Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: It's the Pulse Podcast folks, seems we are number one with island snowbirds in Mexico. Welcome to the Cape Crusader Peter McCully. 

Peter McCully: And he's Dave “Boy I wonder” Graham, 

Dave Graham: On this episode we'll be chatting with you folks on the street. We wanted to know, what do you think of Donald Trump's invitation for Canada to become the 51st state? And would you like to see another Canadian Prime Minister from British Columbia?

You said it!: I'm in. Yeah? Yeah. You can see the value to that? I can, yeah, I do. Not 100 percent sure about it, but at the same time, I don't see why not. I'm not a huge fan of him personally, but I don't object to his promises, his mandate. I think he's on track. Yeah, I'm excited actually about the future and optimistic.

Peter McCully: We'll also talk to Sherry Ulrich of BTU, Bentall, Taylor, Ulrich. The trio is appearing in Nanaimo and Parksville in late January. 

Shari Ulrich: It's not about me, it's about the music and how amazing music is and its power to make us feel a huge range of emotions. I feel so honored to get to do that, to get to create that sound that I lay out in between me and the audience and we get to have an experience with it. I'm having an experience with it and that's why they're having an experience with it. 

Dave Graham: Congratulations to our latest winner with Amber Locker identifying the location of the tickle trunk. It was a bit of a challenging round. I spoke of a place where the clues of what happens still remain entangled in the roots of the trees. It's known as the Nanuse Brickyard and you can still see bricks in place if you travel there on foot or by kayak. And now we have a next clue coming up for the next round of the tickle trunk location. 

Peter McCully: They're not worth anything as currency, but you'll find them on the beaches of PQB. Instead of a tickle trunk, maybe we should say you'll have a treasure chest full of these. So if you think you know what they are, send us an email to contest at thepulsecommunity. ca. You could win a 25 gift certificate from the folks at Thrifty Foods. 

Windsor Plywood: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek. They specialize in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors, moldings, exterior project materials, such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products, and they are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one on one service to all of their customers. Homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors, regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood in French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122. 

Thrifty Foods: At Thrifty Foods, we love to help nonprofits, charities, schools, and local organizations in our communities. Our Thrifty Foods Smile Card Bulk Program allows organizations who shop at Thrifty Foods to immediately save up to 6 percent on the purchase of Thrifty Foods Smile Cards in bulk. These savings allow you to keep more money in your organization's pockets. Ask for details at Thrifty Foods in Parksville, a proud sponsor of the Pulse podcast with Peter and Dave. 

Peter McCully: We have some interesting guests for you in upcoming podcast episodes. We'll be chatting with Tiami Mulder, who is an earthquake seismologist, about the Big One and what makes Vancouver Island a hotspot for seismic activity.

Dave Graham: On a future podcast, I want to give you fair warning on this because it isn't every day we get to chat with a music legend, Randy Backman. He is hitting the road again with Backman Turner Overdrive. They'll be crossing Canada with their Back in Overdrive tour starting in Victoria April 1st. And on today's podcast, we'll be chatting with another musician who's been around for a little while, Sherry Ulrich of BTU. That's Bentall Taylor Ulrich. 

Peter McCully: Ed Willis was a regular columnist for the province newspaper and covered the Vancouver Canucks. He's written a new book entitled, Never Boring, The Up and Down History of the Vancouver Canucks. And we'll have him in for a chat as well. 

Dave Graham: The news has been full of headlines lately about the wildfires in California and needing to find a new prime minister and, and Donald Trump suggesting that Canada would make a fine 51st state.

Peter McCully: There's been a lot of back and forth from some Canadian elected officials and the prime minister himself actually talking about why Canada would never become part of the United States. Elizabeth May, who's a member of parliament for Saanich and the Gulf Islands. Spoke to the media recently about the whole hullabaloo.

Elizabeth May: Newsflash, Donald Trump, we are not aspiring to be a 51st state. We are already a sovereign country. We are a nation. And anytime anyone looks around the world for the top 10 places to live, Canada's in the top half of the top 10, always the United States. Never. Even the U. S. News and World Report, which puts together such a list, looks at things like affordability, access to health care, safe streets, where do you want to live, Canada.

