These people fell for the ukulele. Why?

Matthew Gray of Denton's Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. The band, which plays the Granada on Thursday, has been incorporating the ukulele into its music for years now -- especially at shows. (2004's Spider Sunday EP was a ukulele-based pop record; you also can hear the instrument on the Sea's debut album, Family Family Family Meets the Magic Christian, on the song The Last Time I Saw Jesus.)

"I wanted to bring something that was a little more classic into a very loud, bombastic pop setting," Gray says. "The ukulele is sincere, charming and a little bit silly." Gray, who admits he used to try to rawk out some Slayer tunes on the uke, says that when he pulls out the instrument during a live show, he can see faces in the audience light up. "Because they know what's coming next."

Bill Robertson (who co-directed Rock That Uke with Sean Anderson). He's played since 1980. "I picked it up during a period of biochemical misery and played it sort of obsessively," Robertson said back in 2002. "For me it had the qualities of comedy and absurdity and sadness and melancholy and pitifulness that expressed things that I was feeling. It always has had a greater meaning beyond being this sort of idiotic musical instrument."

Steve Williams of Fort Worth's CHUG. "I tried a couple of other instruments, and it was work and drudgery. I picked up the uke, and I thought: 'Hey, this is fun.' A lot of the music, especially from the Tin Pan Alley era, is up-tempo, and the Hawaiian music is just so beautiful."

Taylor Mac, performance artist. The playwright performs sociopolitical commentary (in drag), on a ukulele. And there's no denying, it's a fabulous visual: him, towering in his wig and heels, cradling his tiny uke. "I'm all about juxtapositions on stage -- blending the masculine and the feminine, the chaotic and the organized, beauty and ugliness," Mac says. "And so large and small is really nice -- the absurdity of that, the gigantic and the miniature when you squish them together."

But there's also the uncool factor. "It's the least cool instrument you can play, other than maybe the musical saw," Mac says. "So, I really feel like, if you wanna be cool, go make a movie, or go be a rock star and get an electric guitar. But if you want to make theater, then you're sacrificing the idea of cool, because theater is about humanity. As a theater artist, I'm setting out to remind people of their humanity, so I just kind of want to have a dorky instrument."

Natalie Grande, 24, a massage therapist at the Fort Worth and Burleson locations of Spa Beaubelle. Grande already played guitar, but when she learned that she was getting a transfer to one of the spa's Hawaiian locations, she thought she might as well learn the ukulele. "I thought: the ukulele only has four strings instead of six, and the sound of the ukulele is much happier and has a much higher pitch."

So two months ago, she bought her first ukulele, and she's hooked. She started off with the reggae song It's a Pity by Tanya Stephens, and she's been combing YouTube for other covers. Her next ukulele goals: learning Lil' Wayne's Mrs. Officer and Lollipop (Remix).

Miles Pitman , sophomore at Coppell High School. He started playing ukulele almost two years ago, under the influence of his musician dad. (He's also a member of the Dallas Ukulele Headquarters.) "Everyone plays guitar, so I picked ukulele just to be different," Miles said. "And it's more fun." (On his playlist along with the old-timey favorites like Ain't She Sweet: Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T's, Clocks by Coldplay, I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Deathcab for Cutie, and New Swing by the Shins)

At the time, Pitman was on Coppell's basketball team, but he wanted to do something more. He joked to his friends that he should start a ukulele club. "And my friends said: 'If you did, I would totally join.'"