American ukulele singer Heather Marie Ellison, who’s supported James Brown, Huey Lewis, and Ray Charles, has funded a trip around New Zealand playing her unicorn ukulele. She fell in love with Wellington, and a local boy.

WHAT’S a doink?
It’s what Heather Marie Ellison feels like when she has to explain her performing name, Uni .
“ I imagine people think I’m crazy,” Ellison says. “It’s short for unicorn.”
The San Francisco musician, who has been based in Wellington for the past six months while touring New Zealand and Australia as Uni and Her Ukelele (“I thought it suited me to spell [ukulele] wrong, I spell everything wrong”), has always loved horses.
“I had ponies, growing up.”
As a child her friends nicknamed her Uni, and it’s stuck. Her favourite ukulele, called Sally Luka, is pink and blue with a picture of a unicorn on it. Her latest album, a best of, called U Comp,  features a unicorn drawing, and she mentions the mythical animal in her song My Favourite Letter is U.
The five foot blonde is a picture; just the kind of person you might imagine riding a unicorn.  She dresses like a doll about to go on a date with the Mad Hatter – high heels, sun glasses and many accessories. Her cherub face and miniature physique, sweet voice and childlike vitality make her seem much younger than her age.
Work as a musician has taken her throughout Europe (Italy, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden and more), America, New Zealand and Australia, with the gigs paying for her travel.
Turning 30 was a pivotal moment in her life. Ellison had been working as a receptionist and in a music store, and decided on a whim to take her ukulele talent on the road.
One of her U Comp songs features a man singing “I just quit my job” with her responding “You’re crazy” followed by: “Maybe we will start a rock and roll band?”
It seems her art imitated life and vice versa. Soon after booking gigs throughout San Francisco, Ellison met American rhythm and blues pianist, drummer and singer Johnny Otis, who invited her to tour with him. These shows led to a number of high profile opening slots for James Brown, Huey Lewis, Ray Charles, Sean Hayes and Jollie Holland.
Meeting “Godfather of Soul“ James Brown was a career highlight for Ellison, who was dressed in an all-gold outfit when she came face to face with him.
“He was as big as me,” she smiles. “He stopped and said ‘girl, you look good. You look really good.’”
Following a European tour, Ellison came to New Zealand for the Ukulele Festival. Before long she fell in love with a boy from Weta and found herself returning to Wellington three more times. By the last trip she decided to stick around and give the relationship a go.
Ellison has played at Happy and Mighty Mighty, as well as alternative venues around the country. Her show with Kittentank this week will be her last in New Zealand, which will be very sad for the musician who feels at home in Wellington.
“It’s similar to San Francisco because it’s pretty and like San Francisco has a little old-timey feel to it; a vintage style. Just look at what people wear, here. It’s funky and bohemian.”
Since performing in New Zealand Ellison has opened for a number of international acts including Jeffrey Lewis, Kevin Plekan, and Yacht. Two of the highlights were the Ukulele Festival and playing for the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.
“There’s just something about the ukulele,” she says.
Ellison fell in love with the instrument over five years ago. The father of her boyfriend at the time played, and she would often find herself staring at a poster of jazz musician Janet Klein with one in hand.
“I thought they sounded charming, and back then it was so not cool.”
But cool was never Ellison’s thing at school. She was a member of the school choir, which she compares to the TV series Glee, except there was nothing cool about the members.
“We would wear spandex dresses and leotards with fluorescent coloured skirts and character shoes.”
She also admits to being a little like Reece Witherspoon’s character in the film Election “with a sweet edge”.
But Ellison wasn’t destined to be a geek, and half a decade after playing the ukulele around San Francisco it became popular. Not dissimilar to the Wellington phenomenon which saw the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra playing mornings at Deluxe café.
“It’s like the new hacky sack,” says Ellison.
The self confessed romantic, who sings about love being all you need at the end of the day, sums up her feelings about going home succinctly in another U Comp song. “Romance is easy to find and easier to leave behind.”
Uni and Her Ukelele and Meredith Axelrod, with Kittentank, Mighty Mighty, Apr 10.