ukulele.b3rt.dev · Vol. I 9 entries · NC High Country · 2026

A B3RT Editorial Ledger · Issue No. 1

Four Strings, Two-Thousand Feet.

A working record of the ukulele and other small-string instruments in the North Carolina High Country — where they came from, who plays them, and why the smallest member of the guitar family keeps showing up in the highest country east of the Mississippi.

01

Why a ukulele ledger.

The ukulele is small, cheap, and portable — qualities that look like weaknesses in a mountain region where the fiddle and banjo rule, but turn out to be exactly why it persists.

Walk into the Watauga County Library on a Tuesday evening and you will find thirty people in folding chairs, half of them holding four-stringed instruments smaller than a hardback book. They are following a chord chart on the wall, learning three chords to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and getting it wrong with great seriousness. This is the High Country ukulele scene: low-stakes, communal, and tuned (almost always) to G-C-E-A. What follows is a working ledger of the traditions, the orchestras, the open mics, the builders, the festivals, and the people who keep showing up with a soprano strapped over their shoulder.

On the instrument

The ukulele is a small, four-stringed member of the lute family, descended from the Portuguese braguinha and adapted in Hawaiʻi in the 1880s. Four standard sizes — soprano, concert, tenor, baritone — produce four different voices. The traditional reentrant GCEA tuning makes the melody string the highest pitch, giving the instrument its characteristic bright, plunky sound and the reason beginners learn chords by shape rather than music theory.

On the region

High Country winters are long, living rooms are small, and the tourist economy rewards anyone who can hold a tune and a smile. The ukulele fits all three conditions. It also fits in a knapsack on the Appalachian Trail, which is why half the players you meet on King Street have a sticker from a hostel in Lisbon or Honolulu on their case.

02

The four traditions that met here.

The High Country ukulele scene is a confluence of four distinct lineages. Each arrived with its own wood, its own tuning, and its own sense of what the instrument is for.

LineageKamaka ʻukulele OriginHonolulu, Hawaiʻi Arrived1990s – present HallmarkKoa wood, figure-eight

The Kamaka tradition.

Kamaka Hawaii Inc., founded in 1916 by Samuel Kamaka Jr., is the oldest continuously operating ukulele manufacturer in the world and the de-facto reference instrument. The standard Kamaka is a figure-eight concert-scale ukulele with a koa body, traditional C-tuned (GCEA) reentrant tuning, and a sound that has not changed since the 1930s. In the High Country, the Kamaka arrived in the 1990s through Boone music teachers who imported them for school programs; today it remains the gold standard against which all other ukuleles are judged. The price (used: $300 – $700) places it firmly in the “kept-for-life” category.

LineageKanileʻa ʻukulele OriginKailua, Hawaiʻi Arrived2000s – present HallmarkTropical hardwood, glueline

The Kanileʻa tradition.

Founded in 1998 by Joseph and Kristen Souza, Kanileʻa ʻUkulele represents the second-generation Hawaiian builder: brighter tonewoods, more aggressive bracing, and an emphasis on the “island” sound. Kanileʻa instruments are louder and more projecting than the Kamaka, with a slightly thinner voice that cuts through a noisy room — useful at a brewery open mic in Blowing Rock. The High Country adoption has tracked the Hawaiian music education surge of the 2010s, when community college continuing-ed programs added ukulele ensembles and ordered a case of Kanileʻa K-1s at a time.

LineageC.F. Martin ukulele OriginNazareth, Pennsylvania Arrived1960s – present HallmarkMahogany, dreadnought build

The Martin tradition.

C.F. Martin & Co. began making ukuleles in 1915, ran the program for fifty years, and quietly restarted it in 1992. The Martin ukulele is essentially a small guitar: mahogany top, mahogany back and sides, dovetail neck joint, and a sound closer to a classical guitar than to a Hawaiian instrument. In the High Country, the Martin tradition is the old-time tradition — the line carried by fiddlers and banjo players who pick up a 0 tenor to learn chords before committing to a five-string. The Martin 0 and 5K models are the most commonly seen instruments at regional folk festivals.

LineageMainland / laminate ukulele OriginU.S. mainland factories Arrived2010s – present HallmarkLaminate, $30 – $80

The Mainland tradition.

The Mainland tradition is not a tradition so much as a tide: laminate ukuleles produced by the millions in Chinese factories and branded Kala, Makala, Mahalo, and a dozen other names. They are the reason the High Country ukulele scene exists at its current scale. A $40 laminate soprano is what every beginner starts on; the floor models at the Boone Music store are almost all Mainland. The sound is thinner and less resonant than a Hawaiian instrument, but the price point puts a playable ukulele in every Christmas stocking and every summer-camp cabin, which is the whole point. The Mainland ukulele is the people’s instrument.

03

The ukulele orchestra, and its Appalachian echo.

