Jake Shimabukuro Premieres Cover of Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9"
A ukulele master takes on Hendrix.
Jake Shimabukuro first came to the world's attention back in 2006, when his astounding solo ukulele cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" went viral, going on to rack up over 16 million YouTube views to date. Today, we're delighted to shake things up a little, and premiere Shimabukuro's latest ukulele-driven classic rock cover; a scintillating version of Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9." You can check it out above.
The cover—taken from Shimabukuro's upcoming album, The Greatest Day—was recorded with master bluegrass guitarist, and Dobro legend, Jerry Douglas.
"I had a wonderful time recording my favorite Hendrix tune with Jerry Douglas," Shimabukuro told Guitar World.
"The track turned out to be longer than expected, but we were having so much fun, it was hard to stop playing. We decided to record without a click track so that it would have a 'live performance' feel. The energy in the room was cookin’, and Jerry Douglas brought the heat."
The Greatest Day—which is set for an August 31 release—also features covers of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," The Zombies' "Time of the Season," Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle." You can preorder the album right here.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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