Mel Bay Hawaiian Uke Tunebook
Ken Eidson is a music educator with a bachelor's and master's degree in music education from Northwestern University. He has spent his entire teaching career in the same school, Carl Sandburg Junior High, in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. He has co-authored four Dobro® instruction books with his father-in-law, Tom Swatzell. Between the years 1975-1980 he appeared in shows with Jethro Burns, the world-famous mandolinist and comedian. Ken co-authored three books with Jethro which have been combined into one volume. Ken met Ross Cherednik, a mandolin and ukulele player, through his mandolin books. Ross and Ken co-wrote two ukulele books and one classical mandolin collection. All of Ken's books are published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc.  Ken's first book with Ross Cherednik, Hawaiian Uke Songbook, has been a best-seller in the islands since it came out in 1982. One big reason for its popularity in the homeland of the ukulele is that the book deals with the many cultural facets of the instrument: Polynesian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and mainland.  Ken continues to teach his junior high age students. He teaches chorus, swing choir, fretted instruments, keyboard, MIDI, music composition, and solo singing. He also sponsors an amateur radio club. Other musical activities include directing a church choir, singing with a barbershop quartet (Chicago Natural Gas) and playing bass clarinet in a local community band.