Our Olympic athletes, when climbing the podium, don't stand up there and sing, Oh, to be somewhere down the list after Puerto Rico. No. We sing the true North strong and free, we stand on guard, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. So no matter how many Trump photos of him in business suits striding a Swiss mountain he posts with a Canadian flag, we're not intimidated.

So I read, I read a lot, and I say, okay, people who know Trump in business deals say this is his tactic before negotiation, humiliation, business approach, okay. So. I take offense. We do not strive to be the 51st state. We're a G7 country. We are part of the world as an independent, sovereign nation. So, no, no, sorry, and I really also take offense, sorry Mr.Trump, I took offense to your idea that Pierre Poilievre wasn't good enough to lead the conservatives. Wayne Gretzky, I mean, he's great. He is the great one. He skates to where the puck is going. It's not going to MAGA. The puck is on a Canadian ice rink. And by the way, Mr. Trump, please, before making public pronouncements, that Wayne Gretzky should run for prime minister, give yourself or get yourself a briefing on the nature of parliamentary democracy, a Westminster parliamentary system, and a constitutional monarchy, where no one runs for prime minister.

We have elections for members of Parliament. We don't get to pick and choose among our billionaire friends for who gets a seat at the cabinet table. If they're not an elected member of Parliament Well, Canadian system is different from that of the United States of America. I suggest that Mr. Trump find one of his grandchildren's school books and look at the year 1776, which may explain a few things to him about why our systems of government are different.

I don't want to belittle Mr. Trump, but on the other hand Hey, Donald, have we got a deal for you. You think we want to be the 51st state? Nah. But maybe California would like to be the 11th province. How about it? California? Oregon? Washington? You've got geography in common gloves. And not only that, we've already got a carbon trading system between California and Quebec.

We've got some strong alliances on our west coast from British Columbia. There's been a lot of academic papers on the idea of Cascadia. So California, Governor Newsome, and Washington State, Jay Inslee, and newly elected governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek. How about it? Want to put a referendum to your citizens?

Cause this is what you deal. Have we got a deal for you? This is what you get. Free healthcare. Universal free healthcare. No more one year olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list and their parents are in the news cause they're trying to do a GoFundMe so they can get their daughter to a doctor.

Universal, free health care. And guess what? Those gun laws that your Congress is too afraid to pass because of the National Gun Lobby, we already got our strict gun laws. Canada is a sovereign nation. Full of, guess what, proud Canadians. We're not jingoistic. We don't boast a lot. That's one of the things we kind of have in common with Jimmy Carter.

We're not a big nation for braggarts and bullies. We actually like to think we're of service in the world. We could do better. We can always do better. But we love our country. And it's a country. It's a nation. And we do not aspire to be the 51st state. So let's not hear that anymore. If it was a joke, it was never funny.

And it ends now. 

Dave Graham: We live in interesting times, and we are interested in what you think. So we went out, talked to some people, some of them even responded, and we posed the question, What do you think of Donald Trump's invitation for Canada to become the 51st state? 

Peter McCully: And we also asked, Would you like to see another Canadian Prime Minister from British Columbia?

You said it!: My name is Laurie, and I'm from Parksville. I think Canada's in a pretty crappy situation right now, like, we're just flopping in the wind right now. No way, man. I don't want nothing to do with Trump. That would definitely be an interesting one. At this point, I'm sort of just sitting back, eating popcorn, watching all this happen.

Like, if I had to predict the future, that would not be it. I would not expect that to come up. Would that be okay with you? The problem is, is like, I haven't gone much in research into this. I have no idea. So I can't really formulate an opinion. I would have to give it more time to set on it, though. What do you think about us becoming the 51st state?

I don't think much about that, but I am a supporter of Donald. What about our next prime minister, maybe coming from BC? Any thoughts? Not from BC. No. You got someone else in mind? Yeah. Okay. Penny from Park Sill. I don't think I can say this in polite company, Dave. Kaibosh that. Against. Okay. Any thoughts about maybe our next Prime Minister coming from BC?

Yes, I would be all over that. I really would. I don't know if she stands a chance, but I would be absolutely on board with that. Question number one is, what do you think of Trump's idea of us becoming the 51st state? Oh, don't make me laugh. No. No, it's not happening. Kevin, from Whiskey Creek. I think he's a bit of a clown.

