest in the many forms of music he enjoys. Mostly self-taught, his journey into the world of playing began with a simple purchase of a harmonica to occupy himself during his long drives. Along the way Michael mastered playing the guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, bass, and ukulele. Over the years Michael has moved effortlessly in the worlds of playing folk, americana, blue grass, gospel, and Delta blues.
His approachable style enables him to be at home performing center stage or accompanying other musicians, or instructing at ukulele festivals. Recently Michael has conducted harmonica and slide uke classes at some of the most popular ukulele gatherings in the Eastern US, including Brown County Uke Fest, Funky Frets, Tampa Bay Uke Fest and Gaithersburg Ukulele Festival. The formats of his classes engage and entertain along the way, introducing attendees to new and surprising musical experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelAugust
Ray Cygrymus
Ray has taught elementary school music for over thirty years, most recently specializing in ukulele instruction in the classroom. He has lived in the Pittsburgh area his entire life, and attended Duquesne University where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education, with an emphasis on voice. Ray has performed in many musicals and plays with theaters throughout the Pittsburgh area and has fronted many rock bands where he was the lead singer and played various instruments.
Over this past year, Ray was honored to be a featured performer and workshop instructor at TBUG and a performer at the Brown County Ukulele Festival.
Ray’s goal is to share his knowledge and experience to influence other ukulele players to look at their instrument in a different way by gaining knowledge of different techniques, expanding new skill sets, and effectively using sound effects. Ray hopes to continue to grow, entertain, inspire, and educate the world on the beauty and diversity of this spectacular little instrument that brings people together in such a big way!
YouTube@SURFN-RZ / Facebook@surfn-rz
Kirk Jones
Kirk Jones is a semi-professional “FUNsician” who teaches and performs in and around the Huntsville, Alabama area as well as the South East.
Orangutan Or Lion is a slogan he uses to describe himself because he loves being goofy and having fun like an Orangutan but, can also muster up the courage, like a lion, to pull on your heartstrings.
He is the founder of Ukulele Gatherings Of North Alabama Facebook group and helps to book traveling Ukulele artists for performances and workshops, when they come through town.
https://www.youtube.com/@kirkjones-orangutanorlion
Sharla Rae
For Sharla Wiens (also known as SharlaRaePlays) singing and music have always been a source of community, inspiration and beauty and a means of sharing a range of emotions from exuberant joy to heartbreak to wonder and awe.
It all started harmonising with her sisters while doing the dishes and mimicking her favourite artists on the local radio station. With over 30 years experience, Sharla has been a principle soloist, has lead multiple church bands, toured with Canadian ministry group Lost & Found, performed with Gospel Music Association of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Connie Scott, opened for Dr James Dobson and has performed on the longest running Canadian television program 100 Huntley Street.
Sharla, received an ukulele for her 50th birthday. She was so intimidated to learn her first instrument that it sat collecting dust for two years. Finally, with encouragement from her family and friends, the help of YouTube play-a-longs and a class at the local Niagara-on-the-Lake Ukesters group, she picked it up and found a new way to express her heart through music and song.
When she’s not in the barn on the family peach farm, Sharla can be found making music on various social media platforms, at markets, parties and events, you’ll catch her leading that very same local uke group… ….and she still harmonises with her sisters.
Webb-Tigert
Ok, y’all: this is NOT background music for a corporate luau or a re-hash of Tip Toe Thru The Tulips. Lisa Webb and Bob Tigert are seasoned Nashville pros, both for LIVE gigs and in recording studios, who are playing Americana, country, rock and roll, R&B, jazz, blues and more…, using an assortment of ukuleles (huh?!?!?) in amazing and engaging ways.
They write much of their material (and they write REALLY well!); and their performances as they travel across the United States have been glowingly described in national media as “awesome,” “compelling,” and “a force to be reckoned with,” and they have been written up as “genuinely nice people.’ Their first album together (who can count how many records they have appeared on, individually?), The Webb-Tigert Ukulele Duo, was released in March, 2023, at an international ukulele festival, and audiences and artists from around the globe started playing, singing and recording their songs immediately.
Unique, groove-based, intricate, polished, beautiful, funky – it all applies. Webb-Tigert just might be your new favorite group.
