Ukuleles for Everybody

When a press release with the name “Ladies Auxiliary Ukulele Orchestra” crosses your desk, you have to investigate. After all, it’s not often ukuleles are heard in the Northwest Corner, let alone a whole orchestra of them. Bernice Lewis, cofounder of the “LAUO,” along with Catherine Schane-Lydon and Amy Rose, says there’s been a “huge renaissance” of interest in the petite instrument. She points to a recent Time magazine article about how the ukulele seems to thrive in depression periods. The LAUO began on a whim with the three musicians in 1994. Then Rose married and moved to England, and the group lay low for a while. Then a few years ago, the two found another uke player, Sarah McNair, and the LAUO came back to life, performing regularly throughout this region. The band’s website (www.ladiesauxiliaryukuleleorchestra.com) calls their music “ukulele mayhem.” Lewis, who has had a successful career as a singer-songwriter and educator for more than three decades and now lives in Williamstown, says with a laugh, “We’re more organized now.” The band plays “unusual arrangements of an eclectic mix of covers,” she says including Sting and David Bowie, Radiohead and old standards, as well as some original songs mainly written by Lewis. Tight harmonies, jaunty rhythms, and a healthy dose of humor remind me of The Roches, albeit with that unmistakably sweet and mellow ukulele sound. The LAUO will be at Dewey Memorial Hall in Sheffield this Saturday, part of a “Dewey Hall Folk Series” that itself has been running for three years. The hall is a historic Victorian building of fieldstone, marble, and shingle, with “magnificent acoustics,” says Priscilla Cote, president of the board. The set-up is café style, with refreshments served. And now, for the added bonus, the musicians bring extra ukuleles and hand them out to audience members for a “uke-in” toward the end of the concert. “After all,” Lewis says, “we are an orchestra.” And some instruments will be provided by a couple who make the famous “Fluke” ukulele — and have just moved to, where else, Sheffield! Ladies Auxiliary Ukulele Orchestra will perform May 7, 7:30 p.m., at Dewey Memorial Hall, on the Green in Sheffield, MA. For information, go to www.deweyhall.org.