While My Ukulele Gently Weeps

...And the Gina goes to...

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

I have always loved this song...hauntingly beautiful when George Harrison originally wrote and performed it.

There's something about it when performed acoustically, however, that seems to intensify the emotion. The ukulele seems to "weep" even more expressively than guitar, exquisitely singing the anguish in every note. This performance elicits chills and tears from me. It touches my soul!

I encountered this musician, Jake Shimabukuro, performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Now, anyone who knows my schedule knows that I am not/should not be up that late. And really, I wasn't. I've recently adopted the habit of cuddling up in my chair in the living room around 10 P.M. with the TV on and Scott and his laptop on the couch. I fall asleep for a couple hours there before dragging myself up to bed. That's exactly what happened Tuesday night. I was SOUND asleep...dead to the world...positively zonkered...

Around 12:30 I was lulled awake by achingly sweet notes singing softly in my ears.

I groped around for my glasses. At first I was unsure what I was hearing, so I wanted to see... A ukulele is a "funny" instrument to me...Tiny Tim Tiptoeing Through The Tulips and all... Certainly the music that was speaking to my heart wasn't coming from an instrument that should be used in a vaudeville act...

But it was. And I was blown away.

It is my humble opinion that - with few exceptions - it is difficult to appreciate a cover of a song you already love. They often come off like a pale impersonation of the original. Sometimes they are so different that they lose the essence of what was admirable about the original. It is a real talent to take a great song and reinterpret it...make it your own without disregarding its original spirit.

Jake and his magic ukulele has done this with While My Guitar Gently Weeps. He has breathed new life into a beloved old friend.

Jake does the Greatest Song Ever Written a great honor here.