We're asking folks, what do you think about us becoming the 51st state? Oh, crazy. That won't happen. Jim, from Courtney, not happening. Not happening. I don't care what he says, or, he's just an idiot. Any thoughts on our next Prime Minister perhaps coming from BC? That would be nice. Doubt if it'll happen, but that would be nice.

I'm Graham. I'm Bonnie. Everybody just He's playing a game. You pay nothing. Pay no attention. Why is everybody responding to him? He just wants to get everybody going on our hydro. Mr. Ford's hydro and he's about to say to them, hey, how much do you want our hydro? Now that he jokes over what's the other questions.

Would you like to see another Canadian prime minister from BC? Oh yeah. Absolutely. Oh, it's garbage. Trump had a lot of ideas last time before he was elected and most of them didn't come to fruition. He was going to build a wall between U. S. and Mexico and make the Mexicans pay for it. That didn't happen.

I'm not worried about his other blustering, bombastic idiot statements. What do you think of Trump's idea of us becoming the 51st state? I can't say that on air. And, and the other thing is Trump's not the one that's going to get a say. No, he doesn't get to say. I, unfortunately, am an American living in Canada, so I want no part of the 51st state at all.

But mind you, Canada should actually, um, seize Alaska. Yeah, forget about Vermont and all that. Take Alaska. What do you think of Trump's idea we become the 51st state? Yeah, no. Never. He's an idiot. Yeah. Have you any thoughts or hopes that our next Prime Minister might be, uh, from B. C.? Sure. Sure. Might help. Uh, you know, we get shortchanged from the East all the time, it seems.

Yeah, you don't have much say, so, yeah, that'd be good. What do you think of Trump's proposal we become the 51st state? It's crazy. Very crazy. I don't take him seriously at any time. So, but you never know, right? You never know. I don't trust him. What do you think? I try not to think about that. It's a level of absurdity that just is Totally stupid.

It's all smoke and mirrors. You just wanna make me laugh. Oh, there's nothing more to say. I think we should take California and make it part of Canada. Tit for tat. As they're busy playing with Greenland, maybe they won't notice. My name's Matt. I think people's reactions say they haven't read his first book.

This is his game plan. He does this. Remember Rocketman? What'd he get them to do? They shook hands, didn't they? We're falling for it again. That's what I think. On a more local level, any thoughts as to our next Prime Minister and maybe one from B. C.? Let's hope she wins the leadership race. It'll shoot her good and solid in the foot.

Let's hope. What's your reaction to Trump's idea we become the 51st state? I'm in. Yeah? Yeah. You can see the value to that? I can, yeah. I do. Not 100 percent sure about it, but at the same time, I don't see why not. I'm not a huge fan of him personally, but I don't object to his promises, his mandate. I think he's on track.

Yeah, I'm excited actually about the future and optimistic. Personally, I think Trump is a joke. I think that he's manipulative. And I think it's an insult to Canadians that they think that we would want to be American. Growing up. I used to, I'm 74, and I used to think it'd be really neat to be an American.

And now, I wouldn't go there if they paid me a million dollars. And my husband, he won't travel there anymore. We will only travel there to see a very good friend that's elderly. Bill. And? Denise. Not interested. Canada proud me. True Canadian. And really, I, I think he's just posturing for, uh, negotiations. No, I think so too.

Yeah. Trolling as well. Yeah. But you know what? He certainly got our government moving on the border, didn't they? I mean, they were doing squat on that and the fentanyl thing till Trump came and now they're panicking, running around like crazy trying to get things sorted out. So to me, that's a good thing.

Oh, I welcome it with all my open heart. I'm lying. No, it doesn't appeal to me at all. Do you have any hopes on another topic of our next prime minister maybe being from BC? Like Christy Clark? I'm not leaning that way at this point. No. Although the pool there is pretty shallow. What do you think about Trump's proposal that we become the 51st state?

I think he's just a big windbag, and he's just bluffing. And no, I don't want to become a part of America. 

Peter McCully: Well, Dave, that sounded like a lot of fun. Lots of great opinions. You got recognized a few times. I thought it was especially funny when that listener showed up with the rhubarb pie for you. That'll go great with your haggis.

Dave Graham: Oh yeah. Haggis and rhubarb. That'll look just fine on someone else's plate. 

