Kala
by Keith Snyder
(Houghton, MI)
My wife almost had to drag me to the islands. She almost didn't get me on the plane to come back home. I decided on the second trip (so far!) to buy a ukulele. My dad and I looked at several in a couple of places on Kauai, one of which had some on sale. We picked up the Kala (a tenor) on the way to the airport. I fell absolutely in love with it, and after a year, have gotten fairly good at it. I only played at the guitar and mandolin before, but really dove into this. I found out later that my 89-year-old uncle had been stationed in HI after WWII. When he found out I was learning the ukulele he started sending my old recordings he made and some old LPs and songbooks he got when he and his late first wife were learning.
My Kala plays and sounds pretty nice. It's relaxing and fun. I think I want to try some different strings on it, but for now, it's great.