UKULELE RISING
Memphis Ukulele Band plucks away in advance of album release.
A familiar name in MidSouth music, Jon Hornyak has led several distinct professional lives. Since beginning his career in rock bands (including Interstate 55) in the 1970s, Hornyak has also been a sound company owner (working with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Joel and others) and a studio maven (helping launch Sounds Unreel in the early ’80s), while for the past two decades he’s served as the head of Memphis’ Grammy chapter.
But t he latest t wist in Hornyak’s journey feels fairly unlikely: the veteran music biz exec is the founder and force behind one of the city’s hottest up-and-coming acts, the Mem
phis Ukulele Band.
The Memphis Ukulele Band — a collective of local musicia ns, i ncluding acclaimed si n ger- s on g wr iter s Ja son
Freeman and Mark Edgar Stuart, Mason Jar Fireflies vocalist Kyndle McMahan, and Grammy-nominated recording engineer Matt Ross-Spang — started a little over a year ago as something of a lark. But the project, which celebrates the four-stringed Hawaiian i nstrument, has quickly grown in popularity.
This week, the Memphis Ukulele Band releases its debut single; a self-titled full-length will follow on Feb. 19. The group will mark the releases with a series of performances at the annual Folk Alliance Conference in Kansas City later this month, before a Feb. 28 Memphis release show at
Lafayette’s Music Room.
It was the fall of 2014 when Hornyak, Freeman, and RossSpang were in Sun Studios working on an unrelated proj- ect when inspiration struck. “I was noodling around on a ukulele with the guys and just sorta said ‘Hey, we should start our own ukulele band,’” says Hornyak.
The idea quick ly blossomed, as they added Stuart into the mix, and got their first gig playing a private event. The loose-knit group would briefly include Lahna Deering of Deering & Down and later instrumentalist Logan Hanna (who plays with the group when Ross-Spang is tied up with sessions). “I was lucky because the people I recruited really embraced it in a great way,” says Hornyak.
The final piece came with the addition of vocalist McMahan. A member of roots combo Mason Jar Fireflies and a student in the University of Memphis’ music biz program, Hornyak knew her from his work with the Grammy U education program. Impressed with her voice, Hornyak asked her to join.
“I was more than happy to take them up on the offer,” says McMahan. “Just being around that caliber of people and musicians is a great thing and being around ukuleles is fun in general. I have to admit I had no idea of the history and (culture) of ukulele music. There’s this whole world that’s out there dedicated to the ukulele.”
In November 2014, the band landed a slot opening a Germantown Performing Arts Center gig for the current king of the ukulele, Jake Shimbakuro. “That was our first public performance — a pretty amazing bill to be on for our debut gig,” says Hornyak.
The concert was recorded and a couple of the tracks be- gan getting regular air play on WEVL. The band continued performing periodica lly in 2015, noticing bigger and more enthusiastic crowds each time out. “Our second show we played Otherlands and it was packed,” says Hornyak, who credits the group’s success, in part, to the surge in interest in the instrument globally and its sudden prevalence in advertisements and pop music. “People have a love for the ukulele and that sound. It makes them happy.
mong those who saw and fell for the band immediately was John Buford, the backer and A&R head for nonprofit Memphis label Blue Barrel (which is operated in conjunction with Archer Records). Buford offered Hornyak and company a chance to make a Memphis Ukulele Band album.
Last May, Hornyak and the band went into Archer’s Music + Arts studio to cut the project.
“I hadn’t worked on a record since 1991,” says Hornyak. “So all these things coming together was pretty amazing.” (It was perhaps even more remarkable for Hornyak as he had actually built what would become Music + Arts studio with his partner Don Smith back in 1983.)
Though all of the band’s members maintain busy musical careers of their own, the work on the album felt like anything but a side project. “We had to find and carve out time in everyone’s schedule. But once we got into the studio it was a really serious effort,” says Hornyak. “We felt like, let’s try and make this as good as we can and not place any limitations on it.” Engineered by Kevin Hous
ton, the meticulously crafted 10-track album features one original — Stuart’s “In-Laws” — and nine covers, including inspired uke arrangements/interpretations of songs by Ann Peebles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Denver, and Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson (the single “Valerie,” originally written and performed by U.K. band the Zutons).
“I’m really proud of the album because it’s something unique,” says Hornyak. “This is a true ukulele record. There’s no guitar, no drums — we do cheat with a little bit of organ and cello — but otherwise it’s all ukulele and vocals. It’s a distinct sound. We call it ‘ukulele soul.’”
In addition to their upcoming Folk Alliance Conference appearance, Memphis Ukulele Band recently recorded a segment for syndicated radio show
“Beale Street Caravan.” In March, the band will appear on another nationally syndicated show, “Music City Roots” in Nashville.
“It’s just wild,” says Hornyak. “We’ve already far surpassed my wildest dreams for this, and it just continues to go and grow.”