replace Yamasato was Guy Cruz, and Andrew McLellan joined on bass. The new group Colón released one album, The Groove Machine (2000), and won the Hoku Award for Favorite Entertainer of the Year in 2001. Solo career Signing with Sony Japan Shimabukuro decided to pursue a solo career as Colón disbanded in early 2002. With the help of his newly acquired manager, Japanese native Kazusa Flanagan, in June 2002 he became the first Hawaii artist to sign a recording contract with Epic Records International, a division of Sony Music Japan International. Shimabukuro toured extensively in Japan – a practice he still continues – and from the start his albums received extensive airplay on various Japanese radio stations. He has also released numerous Japan-only CDs: Skyline (2002), Haruyo Koi (2007), Yeah (2008), Ichigo Ichie (2008), Annon (2009), The Music of Sideways (2009), Across the Universe (2009), Aloha To You (2011), Ukulele X: 10th Anniversary Collection (2011), Ukulele Disney (2012). In 2008, a 120-page biographical photo-book on Shimabukuro was published in Japan. Sony Japan, however, only releases Shimabukuro's music in Japan, and to release the music in Hawaii, he created the Hitchhike Records label. Between 2002 and 2005, Shimabukuro released four U.S. albums as a solo performer: Sunday Morning (2002), Crosscurrent (2003), Walking Down Rainhill (2004), and Dragon (2005). All of them except Dragon won both Na Hoku Awards and Hawaii Music Awards, and Dragon won the Hawaii Music Award for Best Rock Album and peaked at #5 on Billboards Top World Music Albums in 2005. As a solo artist, Shimabukuro experimented with using effect pedals to make new sounds that few would associate with an ukulele. In 2005, he secured a nationwide U.S. distribution deal for his Hitchhike Records label, which had previously been confined to the Hawaii market. In 2005 he also did his first nationwide mainland U.S. concert tour, and released a DVD of instructional segments, concert footage, and interviews called Play Loud Ukulele. Breakout success In April 2006, Shimabukuro came to national and international attention when, unbeknownst to him, someone posted a virtuosic video of him playing George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on YouTube. The video, which had originally been filmed for a New York television show called Midnight Ukulele Disco, quickly went viral, and has received over 15 million views. The video performance resulted in a huge increase in concert engagements, and Shimabukuro received collaboration