🎶 No irony to be found here.

April 11, 2017 3:00 PM

Introducing 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele: A Micro-Folk Record For The 21st Century And Beyond, a new songbook by me, jeremy messersmith. It's jam-packed with ridiculous songs about kittens, world peace, flying cars and the transformative power of love. Why? Because we all need a ray of sunshine every now and again. Because it's important to not lose sight of how good things could be. Because the first step to a better world is to imagine a better world. (FAQ)

Get a free digital copy of the book in exchange for your email address. Record a video cover of one of the songs, tag it with#ObscenelyOptimistic and he'll add it to his YouTube playlist.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (8 comments total)

Oh this is just lovely! I have been trying to play more ukulele recently, and this is great inspiration. I also really liked his response to a FAQ question about whether there'll be an album: "Yes. The audio will be released in mid April. I just wanted people to experience the songs with their own voices first."
posted by fever-trees at 4:29 PM on April 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a cousin with a strong interest in playing ukes, I've forwarded this to him. Thanks on his behalf.
posted by scalefree at 5:04 PM on April 11, 2017

This cover of Everybody gets a kitten is somehow not annoying the crap out of me.
posted by bunderful at 6:08 PM on April 11, 2017

This cover of Everybody gets a kitten is somehow not annoying the crap out of me.

Folks, we have a winner!
posted by slkinsey at 6:51 PM on April 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ha, I love it. I can't listen to videos at work, but I'm enjoying imagining it.
posted by kjs4 at 9:44 PM on April 11, 2017

oh I'm totally sending this to my podcast partner to add to our list of ways to torture our audience. (See the start of this for our current awfulness)
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:26 PM on April 11, 2017

This cover of Everybody gets a kitten is somehow not annoying the crap out of me.

They sing that song in veterinary school at the start of anatomy class.
posted by pracowity at 1:19 AM on April 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love that phrase, "Micro-Folk"! And one inevitably imagines similarly-themed genres of the musical arts, e.g. Milli-Metal ... Brachyo-Blues ... Pico-Punk ... Yocto-Rap ... Reggaella ... Parvi-Jazz ... Lepto-Grunge ... Fabrillo-Fusion ... Jejuno-Soul ... Zepto-Country ... Oligopera ... and oh for God's sake shut up, quidnunc.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:26 AM on April 12, 2017