Bowen Island, British Columbia folk singer Shari Ulrich will be in Thompson for the second-last Home Routes show of the year March 15.
The venue is at Tim and Jean Cameron's place at 206 Campbell Dr. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $20. For more information give Tim or Jean a call at 204-677-3574 or send them an e-mail at: cameron8@mymts.net
Home Routes moved into private home venues this season - the more intimate format it uses in most communities - after spending its first three seasons in the Basement Bijou room of the Thompson Public Library.
Born in San Rafael, California, Ulrich, who plays violin, mandolin, flute, dulcimer, guitar and saxophone, first moved to Vancouver in the early 1970s in response to the Vietnam War. She has released 19 albums - as a solo artist and as part of various "super groups" -which have netted her two Juno Awards to date and induction into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Ulrich first arrived on stage as one-third of the infamous Pied Pumkin String Ensemble, which also include Joe Mock and Rick Scott.
"To finance our recordings in those days, Pied Pumkin would collect the names, addresses and $5 from fans, record the album, then mail it off to all those trusting souls who had pre-paid...," Ulrich said. "In fact, The Pied Pumkin's Squash Records was Canada's first 'Indie Label,' long before such a term existed."
From 1976 to 1978, Ulrich worked and toured with The Hometown Band, Valdy's backing group.
Home Routes kicked off its fourth season in Thompson Oct. 1 with New Hampshire folk singers Kyle Carey, from Portsmouth, and Craig Werth, from Newmarket.
Thompson is part of the "Borealis Trail" circuit of Winnipeg-based Home Routes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Other circuits on Home Routes include the Yukon Trail; Salmon-Berry in British Columbia; Cherry Bomb and Blue Moon in British Columbia and Alberta; Chautauqua Trail in Saskatchewan and Alberta; CCN SK in Saskatchewan; Central Plains in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Jeanne Bernardin in Manitoba, Agassiz in Manitoba and Ontario; Estelle-Klein in Ontario and Québec and the Maritimes in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
This is Ulrich's third time on the Home Routes tour, but her first stop in Thompson.
Next up Oct. 29 was Ottawa-born musician and producer David Baxter, who lives in Toronto.
The first half of the six-concert 2012-13 Home Routes concert series wrapped up Nov. 28 with Patty Thompson, a Canadian singer-songwriter and country Americana blues artist, and her Australian-born vocalist and guitarist Tony Latimer, who moved to Canada in 1966. Thompson and Latimer live in Victoria aboard their 58' schooner Forbes & Cameron. The second half began Feb. 14 with Chicago-born and eclectic Québecer Alan Gerber in Thompson for Home Routes Feb. 14. Gerber came to wide notice in 1968 after joining the band Rhinoceros, as its keyboardist and as a singer-songwriter. The Home Routes season ends here April 13 with a performance by Prince Edward Island songwriter Dennis Ellsworth.
