Whitcomb, Ian Uke Ballads: A Treasury of Twenty-Five Love Songs Old and New Book/CD

In this wonderful collection Ian Whitcomb shows how to handle the uke in such a romantic way that the gently murmuring strums emerge to act as a sweet stream of accompaniment upon which one's vocals can float along smoothly and pleasingly. The music on the companion compact disc is performed by Ian Whitcomb and his various bands and orchestras. The music is written in standard notation with chord symbols and fretboard diagrams for soprano or tenor uke in standard (G-C-E-A) tuning. Lyrics are also included.

Ian Whitcomb, born in England in 1941, has performed popular songs since childhood. In his late teens, he discovered ragtime and rhythm & blues. While he was a history major at Trinity College, Dublin in the early 1960s, he studied, wrote about, and played American pop music. By chance, his recording of a novelty songs he'd written, "You Turn Me On," shot him into the American Top Ten in 1965. After touring with the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, he abandoned his career as a teen idol to concentrate on researching and performing ragtime and the music of Tin Pan Alley. The end result has been a flood of creative energy, producing a number of books, recordings, documentaries, and concerts. He has played everywhere, from the Hollywood Bowl and the Montreux Jazz Festival to shopping malls and private homes. He has contributed, on record and sheet music, his own rags and songs in the grand old Alley tradition. He was even allowed to perform on The Tonight Show, Today, and Tom Snyder. For over a decade, he spread the "word" in Southern California with his singing wife Regina.