A child of the ’60s in the San Francisco Bay Area, Shari Ulrich was part of the hippie generation that grew up listening to The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and other legends who still inspire songwriters today.
It was an era when the beatniks, a wave of disenfranchised poets, writers and thinkers who spoke out against the established order, influenced youth counterculture across North America.
Ulrich bolted to Canada at a time when the U.S. was shaken by the Kent State shootings and protesters held rallies against the Vietnam War. While backpacking and bicycling across the continent, she discovered music was her undeniable true calling.
Today, the singer-songwriter, who performs solo and as part of several bands, calls Bowen Island home and confesses she “still has a hippie heart hiding in there.”
Ulrich is playing with Vancouver-based bluegrass group The High Bar Gang at the Brackendale Art Gallery (BAG) on Saturday at 8 p.m. Their second album, Someday the Heart Will Trouble the Mind, produced by True North Records, is set to release on June 24.
The High Bar Gang’s repertoire is firmly rooted in the golden age of bluegrass music with songs by the likes of Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers and Del McCoury.
“Our last album was more gospel, and this time we’re the more ‘cheating and hurting’ side of bluegrass,” Ulrich said last week in an interview with The Squamish Chief while on a solo tour in Alberta.
She has been playing at the BAG since it opened in the early 1970s. On Saturday, Ulrich will be joined by Wendy Bird and Kirby Barber, guitarist Barney Bentall and banjo player Dave Barber, supported by Rob Becker on bass and Colin Nairne on guitar and mandolin.
In 2014, The High Bar Gang’s debut album, Lost and Undone: A Gospel Bluegrass Companion, was nominated for a Juno Award in the Contemporary Christian/Gospel category, as well as a Western Canadian Music Award nod in the Spiritual category. They won Best Vocal Group at the Canadian Folk Music Awards the same year.
“Being part of a band is a refreshing change from solo. I don’t have to make decisions; I just get to be the best I can be,” said Ulrich, whose main instrument is the violin. She also plays the sax, flute, piano, guitar, dulcimer and mandolin – all of which she uses for writing songs too.
“I can do anything as a solo artist, but I don’t feel the need to carve out my own identity while part of the group because I have that in my solo career.”
Ulrich says her diverse career provides the perfect balance. She has released 21 albums and has been a part of The Pied Pumpkin, UHF, BTU and The Hometown Band.
“As far as comraderie in the High Bar Gang goes, it’s always been great,” she said. “It’s very liberating to be able to focus on serving the music.”
Tickets for The High Bar Gang’s performance this weekend are available at the BAG or Xoco Westcoast Chocolatiers on Cleveland Avenue in downtown Squamish.
