Head to our new website!

Thanks for visiting our blogspot site. However, this is yesterday's news! We have a new site with updated information that is easier to navigate. Please head straight to www.lascrucesukes.com. We'll be waiting for you there!

New practice location

The Las Cruces Ukes have a new home! We now practice at Good Samaritan - Las Cruces Village, 3011 Buena Vida Circle in the Creative Arts Room (upstairs in the Social Center). Buena Vida Circle is just off Telshor. There is a convenient parking lot just past the social center.

On a few dates throughout the year, we'll be downstairs in the conference room. So, if you don't find us in the Creative Arts room, head downstairs next to the auditorium.

Thanks to Good Samaritan for being our new hosts!

Register for Las Cruces UkeFest 2018!

Join the Las Cruces Ukes!

Join the Las Cruces Ukes!

Las Cruces Ukes Kids Club

Kids Club schedule:

2nd & 4th Saturday monthly @ 10:30 a.m.

El Calvario Church, 300 Campo Street


Playing the ukulele is so much fun, we have formed the Las Cruces Ukes Kids Club! The club meets the second and fourth Saturdays from 10:30 – 11:15 a.m. each month at El Calvario United Methodist Church at 300 Campo Street in downtown Las Cruces.

If you have your own ukulele, bring it with you. We will have a few loaner ukes, but you will not be able to take them home, and you need to practice. Check with Hubbard’s Music 'n' More, 108 Wyatt Drive; they have a really good selection of ukuleles and will help you find the right size just for you. Tell them you are with the Las Cruces Ukes.


All of us are excited to see more folks, especially younger ones, learn to love the ukulele like we do.


Las Cruces Ukes Teen Club

Teen club meetings:
Wednesdays, 3:15 – 4 p.m.
Arrowhead Park Early College High School, Building 4

Teens and ukuleles are a great combination! In March 2016 we kicked off the Las Cruces Ukes Teen Club, hosted at Arrowhead Park Early College High School on Arrowhead Drive south of the NMSU campus and football field (its the building with lots of colored rectangles!). While the club is hosted at APECHS, we invite other teens (or near teens) who have a flexible schedule to join us. If you are home-schooled or don't have a class that precludes you from attending, come on out!

We have LOTS of loaner Kala Waterman ukuleles, thanks to our friends at Kala! And thanks to our friends at Ohana, we have ukuleles that Teen Club members can earn to take home as their very own! One ukulele has been awarded to Josh the first semester and five more ukuleles await their new home in the future.

History of the Las Cruces Ukes

The History of the Las Cruces Ukes

Las Cruces Ukes founders Cheryl
Fallstead, Roger McCandless,
and Kelle Hoskins in 2015.
In 2012, Cheryl Fallstead asked her father, Roger McCandless, to teach her to play an instrument. Roger played the piano, guitar, banjo, ukulele, and harmonica, so there were a lot of options. Cheryl had taken a guitar class in 7th grade, but hadn't strummed much since. Roger, not realizing that ukuleles were experiencing a resurgence of popularity, nevertheless recommended she take up the diminutive four-stringed instrument. Soon her friend Kelle Hoskins, who like Roger had musical experience, joined their practice sessions.

They began wondering if anyone else in Las Cruces played, or wanted to learn to play, the ukulele. Fliers were designed and posted, offering a Uke 101 session to get things kicked off. Hubbard's Music-N-More generously offered one of their rooms for the classes. Calls began coming in and the first Uke 101 session was held April 30, 2013 with Roger as the musical leader. Original Uke 101 class members who are still active in the Las Cruces Ukes are Karl Utrecht, Marie Hughey, and Dave Anketell.

After the beginner sessions, practices continued on a weekly basis and other beginner classes were held. The group of people playing together was now called the Las Cruces Ukes. However, as all this was going on, Kelle had moved to Santa Fe and Roger had been diagnosed with lung cancer, restricting his energy for evening practices. Cheryl did her best to guide the group despite her lack of musical experience. Fortunately for everyone, Bob Hull was recruited to join the Las Cruces Ukes. With a long and rich background playing a variety of instruments, Bob was just what the group needed! 
The Las Cruces Ukes publicity
photo for their 2014 performance
at the Rio Grande Theatre.

As the group improved under Bob's guidance, members (specifically, Bob Hale!) asked when they would be performing. Cheryl contacted local retirement communities offering performances. The first was held at the Village at Northrise on June 18, 2014. Since then, they have performed over 30 concerts everywhere from senior facilities to luaus and art gallery openings to the big stage of the Rio Grande Theatre, as well as at NMSU's Aggies in Paradise event and way up on a mountain in El Paso at the Aerial Tramway. (Check the Performance History page to see where they've been).

Now the Las Cruces Ukes is a New Mexico non-profit corporation and a 501(c) 3. They perform around the area and offer a variety of workshops to help themselves and new recruits become more proficient in their ukulele skills. They practice each week at Golden Mesa, 151 N. Roadrunner Parkway, having outgrown their original home at Hubbard's.

The most recent additions to the Las Cruces Ukes "family" are our Kids Club and Teen Club. They both launched in March 2016 and are helping spread the love of ukulele to folks of all ages. We look forward to the day when the younger players will be performing with the adults!

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