Music Fog is migrating westbound for MusicFest, and will be arriving in Steamboat Springs, Colorado tomorrow if the Good Lord is willing. Gotta do our studio build out, then hit record and play...and the beat goes on! It seems somewhat unusual to me that CDs are slated to come out this early in the year, but hey, there are no rules. And so we welcome today's offering of a brand new album, Peace Love Ukulele, from Jake Shimabukuro. "The ukulele," he says, "is the instrument of peace - and if everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place." That said, if everyone played with the level of virtuosity he brings, the world would be Utopia! Jake will be joining the lineup for the Old Settler's Music Festival, which is set for April 14th though the 17th in Austin, along with other award-winning artists; The Avett Brothers, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Langhorne Slim, Green Mountain Grass, Elliott BROOD, and Emmitt-Nershi Band.

All I can say, as we embark on our first event coverage of the nascent year, is there are plenty of cool festivals coming for 2011. And there are plenty of opportunities ahead to showcase talented artists here at Music Fog. Today we source a song from Jake's new album called "Bring Your Adz."

- Jessie Scott

PS There is another song on this album I would like to mention here, a tribute to the courageous American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought and sacrificed their lives in World War II. "Go For Broke" was the motto of these second-generation (Nisei) Japanese-American soldiers from Shimabukuro's native Hawaii. The men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, the 1399th Engineering Construction Battalion, and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) fought for the U.S. against their ancestral land at a time when those of Japanese heritage were often viewed with suspicion. Also, I wanted to recommend a wonderful book I just finished that was set in that era, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a novel by Jamie Ford.