Driving into work the other morning I was in no mood for the news on all the public radio stations, too much war and trouble. I pushed the button for some "radio without the rules" and found commercials. The pirate station was off the air, too early for pirates I guess. Button six on my radio is 97.7, which I think of as the Blue Ox station (officially it's KKDS-LP). It's almost always nonstop music. Sometimes it seems so fiercely eclectic that I assume it's some hard-drive full of MP3s set on random play.
When I tuned in, someone was playing a fine ukulele solo that grabbed my attention. As I continued listening I realized — I know that song! "Float Your Boat" is one of my favorites by the local band UKEsperience. I sang along as the song played on. It lasted almost until I reached my parking spot.
This afternoon I was done with the Hum, looking over the club listings and realized that I probably should have mentioned that UKEsperience is playing at Six Rivers this coming Saturday night. My Facebook page was open in the background and I heard that clink alert noise - a message.
It was Rick DeVol from UKEsperience. "Don't know if you have heard but Saturday will be Ukesperience's last gig for a long while. Jason is moving to the East Coast next month." He said a bit more in a post on his page: "We're sad for us, glad for him. Come out and hear Jason tear it up one more time and say bye to one of Humboldt's best."

As Rick pointed out, Jason Hodel was also a mainstay in Kulica. When Rick suggested they make a splash to celebrate his departure he said no, didn't want to make a big deal of it. So, no big deal, let's just wish him well on the next phase of the journey, whatever that might be.
"Float your boat, and sail away, leave your troubles for a new, new day."

The video here was recorded at the Humboldt Folklife Festival in 2011. The uke slingers of UKEsperience have taught a workshop there at least a couple of times, culminating in a chance to play on stage with the band. In this case it was that fine floating number getting the whole crowd singing along…