Petty Booka -Singing in the Rain (Benten) -Reviewed Keith Allison Teleport City- This recent release from Tokyo's duo of ukulele-plucking sweethearts sees their signature instruments really move to the front of the music, accompanied by the lovely vocals and harmonizing from both Petty and Booka. The theme here, as one might guess from the album's title, is songs about rain. The opening "Raindrops" is simply wonderful, and the rest of the album follows suit with exotica-tinged covers of all sorts of well-known (and some not as well known) songs about the rain, including "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Rainy Night in Georgia," and of course "Singing in the Rain." Steel drums gives songs like "Crying in the Rain" a definite Calypso feel. All in all, the best way to describe this record is "beautiful." The vocals exemplify the adjective, and the music backs them up perfectly. As singers and musicians, the gals really get to shine this time out. "Rainy Night in Georgia" is probably my favorite on this album, but the whole thing is just so pretty you'll almost want to cry. ------- **~World famous ukulele-playing pop duo from Tokyo~** ------ Petty Booka do Hawaiian and Bluegrass(including Reggae and ska)-inspired covers of country, punk and classic-rock -- everything from Patsy Cline to Ramones. Since they have released their debut album "Toconuts Hawaii" in 1995 , from BENTEN Label in Tokyo, they have been releasing the variety of albums of Hawaiian, Bluegrass, Country, Christmas and Dance Hall with the greatest Japanese musicians and some special guest players, like the legend of exotic sound , Martin Denny plays piano and MFQ:Modern Folk Quartet does the chorus of "Summer Breeze" . Although they hadn't had the record release in USA until 2001, a number of radio stations in the world have been playing their songs last 10 years and the buzz was already started. Their first US appearance was SXSW 2002 which was a big success and more than 200 copies of CDs were sold the night. They had "We love you, America tour" in 2002 and 2003. Their 1st debut Hawaiian compilation album in US "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" became No.1 on KUSF' world muisc chart and No.5 on the Top 30 the week of April 28 2003. http://sister.co.jp/pettybooka/