kelly winders





CD AVAILABLE:
Ukulele Heaven Kelly Winders
Kelly's interest in music began when he was 3 or 4 years old singing and harmonizing to old hyms with his parents and brothers and sisters around his mom's piano. He sang in choirs all through school in Quesnel B.C. and began playing guitar at 15. At 16 he began playing in The Zig Zag Mountain String Band, a blugrass oriented variety band, very popular in the late 70's. After graduating high school he began playing bass guitar and was soon touring western Canada in various groups. In the early 80's he completed a 2 year Jazz Program at Malasina College and continued touring in various rock bands. In the early 90's he moved to Chilliwack where he bagan singing in a barbershop chorus.Soon he became involved in the leadership of that chorus and held positions of Chapter Vice President as well as Assistant Director of the Chorus. 1997 saw Kelly move to Kamloops.for work. A couple of years later he sang in a couple of barbershop quartets, the last of which competed in a district competition where they placed first in the novice category. By 2003 he was back playing bass guitar again and was soon co-hosting jam sessions at various clubs throughout the city. Later that summer while visiting his brother in at his photographic studio in Quesnel Kelly saw a little ukulele that was being used as a prop.There was also a book that showed how to tune it and play some chords to some neat old songs.His brother then gave him the ukulele and so began his love affair with that little 4 stringed instrument. Several months later another brother told him about an old Martin Ukulele that he had seen while doing some antique furniture repairs in someones home. At Christmas ,during a family visit, Kelly went to look at the old uke. It had only 2 strings so he had to take the strings off of his first ukulele and put them on the Martin.Once tuned it became evident that it was a very good quality, very old instrument. It played well and sounded very rich and full.The uke had belonged to the woman's grandfather but she believed that it should go to someone that would play it. A few month's later he purchased a Boss BR1600 Digital Recording Studio and proceeded to record some songs. After learning the basics he began to recored some songs. His goal was to make a CD of some old songs for his Mom on Mother's Day.He completed 8 songs and then made some copies for some other friends and family members. And everyone loved it. A copy was given to his old Barbershop Director who was also a singer/songwriter and producer. He loved it and suggested that more songs be recorded to fill out a real CD. In the summer of 2005 Kelly spoke with Brad Davis-Singer/songwriter for the Muddcats blues band and he agreed to do the photos and artwork as well as all the research required to complete the project. By early Dec., 2005 he received the finished CD and is very pleased with the end result.