The LeiAbouts like to boast. "We're Springfield's best ukulele band."
But then someone always pipes up. "Well, technically, we're Springfield's only ukulele band."
That's the LeiAbouts' usual approach. Take the music seriously (mostly). But never themselves. The LeiAbouts adopted their name (pronounced layabouts) because it characterizes their approach to the music. Besides, who can resist a Hawaiian-language pun? "LeiAbouts" originated with member Mark Suszko.
The eight-member band revolves around the ukulele, the sweet-sounding, easy-to-play four-string instrument that was perfected in Hawaii and has spread around the world.
The LeiAbouts have been performing since 2016, mostly before small audiences at community and charity events. But they've also been featured at the former Festival of Trees and the Illinois State Fair and are regulars at the Edwards Place Fine Art Fair. It was 103 degrees in July 2023 when the LeiAbouts opened for one of the Levitt Amp Concerts. The show went on, sweat pouring from the LeiAbouts' Hawaiian shirts.
Neither the ukulele nor the LeiAbouts are limited to Hawaiian music. LeiAbouts' setlists take in rock, pop and country standards, but they're unpredictable. A recent mini-concert at Springfield's First Church of the Brethren focused on gospel Americana, but also included Marsha Stout's haunting rendition of Foo Fighters' "Times Like These."
"My favorite thing to hear is: 'I had no idea you could play that on uke,'" says band member Mark Suszko.
There's no money in any of it. The LeiAbouts play for free ("and worth every penny" is usually the next line). The rewards are intangible.
"Playing and singing in a group has its own kind of magic when all the parts are clicking," Katharine Gricevich says. "Making music with friends is really enjoyable."
"One of the remarks we often get is, 'You people look like you're having so much fun up there,'" agrees Joan Stevens Thome.
The LeiAbouts originated via the Springfield Uketopians, an informal uke jam group that's been meeting monthly (excluding COVID) since 2013. Mary Dana Abbott, a former Springfield elementary school teacher, started the Uketopians with a couple of friends and a tiny ad in Illinois Times. "I just crossed my fingers that people would find us," she told a State Journal-Register writer in 2014.
Ten people came to the first in-person get-together at Café Moxo. Today, attendance at Uketopians jam sessions (now held at Stella Coffee & Tea, 1135 W. Governor St.) ranges between 20 and 30 players. Almost 400 people follow the Uketopians on Facebook.
Thome, who succeeded Abbott as the Uketopians' coordinator, and Ed Euler, who studied vocal performance in college, organized the LeiAbouts in 2016. "Joan and I wanted to create next-level opportunities to learn harder pieces and demonstrate the fun and unexpected sound of the instrument," Euler says.
Only two LeiAbouts, Euler and Stout, whose master's degree is in music education, have serious musical backgrounds. Cindy Brewer is typical of the rest. "I was in all the bands and choirs in school, but no musical training, and I don't know music theory," she says.
She was struggling to learn guitar ("I fell in love with a guitar piece Peter Tork did.") when her sister suggested she try ukulele. "Eventually, I discovered the Uketopians, and here we are. I still haven't learned Peter's piece."
In her younger days, Deb Wakefield "dabbled in guitar with all the other flower children," but, for the next 40 years, jobs and family got in the way of making music.
Wakefield bought her first ukulele (she now has eight) while still working. When she saw the 2014 SJ-R story, she saved it, thinking, "That sounds like fun!" Upon retirement a year later, Wakefield worked up enough nerve to attend her first Uketopian jam. "Joan greeted me. The rest is history."
Five LeiAbouts are retirees, and six are older than 60. But none of them think of the band as a retirement project. It's about renewal, new challenges, and most of all, good times with friends.
"All of us sound better than any of us," Suszko says.
"If I can play the ukulele, anybody can," Wakefield adds. "It has brought so much joy and fun to my life – along with some really good people."
To contact the LeiAbouts [email protected]
More about the Uketopians:
facebook.com/groups/springfielduketopians. Or attend the Uketopians' free monthly jam: Noon-2 p.m. second Saturday of each month, Stella Coffee and Tea, 1135 W. Governor St. Loaner ukes available. (Note: The Sept. 7 Uketopian jam will be at the annual music festival at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site.)
The LeiAbouts
• Cindy Brewer: The group's multi-instrumentalist – bass ukulele, harmonica, melodeon and lap steel guitar
• Katharine Gricevich: Concert* ukulele, most cheerful ukulele player ever
• Ed Euler: Soprano and baritone ukuleles; co-founder, musical director
• Marsha Stout: Concert ukulele, frequent lead singer
• Mark Suszko: Tenor ukulele and Wazoo (world's largest kazoo), frequent lead singer
• Deb Wakefield: Concert ukulele, ukulele grandma (her 12-year-old twin grandsons, Eli and Will, are Uketopians)
• Joan Stevens Thome: Co-founder, eight-string tenor ukulele
• Mike Kienzler; Banjo ukulele, dad jokes
*Common ukulele sizes, small to large: soprano, concert, tenor, baritone
Mike Kienzler, a former reporter and editor with the State Journal-Register, now edits SangamonLink.org, the online encyclopedia of the Sangamon County Historical Society. He has played ukulele on three continents.
