Shari Ulrich is a busy woman.
In the midst of promoting her new album, Everywhere I Go, the songstress — a two-time Juno winner herself — was heading back to British Columbia before hitting the road for a three-day series of performances in Alberta.
She’ll be wrapping up the quick Alberta tour by taking the stage at Bragg Creek’s Snowbirds Chalet as the “U” of BTU. Barney Bentall and Tom Taylor round out the trio. The show is set to start at 3:30 p.m., April 13.
“Those men are fearless,” said Ulrich of Bentall and Taylor. “In addition to being great songwriters, they are the kindest men I’ve met in my life.
“Performing music is more than just playing the songs. It’s about storytelling and personality. The three of us have a unique alchemy together.”
Just last month Ulrich released her latest album — her eighth solo album, her 21st when you count her work with BTU, the Hometown Band, the Pied Pumkin, the High Bar Gang, and Ulrich Henderson Forbes (UHF). Already she’s counting Everywhere I Go as one of her best.
“The whole album just turned out beautifully — better than I thought,” she said.
The album was produced and engineered by Ulrich’s daughter, Julia Graff, as a project for her Masters in Music in Sound Recording at Montreal’s McGill University. A musician herself, Graff has been playing alongside her mother since she was 12 years old.
And with Graff at the helm, the project ran smoothly.
“This project is the closest we have been to being peers — she’s far more competent than I realized,” said Ulrich.
“She’s a much better version of me,” continued Ulrich. “She’s more evolved at an earlier age and she’s had such an amazing start to her career.”
And Graff, knowing her mother well, gave Ulrich a timeline: one month to write the album.
“I’m a deadline person — I really need a gun to my head to start writing. I couldn’t let them down,” laughed Ulrich, who wrote nine of the 10 tracks on the album. “I write about what pops into my mind, I don’t sit down with clear ideas. The mood of what I’m playing tends to dictate the direction of the lyrics.”
Each song on the album has character — whether it be a touch of groove (“Rain Rain Rain”) or a bittersweet tone (“Making Friends with Gone”).
“I wanted to keep an organic element to the album — something classy,” said Ulrich. “These are songs about our lives. I want the songs to sound different, to be interesting.”
For more information on the BTU show, or to purchase tickets, contact Rick at 403-614-7234.
