Bruner Blog

Normally, I don’t post UkeTube videos of instrumentalists, as I’m a singer/strummer myself. (Which reminds me, Joe Strummer of Clash fame got his start in music during his hippie youth busking on the streets of London with a ukulele, a factoid I picked up in the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten.)

But, I do keep track of hot ladies of ukulele, and Brittni Paiva qualifies. She’s cute and she’s a shreader on the uke, as this terrific rendition of Over the Rainbow attests.

SweetAfton23 is back with an original!

Bosko & Honey are too cute for words. Add to that uke virtuosity, and they may well be the reigning strummers of the Southern Hemisphere (based in Australia, such that they are). Unfortunately, they don’t include the name of this song in the clip.

Curiously, it appears they borrowed their name from some 1930s cartoon characters I’ve never heard of.

Last night I was looking for a uke performance of Crazy, and instead I found this wonderful performance of a song I’d never heard of called “Tom Cruise Crazy.” Everything about this clip is fabulous: the performer’s ineffable adorableness; her seemingly effortless uke chops; her star-in-waiting voice, and the song’s hilarious lyrics. The song is not hers but that of another talent I’d never heard of before, Jonathan Coulton. I haven’t explored the rest of the guy’s catalog yet, but I look forward to doing so.

The performer, Sweetafton23, tells us relatively little about herself on her UkeTube profile, aside from that she lives in the LA area. In response to my gushing comment on another of her song posts, she replied with a few details: she is indeed a bewitching temptress; no, she’s not a professional performer; no, she’s not planning any NYC gigs in the near future, and, worst of all, no, I can’t bear her children anytime soon (she did leave the window for hope, though!). (That last line I think I’m over-playing lately. But, you see it’s funny because I’m a man, so I can’t actually bear children. Right?)

UPDATE: Yikes! I’m old and creepy! I am suddenly and completely cured of my crush on Sweetafton23 when I came to the conclusion last night, after Googling up on her a bit, that this delightful little talent is something like 17 years old! I found posts where she was talking about looking forward to getting her driver’s license! Aaaaaaaa! Now I have to focus my obsession on my jealous awe at her ukey genius.

A friend crashing at my place for a few days suggests I start a site HotLadiesofUkulele.com. My ticket to fortune, perhaps? There are actually quite a number of them, but not to take anything away from Sweetafton23, I’ll save other links for later posts. Meanwhile, I’ll make that a new tag.