Oceanside CWeed: Oceanside Seaweed. That little pot shop is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store. Since April, 2022, Seaweed is under new ownership. With a product expert at the helm that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry, Seaweed is a legacy in the making, with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community minded Seaweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19 plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Weekends and holidays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visit the online store at seaweedoceanside. ca 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca. 

Dave Graham: Ian Lindsay, one of four local recipients, along with Susanna Newton, Verna Jenkins, and Pat Weber. They all received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for their extraordinary contributions to the community. Maybe we'll get one of them to come on and talk about it. I know they aren't allowed to just pin the medal on and go for a coffee or anything. There are certainly limitations as to how and when and where and all of that. Hey, if you have any thoughts as to people we should be talking to, we're open to suggestions right now. We have someone waiting to talk. Marilyn, do tell. Who's in the green room? 

Marilyn: Shari Ulrich of Bowen Island has been performing in British Columbia since the early 70s. A member of the band Pied Pumpkin and the Hometown Band. She has a knack for attracting great musical partners, Bill Henderson, Barney Bentall, Tom Taylor and Roy Forbes, to name just a few. 

Peter McCully: Thanks for chatting with us today, Shari. 

Shari Ulrich: Very happy to be here, Peter. 

Peter McCully: BTU is back on the road, not to be confused with BTO, of course, Bachman Turner Overdrive, who are also back on the road.

Shari Ulrich: So different. So different. 

Peter McCully: Your version is yourself, Barney Bentall and Tom Taylor. How long have you three been making music together, and how did you get together in the first place? 

Shari Ulrich: We got together for one show, and I have learned that this is the way that music goes, in that we thought it was just for one show.

And I have been producing a songwriter series for the last 29 years for the Songwriters Association of Canada called Songbird North, which is a song circle of three writers. So I thought, let's do this on Bowen Island, where both Barney and I live. We were picking a third person and he said, how about Tom Taylor, who I didn't know and had never met before.

I knew of the band, She Stole My Beer, but that was as far as it went. I listened to his songs first and I said, hell yes. His songs are so good. So we did this one show and we enjoyed it so much and the audience loved it so we said let's do that again. I've learned that the things that have had endurance in my life, the musical projects have been where the intention is to do it once and then it's really fun and you do it again and you do it again and you do it again and seventeen years later we are still doing it.

Peter McCully: There seems to be big gaps in between. 

Shari Ulrich: Barney's an incredibly busy guy. Between his musical projects and going out with Adventure Canada and he goes to Greenland or Italy, he's just everywhere all the time. So I consider that we're incredibly lucky if he can ever carve out a weekend, that we can do this.

Peter McCully: So you did manage to carve out a weekend in 2015, the three of you managed to get together, sync your schedules, so to speak, and set up camp at Bernie's house and recorded an album there. 

Shari Ulrich: Yes. We, we did the first album as a live album in the same venue that we did our first concert. So about a year later we recorded that and it's called Live at Kate's Hill. And we wanted to get together with my daughter, who's an engineer and her partner, who's an engineer and record another album, which we did. That seems to take a crazy long time ago now, but it's really hard when it's sort of a side project to carve out the time. And plus everybody's recording their own songs on their own albums.

Of course, I think most of the songs that we've recorded have been recorded on one of our albums already, but a BTU version is always very different and a different kind of rich. So we dove in and did it and it was very satisfying and it's out in the world and someday we may do another. 

Peter McCully: That's going to be my next question, will there be another album?

Shari Ulrich: I hope so. We mumble about it from time to time. But again, so often either Tom or Barney have just recorded an album or they're just going into the studio. Both of them are very prolific that way and I just dive in at the drop of a hat to make a new record. I'm a little more ponderous than that, both writing and recording.

Peter McCully: You've played with Barney Bentall and another popular band, the High Bar Gang. 

Shari Ulrich: That was another unexpected, I didn't know Barney was in the band when Colin Nairn asked me if I was interested in doing it. So that was a great surprise because, of course, I already knew how much fun it was to play with him.

That's been, gosh, maybe you've done the math, maybe 12 years that we've been doing that. And again, I have learned over time that I should just say yes, whatever it is, I should just say yes. But frankly, it has never backfired and it's always turns into something that I'm just so glad I said yes to. So certainly the high bar gang is that.

