Michele Kappel aka Tippy Canoe was a drummer in the rock band The Kirby Grips when she picked up the ukulele and fell in love. She then started writing her own songs for the instrument combining jazz, pop, old time, and girl group music mixed with post-punk influences such as Squeeze and Blondie.

After a few years of performing on her own, Kappel formed her own back up band, The Paddlemen with Rick Quisol on drums, Mikie Lee Prasad on guitar and Chris “T.G.” Green on bass. Spark catches one of their gigs at Alameda’s Speisekammer.

Resources

• Array
• Array
• Array

Related Episodes

Alavi, King, and Tippy Canoe

Meet a conceptual artist asking important questions, a jet-setting choreographer, and a ukelele player.