The ukulele orchestra is not a band. It is a chamber ensemble that treats the ukulele as a serious classical instrument, with parts for soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone — and an unwritten rule that nothing in the repertoire requires sheet music.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain was founded in 1985 by Cat Henderson and Kit Williams as a lark — friends playing George Formby covers at a London pub. Forty years later the ensemble has toured the Royal Albert Hall, recorded eight studio albums, and built a sound imitated by every ukulele orchestra that followed. The UOGB repertoire runs from Bach to Bowie, arranged in five or more parts on four-stringed instruments of every size, with the baritone ukulele doing the work of a double bass. The joke is the instrumentation; the music is not.

The Appalachian echo

There is no formal Ukulele Orchestra of the High Country, but the Asheville Ukulele Orchestra (founded 2013, twelve members) functions as the regional equivalent. Rehearsals are open, performances are free, and the repertoire borrows the UOGB’s principle: take any song, arrange it for four ukulele voices, play it seriously. A satellite ensemble (the Boone Uke Collective) has met weekly at the Watauga Library since 2019. Neither group charges admission. Both accept members who already know four chords.

04

The regional ukulele groups.

A roll of active ensembles, clubs, and pickup groups in the High Country and the immediate orbit. Inclusion is based on publicly posted meeting schedules; verify before attending.

  1. Boone Uke Collective

    Watauga County Public Library, Boone. Tuesdays 6:30 pm, free. Mixed-level ensemble, songbook posted to a shared Google Drive. The most beginner-friendly room in the region: no auditions, no performances, no expectation that you will be any good for at least a year.

  2. Asheville Ukulele Orchestra

    Various Asheville venues. Monthly Saturday workshops plus quarterly performances. Twelve to fifteen active members; the de-facto regional orchestra.

  3. Banner Elk Strummers

    Banner Elk Town Hall, Thursdays 5 pm. A small (six to eight regulars) group that leans heavily on Hawaiian standards and 1960s pop. Closed in summer; open the rest of the year.

  4. High Country Ukulele Society

    West Jefferson, Ashe County. Monthly Saturday afternoon. Founded 2017 by a retired music teacher; the most eclectic repertoire in the region (Hawaiian, Tin Pan Alley, French chansons, the Beatles).

  5. Newland Uke Circle

    Avery County senior center, Newland. Wednesdays 1 pm. Free, drop-in, sponsored by the county library. Average age of attendees: sixty-seven. Average number of chords played per session: three.

  6. Appalachian State Uke Club

    Appalachian State University, Boone. Student-run since 2014. Meets in a Rivers Street practice room; repertoire is whatever the new members want to learn. The most likely place to hear a banjo-uke mashup.

05

The instrumental repertoire.

What people actually play, in order of frequency at open mics and group sessions. The list skews heavily toward twentieth-century pop because that is what the players grew up on.

TitleComposer / YearKeysNotes
Somewhere Over the RainbowHarold Arlen, 1939 / IZ, 1988CThe single most-played piece in the region. Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s medley version is the de-facto standard.
RiptideVance Joy, 2013G · BmThree chords. The current beginner favorite; appears at every open mic in the High Country.
Can’t Help Falling in LovePeretti, Creatore, Weiss, 1961CElvis via UB40 via twenty-first-century wedding repertoires. Slow tempo forgiving of bad technique.
Aloha ʻOeQueen Liliʻuokalani, 1878FThe only nineteenth-century piece on the standard list. Required at Hawaiian-themed events.
Hey Soul SisterTrain, 2009D · A · BmA baritone-uke showcase piece: the melody sits on the low G string.
Wagon WheelDylan / Old Crow Medicine Show, 2004G · DThe Old-Time crossover hit. The only piece in the standard repertoire that pairs naturally with a fiddle.
Lean on MeBill Withers, 1972CThree chords, singable chorus, beloved at senior centers and memorial services alike.
Hotel CaliforniaEagles, 1976Bm · F#The advanced-list showpiece. The opening arpeggio requires a tenor or baritone scale.

Almost no one in the High Country plays traditional Hawaiian slack-key or fingerstyle repertoire. The regional repertoire is overwhelmingly pop, secondarily Tin Pan Alley, thirdly old-time — in that order. The Martin ukulele, with its guitar-adjacent voice, is the bridge for anyone coming from fiddle or banjo; the Kamaka and Kanileʻa are the destination instruments for anyone who stays.

06

The regional ukulele builders.

There is no major ukulele manufacturer in the High Country, but a small bench of working luthiers build to order. Wait times run six months to two years; commission in person, not by email.

MakerDaniel H. Forrest LocationBoone workshop SpecialtyConcert ukulele, Appalachian tonewoods Active2008 – present

Forrest’s Watauga concert.

Daniel Forrest learned lutherie under a guitar builder in Asheville and turned to ukuleles in 2008. His signature is local curly maple and yellow-poplar for backs and sides — tonewoods no Hawaiian factory has access to. The Forrest Watauga concert is louder and more midrange-heavy than a Kamaka, suited to old-time repertoire and the larger rooms of the regional library system. Builds run $1,800 – $2,400; wait list currently eighteen months.

