In 1961 Dan Scanlan and several of his friends learned to play guitar. Scanlan was fond of the glissandolations perpetrated by banjo players at the local pizza joint, so he also learned the ukulele, an instrument he toyed with as a child. A few years later he began writing songs for both instruments — several hundred to date. Today he is a seasoned performer who is known to give good workshop. 

In the past 50 years he has been the ukulele lead in several bands — Flathead,the Self Righteous Brothers, Endangered Species and Juke, all duos; and in combos of various sizes: The What-the Hell Four, Top Quark, Jukolin, Cool Hand Uke and the Enablers. He performed solo as “Rodd Gnawkin the Singing Mechanic” in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, but then adopted “Cool Hand Uke”, a nickname that had been given to him by a friend when the movie Cool Hand Luke appeared in the mid 1960s.

Today he travels the country giving ukulele workshops and leads the 40+ member group Cool Hand Uke and the Strum Bums Ukulele Extravaganza Rescue and Relief Band. (Strum Bums, for short.) They perform at least once a week locally and in their 16-year history under Scanlan’s leadership performed at festivals in New York City (where they got a standing ovation), twice at the Honolulu International Ukulele Festival and headlined the Gold Pan Ukulele Festival in Auburn CA. The group meets weekly in downtown Grass Valley, although it was born at the Senior Center at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in 2000.