High bar gang is primarily old time bluegrass or maybe new bluegrass. New grass, as they're calling it, it's all over the map. Colin is a huge fan of that genre and Barney to some extent too. And I've certainly learned to be. Cause I'd never done any cover tunes in my career. So we are covering other people's music, but we are writing our own as well for the band. So it's very fun, lots of fiddling and of course, gorgeous harmonies, my favorite part. 

Peter McCully: You mentioned Tom Taylor's band and I love the name. “She stole my beer.” 

Shari Ulrich: Yeah, it's a rocking band and they've been together for a long time and they're still at it. It's still just a really fun thing to do. They've got favorite gigs that they do annually.

And then he's in another band called Radio Grand with Colin Nairn and Colin's wife, Wendy, who are, of course, both part of the High Bar Gang. And then he started a new band called the Southern Residence, and he's just releasing an album this month, actually, that Adrian Dolan recorded and mixed and performed most of the instruments.

And it's so good. It's so damn good. And the harmony singer on that is Jen Tolmie. And Jen and I are in a trio that I just started a couple of years ago called The Luckies with her and Hilary Grist. So that's the first time in the 50 years that I've been in trios with boys that I'm in a trio with girls and it's so fun. They're all fun, but this has been particularly delightful. 

Peter McCully: And you have been doing this a while, you started on the coffee house circuit, I guess they called it in those days with Pied Pumkin and moved on to the Hometown Band. 

Shari Ulrich: Pied Pumkin was mostly community halls and OAP halls and yeah, coffee houses, I guess would be a good way to describe it. We had such a passionate following and still do. It's incomparable, that band, the spirit of that band. Again, it was a trio and I got to be all the icing with playing fiddle and the linen flute and sax in those days. Like as a musician, it was a tremendous training ground for learning to be present in the music and the power of how music can make people feel.

Claire Lawrence was producing the great Canadian gold rush for the CBC and he recorded the Pied Pumpkin and Prince George. And then he approached me because he was recording an album for Valdy. to come into the studio and add fiddle and vocals on the album that became the Valdy and the Hometown Band album, but we were not a band at that point.

We were just a sidemen. And then they wanted to take those players on the road. So hell yes. And that was really fun. And at the end of it, they said, we want the band to be a separate band. The manager at the time, Cliff Jones said, you can't do both the Pied Pumkin and the Hometown Band. You have to choose.

Which is laughable to me now, because I'm in four or five bands, and I would never let anybody tell me that now, but I did then, because I was young and impressionable. I chose the hometown band because we had just finished a coast to coast tour with Valdy, 3, 000 seat theaters, two shows a night, all across the country, and we sang one song every night, which was Flying, which was actually written by Joe Mock and the Pied Pumkin. And that's how I met the country, and that's how I ended up on that kind of a stage, thinking, Oh yeah, this is where I want to be. It was such an allure, even though my heart and soul was with the Pied Pumkin, I still veered off into that lane. I couldn't help myself. 

Peter McCully: What's the biggest venue, Shari, you remember playing? And conversely, what's the smallest, most intimate? 

Shari Ulrich: The smallest is easy, since house concerts have been invented. I've certainly played, Oh, I don't know what the smallest would be. Maybe a dozen people. I try not to make it less than 30 or 40 occasionally stuff happens. And I think probably the biggest was when the hometown band opened for Supertramp at Maple Leaf gardens.

I don't know what that capacity is, but that was pretty exciting. And I frankly assumed that was it for the rest of my career. That was the kind of rooms I was going to be playing, which frankly, although this sounds like I'm just making it up. I'm glad it's not because music is an audio art form and arenas sound terrible and it's a terrible place to make music. There's a reason that the Beatles only toured for a couple of years. 

Peter McCully: Any gigs or musical wishes on your wishlist? 

Shari Ulrich: I'd like to tour the world to 3,000 seat theaters. That would be my biggest wish. Just a nice theater. I don't need anything bigger than that. But my one regret was that I never got to play the Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean. I wanted to so desperately. I loved him so much. I still listen to those shows. There's nothing I can do about that. There's no way I'm ever going to make that happen. Not now. What a loss. 

