Joe Judd
on Banjo Ukelele
Joe secretly started playing around with his mother's ukulele when he was in fifth grade and was surprised that she didn't get really mad at him when he painted it with oil paints, white drips into blue water. She was just happy that he was interested in art and music. He enjoyed all the jazz standards, tin-pan alley and Broadway tunes that mom would share with him, but the campy old Haole Hawaiian numbers were definitely his favorites. (he loved the images these tunes conjured up for me of vaudeville songsmiths writing about a mythical tropical paradise that they obviously never visited). Joe lived for a couple of years on Maui in the late 70's and later lived on Kauai in the 90's. Joe just couldn't get enough Hawaiian music with its liquid steel guitar, gentle uke and mellow harmonies takes one to a tranquil place like nothing else