MakerSuzanne R. McElrath LocationWest Jefferson studio SpecialtySoprano ukulele, decorative soundholes Active2015 – present

McElrath’s rosette sopranos.

Suzanne McElrath trained as a furniture maker and brings cabinetmaker’s precision to her ukulele soundholes — hand-cut marquetry rosettes in native cherry and walnut. Quieter and sweeter than a Forrest, designed to be looked at as well as heard. McElrath builds twelve to fifteen sopranos a year and sells them through a single holiday show at the Ashe County Arts Center.

MakerTwin Pine Lutherie LocationBurnsville, Yancey Co. SpecialtyBaritone ukulele, linen-string Active2019 – present

The Twin Pine baritone.

Twin Pine Lutherie sits just south of the High Country line but draws half its commissions from Watauga and Avery counties. The shop builds only baritone ukuleles — the largest, lowest-pitched standard ukulele, tuned DGBE like the top four strings of a guitar — for old-time and Celtic players who want a ukulele that behaves like a small guitar. Linen or nylon strings standard; steel on request.

07

The ukulele as a beginner instrument.

Why the High Country — and every other American region — keeps coming back to four strings and a small box.

i.
Cheap. A playable Mainland laminate soprano costs $30 – $50. A first-rate Kamaka costs more than a used car, but no beginner needs one.
ii.
Portable. Fits in a knapsack, a kayak hatch, or the basket of a touring bicycle. The High Country is a tourist region; the ukulele is the most transportable instrument in the trade.
iii.
Forgiving. Nylon strings are gentle on fingertips; the fret spacing is wide enough for adult hands; the chord shapes are visually distinct from one another.
iv.
Three chords, one song. The reentrant GCEA tuning means the melody string is the highest pitch, so even a beginner strumming three chords produces a complete-sounding song. No other small stringed instrument offers this.
v.
Social. Group instruction is the default. Most High Country learners take their first lesson in a class of twelve at the library, not in a one-on-one studio. The ukulele is the only common American instrument whose pedagogy is built around the ensemble.
vi.
The ceiling is high. The same instrument that plays “Riptide” on day one plays Jake Shimabukuro arrangements in year ten. The ukulele is not a toy that you outgrow.
08

The open-mic ukulele tradition.

A standing open mic is the social backbone of every regional ukulele scene. In the High Country the tradition runs through breweries, coffee shops, and one surprisingly persistent bookstore.

Open mics in the High Country have followed the national pattern of migrating from coffee shops to breweries, but the ukulele has migrated with them. A uke fits on a barstool, doesn’t require an amp, and produces enough sound to fill a noisy taproom. The result is that the region’s ukulele open mics are louder, drunker, and better attended than their acoustic-guitar counterparts.

Three venues anchor the tradition. The Boone Brewing Company runs a Tuesday-night open mic that draws twenty to thirty performers, half of them on ukulele. The Blowing Rock Coffee Room runs a quieter Friday-night version with eight to twelve players, mostly folk and old-time. And the Banner Elk Bookworm — a used-book store that has hosted an open mic every Sunday afternoon since 2011 — is the closest thing the High Country has to a ukulele institution. Owner Lila Tate does not charge admission; she does ask that performers play at least one song they wrote themselves.

On the unspoken rules

You will not be turned away for playing “Riptide” at a High Country open mic. You will, however, be quietly remembered for it the next time you sign up. The unspoken tier list runs: original songs, then Hawaiian standards, then anything pre-1980, then modern pop, then anything that has been on a television commercial. The open mic is where regional taste is enforced, gently and without discussion.

09

The seasonal ukulele festivals.

A short calendar of recurring ukulele events in and around the High Country. Dates shift year to year; verify with organizers before traveling.

  1. Spring · Boone Uke Festival

    Appalachian State University, late April. Three days of workshops, ensemble performances, and a Saturday-night showcase. Founded 2018; attendance has held at four hundred. The regional festival of record.

  2. Summer · Banner Elk Ukulele Weekend

    Banner Elk Town Park, mid-July. Smaller and more Hawaiian-leaning than the Boone festival; outdoor stages, lei-making workshops, and a Sunday-mountain sing-along at the Winery at Banner Elk.

  3. Late Summer · Asheville Uke Summit

    Pack Square, Asheville, late August. Two-day street festival; combines the Asheville Ukulele Orchestra with regional builders and a vendor row of Mainland instruments. The most tourist-friendly event on the calendar.

  4. Autumn · West Jefferson Pickin’ & Strummin’

    Ashe County Arts Center, early October. A mixed-instrument festival with a strong ukulele strand; the only regional event that bills banjo, fiddle, and ukulele on the same stage in the same set.

  5. Winter · High Country Christmas Uke

    Boone United Methodist Church, second Saturday in December. A free, family-oriented concert featuring every regional ensemble listed above. The unofficial end of the ukulele year; the first new players of the spring class are usually in the audience.