It was their Christmas Eve family gathering. Bethany Barber was around 20 years old. Her grandpa brought over a ukulele, played some tunes and even gave her a short lesson. He was an accomplished stand-up bass player and guitar player, but his granddaughter had no idea he could play the small four-stringed guitar.
As the night wore on, Barber began to have regrets.
“I was just so in love with the instrument,” she said during a recent telephone interview. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I wish I had put on my Christmas list a ukulele.’ Christmas miracles happen because the next morning under the Christmas tree was a ukulele.”
Barber, 31, plays ukulele and banjolele all over the Santa Clarita Valley and beyond. The last name she goes by — Barber — is her grandmother’s maiden name, which she uses as her stage name. She regularly plays at farmers markets, senior centers, weddings, birthday parties and other private events.
Born in Newhall and raised in a house in Placerita Canyon, Barber started playing music at 7 years old. Her parents had encouraged her and her three siblings to learn an instrument and a second language. Barber chose flute and Chinese, respectively.
“I played (the flute) all through school, and I played it in college,” she said. “I went to California Baptist University and played with the University Choir Orchestra. At that time, it was under Dr. Judd Bonner, and he took us around the United States on tours with the choir orchestra, and I played first chair flute with them, which was really a great experience.”
Barber also got into musical theater while in school. At one point, it was what she thought she wanted to pursue as a career. She even went to Chicago and New York to perform in their theater scenes.
But that Christmas Eve, when her grandpa introduced her to the ukulele, her whole world changed. Her grandpa had played a song written over 100 years ago called “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” — a song Barber still plays today.
The next morning — Christmas morning — she was beyond surprised when one of the gifts she opened was a ukulele. She hadn’t even known she’d wanted one for more than 24 hours.
Her mom, Virginia Shemanski, had picked up the gift the day before. Even Shemanski didn’t know her daughter wanted a ukulele.
“My mom had been at a loss for what to get me that Christmas,” Barber said. “She was at the music store and saw a ukulele on sale. And she said, ‘I think Bethany might like this.’”
Shemanski shared what happened.
“I was at Guitar Center picking up tuners and (guitar) picks for one of my kids, and there was a $99 ukulele,” she said. “I remember it like it was yesterday. And I’m like, ‘Well, that’s unique.’ And I knew my dad played, but I never knew that she (Barber) had any interest in that instrument. I hate to admit it, but it was a way for Mom to get away with that $99 gift, and it just happened to be a ukulele . . . We have pretty strong faith, and it was like God was saying, ‘Get that ukulele in Bethany’s hands.’ It’s silly to say, but it’s kind of ‘the rest is history.’ The next day, she was learning music.”
Shemanski added that her daughter became best friends with the instrument during college when she went to China. At the time, she had been studying civil engineering and went overseas to introduce a unique water filtration system to a village there. Shemanski said that, despite her daughter speaking some of the language, she didn’t speak enough of it to really be able to socialize.
And so, it was in that solitude that Barber made a real connection with the ukulele. She also learned that she did not want anything to do with civil engineering. Music was her passion, and she wanted to make it a full-time profession.
Barber comes from musical lineage. Her grandpa played stand-up bass with “Mack the Knife” singer Bobby Darin, “Singin’ in the Rain” star Debbie Reynolds and other traveling talents. Additionally, members of Barber’s family make up the Messick Family Singers, a western group that has performed at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival for over 20 years.
According to Shemanski, they’re a unique bunch of singers because they’re all family.
“There are sweeter harmonies because the voices are related,” she said. “They’re actually genetically related.”
Shemanski spoke about one particular time the Messick Family Singers won a singing contest. Barber, who was 14 years old at the time, was orchestrating the group.
Shemanski gave credit to her daughter, explaining her reasoning with a story about a time when they were performing in a recording studio.
“She (Barber) says, ‘Stop, stop, everybody, stop,’” Shemanski said. “And she points up to the ceiling, and she goes, ‘OK, one … two … three … Right there.’ And then she’s pointing at the ceiling. She was saying, ‘Right there, don’t you see it? You’re flat right there.’ And I’m looking up into the ceiling. I said, ‘Honey, I don’t see.’ She sees music. You and I hear it. She actually sees it.”
Barber plays wherever she can. And when she plays, she often attracts more work.
Just recently, her grandma, who’s 92, moved into the Sunrise Senior Living home on McBean Parkway in Valencia. Barber had brought her ukulele with her, as she often does. She’d previously been corresponding with the activities director to see about getting work to play there. She said hello and brought up her interest in wanting to perform for the residents.
They were in the cafeteria, Shemanski recalled, and Barber started playing “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.”
“Every single person in that cafeteria started singing that song,” Shemanski said. “Then she packed up, and she said, ‘You know, I’m really here just to see my grandmother.’ And he (the activities director) said, ‘You’re hired.’”
Shemanski spoke about what Barber’s music does for those in retirement homes. Some of the people who listen to her music are bedridden. Staff will roll them out of their rooms, Barber will start playing, and these people, Shemanski said, will sit up, which, she added, is just “phenomenal.”
Barber has sought out many different venues to play. She’s a regular at area famers markets.
According to Larry McClements, senior market manager for the Santa Clarita Valley Farmers Markets — responsible for the events in Old Town Newhall, Canyon Country and Valencia by FivePoint — all three locations prioritize quality in both their vendors and musical entertainment. Many musicians come to them to perform.
“We vet everybody,” McClements said during a recent interview at the Valencia by FivePoint farmers market. “We listened to her (Barber) online, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the sound.’”
McClements’ next question was whether Barber could perform for a live crowd and create that same magic.
Barber came out to meet McClements, and he said he knew right away that she was exactly what the markets needed.
“She’s just got the right energy,” he said. “She’s got everything we need to have a happy environment. It’s a beautiful way to start your Sunday.”
McClements also shared how many market-goers comment on Barber’s music, saying “how awesome the music is” and how it “really makes the market” and “really sets the mood.”
Barber said she’s gotten work from people who have heard her playing there. Her mom said that happens quite often, getting jobs for weddings, baby showers and more.
Shemanski talked about one woman who was at the farmers market who heard Barber’s rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” The woman hadn’t seen Barber playing. She actually thought the music was coming from a streaming service, a radio or a DJ.
“This woman told me later,” Shemanski said, “She says, ‘If it’s a real person, I’m hiring her.’ She said she came around the corner and she’s like, ‘I did not expect what I was hearing to be a real person. It just sounded too perfect.’ That has become a common thread.”
Moments like that continue to affirm the path Barber unknowingly stepped onto that Christmas Eve. What began with her grandfather playing a ukulele and a $99 last-minute gift from a mother who had no idea how perfect it would be became the foundation of Barber’s musical journey. That unexpected gift not only shaped her career but also continues to touch the lives of those who hear her play it.
Asked if she’s ever been discouraged and thought of giving up to perhaps reassess her career and shift to a plan B, Barber gave an undoubted “no,” that she would always be a performer.
“I don’t see how I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said. “I feel like this is kind of what I’m meant to do … This is the first thing that’s felt completely natural and almost every aspect of it just feels like it flows out of me.”
Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email [email protected].
