The album will soon be here...Nobody Cares

I can't wait! For the first time in years I will finally have a decent album of my solo stuff to spread among the people! I send everything off today to the printing company in Anchorage. I am so stoked to have fresh tracks I recorded all by myself and with some help from Sunnyside Studios in Fairbanks they are now mastered and ready to be sent out to get printed. This has been a long time coming and I'm happy it is going to come together right before I leave state for Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia!

In Alaska we use 1980's technology...

Well... I think I will let this video speak for itself. We get the hand me down video production equipment from Russia. That's right... we can see it from here.

This is part of my "Cheese Series". Thanks BizBuzz productions for letting me rock on the green screen! Fun time. Enjoy the "Cheese Series". Some choice one takes from the green room. Literally. It was a green room. A green room full of awesomeness.

This video can only smell like one of two things; bad feet or good cheese. I believe it is the latter.

Desperado

For some strange reason recently I felt compelled to learn the song Desperado by the Eagles. It is because I wanted to sing it. I thought long and hard until I could smell the rubber burning and realized that you could actually play this song on a ukulele with the chords and the melody at the same time. So I got down to it. Low and behold I think I finally got something close. Like I said I don't know why, but something inside of me told me I needed to learn this song.

Perhaps it was meeting Timothy Schmidt on my way back from Australia last year. I don't know. Regardless... here it is.

New Vids!

Just got around to uploading a bunch of new vids from TV and festival appearances on the old Youtube Channel. Here is y favorite. The City by the River! I absolutely love the screen shot that youtube has chosen for this video. This is classic Ukulele Russ. Sometimes the faces I make even make me cringe, but that is how I make the funny noises. Sometimes you just have to make strange facial expressions to make your hands and voice do what you tell them to do.

Hope everyone enjoys the video! I will blog about the rest of them as the days go on!

First Show back from tour @ The Higher Calling

Come rock with me at my first show back from tour here in the great land right in downtown Fairbanks at the borough's most infamous spot, The Higher Calling. Infamous for no reason other than the man doesn't want you to go there, enjoy their space, or exercise the rights that we have voted into law last year. They have been threatened with fines and intimidation, but they are still rocking and I will be rocking my first one man ukulele band set Fairbanks has seen! Tested on the road for the last month I do believe now it is time to unveil it for the home crowd!

Hope you enjoy my horrible promo for the show. Remember, do what the mouths tell you to do.

Squarebanks - 27 hours later

It is good to be back. After hours on a plane in a section full of infants screaming, 17 hours of layovers, and endless amounts of tomato juice (it's just what I drink on planes -- don't judge) the wife and I finally made it back to Fairbanks. I don't care how cold it is when I first walk outside (it wasn't bad at all this time -- Alaskans for Global Warming) and the cold air hits your face. I love it.

SEATAC has to be me my least favorite airport. I always seem to roll in as they are closing everything and after ordering food we get hurried out of the bar. There isn't a good place out of the bright lights to sleep. Also having this alarm go off nearby for HOURS didn't help. Glad Security was all over it.  I just felt bad for the guy you invented that most awesome airport creation. The king sized airport bench bed. Hats off to you my friend. Too bad the alarm was going off right next to you.

Happy New Year!

Me making my second appearance on the 207 TV show in Portland, Maine. Can't wait to come back and do it again!

Tyson Davis of the Blackwater Railroad Company

 Happy new year everyone! A successful East Coast tour! Thanks to everyone who made it possible! I can't wait to come down again toward the end of 2016 for another go at the most populated portion of the Unite States. This was my test tour for my one man band and it went AWESOME!

Check out my TV appearance from the beginning of the tour!

THE ONE MAN UKULELE BAND -- On Maine Television!

RIFF JOHNSON!!!

Here are some highlights from the trip!  And what a long strange trip it has been! 1500+ miles, holiday traffic screwing my life up, sleeping in the car, on farms, in slums, and the whole rainbow of wild characters. I love the road and the states are such a great place to see such a wide variety of places and people. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Love me the U.S. and the South East is starting to grow on me. Now only if we could get rid of the ticks...

Victoria Vox and I @ Live in the Lobby in Baltimore, MD. 

It was fun hitting up Baltimore and visiting / playing at Victoria Vox's ukulele meet up. It is always a good time to see colleagues and play for their peoples.

Now I am finishing up the last few days in Florida relaxing with family and friends before my annoyingly long flights and layovers back to the great land. Some plans are all ready in the works for my return trip to the east coast for more rocking this upcoming fall, post Alaskan moose season of course. It is kind of a life rule for me not to leave the frontier while the sun and the nice temperatures are still abundant. Plus, there is nothing like the quest to fill the freezer with healthy, lean, non human made hormone infested meat. Yum. It is the right way to live. My opinion. Can't wait to get back and take some much needed time off and then get back to the grind before I head overseas to play shows in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia. I can't wait to headline the Sunshine Coast Ukulele Festival with some of my favorite ukulele acts. I pinch myself everyday to make sure I'm not dreaming.