PebbleCreek Ukulele Club members at the Glendale Folk Festival with the winners of the hula contest (photo by Jim Mitchell)
Gillian Driscoll
For the fourth time, the PebbleCreek Ukulele Club performed at the Glendale Folk Festival on March 1. The festival is held annually at the Historic Sahuaro Ranch park in Glendale and features many musical acts on multiple stages. The festival is free and lasts for two days.
The Ukulele Club has been well received at the festival in the past and members were looking forward to repeating their performance this year. However, this year was particularly challenging because of the strong winds and blowing dust. Like true professionals however, club members hung on to their ukuleles, tied down their music, and played and sang their hearts out.
Earlier in the day the club gave a workshop on the Hawaiian strum and the hula. Our resident hula girl, Irene Manilli, taught some volunteers to hula and a prize was given to the winner … a very brave guy! Irene has performed the hula for us at all our appearances at the festival, and she is a great teacher.
This year’s performance featured a duet from Karin Andrews and Jim Miller on the song “Wagon Wheel” with Alex Cacciarelli on the banjo. It was a great day for Alex as it was his birthday. With Brenda Petersen on the stand up bass, the group produced a rich melodic sound and the audience was able to sing along with some familiar songs. A shoutout must go to the two Jims: Jim Miller, our band director, and Jim Mitchell, our technical support as well as a performer. Without these two our performances and our jams would not be so enjoyable.