Jake ShimabukuroTrioJake & FriendsJPG: How did holiday shows go?JPG: So many artists during 2021 either had protocols in place and even with those someone in the band or crew got COVID and the tour would be shut down. How challenging was it traveling to so many cities? I sat in with Billy StringsJPG: Speaking of Billy Strings, that brings us to the new album because you worked with him on the track “Smokin’ Strings.” To bring it back to COVID, the whole album was recorded pre-COVID, correct?JPG: Jon Anderson and Ziggy Marley were the two that you did not do live in-person due to schedules or something like that.JPG: Let's go all the way back to the origins of the album. Your intention was to record sporadically here and there with the idea that eventually, once you assembled enough tunes, it would come out?JPG: You worked with so many people previously that I’m surprised Willie Nelson was the first person to work on this. I thought that you would do something with Jimmy Buffett or someone else you already knew before asking others.JPG: When you put together your initial list of artists, were they based on the person/band or based on the songs themselves?JPG: The Billy Strings collaboration features an amazing jam that you guys did on the first take and the Sonny Landreth tune is so impressive as well.JPG: It reminds me of Jeff Beck.JPG: And I believe Beck, maybe, has one or two pedals, if that.JPG: The album has a lot of moments like that -- the intimacy of tracks like “Stardust” with Willie Nelson and “The Rose” with Bette Midler and even “A Place in the Sun” with Jack Johnson and Paula Fuga but also the jamming aspect and letting the music play out to where it wants to go whether it’s with Billy Strings or Sonny Landreth or Warren Haynes -- that gives it a flow of not the same thing again and again.JPG: Going back to the Sonny Landreth track, it reminds me of the Eric Johnson tune “Cliffs of Dover.”JPG: What's nice about this album is the way you worked with the other artists and collaborated in real time. That brings me to one of the other tracks, as far as song selection, “Too High” with Moon Taxi. I watched the video, which showed the collaboration in the studio with the band, especially with Trevor Terndrup who played his ukulele during the recording.lovesJPG: I imagine it may take you a second or two to get used to because you're like, "What's that other sound? Oh, it's him playing rather than just me.”JPG: Back to “Too High. What's nice about the track is you still have the meat of the melody but it works in the stripped-down version. In that same manner “A Day in the Life," and its arrangement, works very well. When I saw you were collaborating with Jon Anderson on that Beatles’ cover, I was like, "Is that the Jon Anderson of Yes fame?”soJPG: Oh, really?sosoJPG: There are 16 tracks on the new album and they all work on their own and offer a nice sense of intimacy...thinking of other Beatles covers -- "Something" with Vince Gill and Amy Grant, Jesse Colin Young on “Get Together.” Were there songs you had to cut out due to time limits that may show up on a sequel to Jake & Friends?Season of Peace – Christmas CollectionJPG: He’s a very talented banjo player. Previously, we discussed about you working with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.JPG: You're similar to Bela as far as a respect for tradition as well as the desire to step away from tradition and do something different or non-traditional.JPG: You're promoting this album now but I'm sure you're on to the next thing or at least planning it. So, where do you want to take the ukulele next?JPG: You were once described as the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. You're able to go in so many different realms musically and, to our ears, master it. I recently saw the new Spider-Man film last week and there’s that line, "With great power comes great responsibility." So, you have this great power, talent and humility about your work with the instrument, how does that weigh on you and how do you deal with it?
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