Peter McCully: Sherry, you're a great songwriter. You've been writing all your life. How has living on Bowen Island affected your songwriting?

Shari Ulrich: There's two big assets to living on Bowen Island. One is that I live there alone. And solitude is really key to the process for me. It just is. The other is nature. It's a very safe place to walk. I do most of my lyric writing when I'm walking in the woods, and there's lots of woods there. It's, yeah, it's a very comfortable place to be alone.

Peter McCully: Any idea how many songs you've written over the years? And do you remember the first one? 

Shari Ulrich: I can't remember the first one better than I remember how many. I don't actually know. Maybe a couple hundred. The first 30 songs that I wrote were on my first three albums. And I never wrote any excess. I have since, but not much.

So the very first song I wrote was with the hometown band second album, when the album had been rejected by the record label, which they often did. Not to us, but they sent it back saying, we don't hear a hit. So I had been wanting to write songs for so many years and just didn't know how to start. I didn't know how to do it.

I thought, okay, here's my chance. I have to write a song. So I wrote a tune on the dulcimer, which was the instrument that I inherited from the Pied Pumkin era of my life, called Feel Good. And it was a very peppy, poppy, Slightly rocky, but more poppy song. And it was a very successful single. And I thought, okay, apparently I was right all along that I should be writing songs.

So, as I say, when I went solo, when the band dissolved, I knew that I had to record my own song. I wasn't comfortable singing other people's lyrics. Pied Pumkin, I did enjoy singing some of those songs, but in the hometown band, the lyrics were not how I wanted to say things and what I wanted to say. That was a big impetus to write my own.

Peter McCully: And you've had a chance to teach songwriting as well. 

Shari Ulrich: I have. When I was first asked, it was for the Songwriters Association of Canada. And I felt that this is ridiculous. You cannot teach people to write songs. You either have the instincts or you don't, because that's what I had. I never went to a songwriting class.

I just had an ear for music. Like basically that my entire career rests on the fact that I have an ear for music. I was born with it and that's all there is to it. I learned by being asked to teach it that the things that I knew instinctively had a reason that they worked. The things that I didn't do, I had reasons that they didn't work.

And so I started to learn how to convey that. I like working with other people's material as a way to teach them as opposed to just teaching them just theoretically how it works. And yeah, I really enjoy the process. 

Peter McCully: Your daughter, you mentioned, Julia, has collaborated with you both as a performer and a producer. That must be pretty satisfying to see her grow her musical DNA. 

Shari Ulrich: It certainly is. She started piano at three and violin at four. Clearly had an ear, that was apparent at the beginning. And when she was twelve, she started playing violin with me in shows. I kept saying to her, It would be great if you could sing some harmonies.

And she'd say, I will, I'm just not ready yet. And then one day, literally one day, she said, okay, I'm ready. So I sat down and taught her all the harmonies to the songs. She never had to hear them again. She just nailed them from that point on. And then she picked up accordion and guitar and mandolins and played piano sometimes in shows as well.

But she went to McGill and got her master's in music and sound recording because she's got a big science brain and she thought music was too easy. She's a very successful engineer in anybody with kids. There's two final frontiers. One is that they find their path, and it's a path that they find rewarding in every sense of the word.

And the next is that they find a partner and a spouse that fits them and allows them to be exactly who they are and feel cherished for who they are. And we have reached both of those final frontiers. It's really wonderful. 

Peter McCully: I've been playing your records and telling your stories as a broadcaster, a publisher, and now a podcaster since the late 1970s. I ran across something I'm not sure I knew before. That was that you play Carole King in a musical theater production of Tapestry. 

Shari Ulrich: Oh, we didn't have a strong theatrical component. There was a lot of choreography, but it was not really a theater piece where someone would play Carole King. We toured it, it ran for months.

It was the first theater production that I'd ever done, and I loved it. It was a whole other kind of discipline, where you're doing the same thing every day. The challenge is to give it the same spark that you would if you'd never done it before, but with more confidence, and execute it perfectly, and still have it have that life.

It was a really wonderful challenge and chapter in my life. I did another show after that as well, but that's the only theater that I've done. Do tell. Baby Boomer Blues. It was a show that was thought up by Vonnie Grindler and her theater company. It was a cast of four or five and a couple played instruments and it was music of that era but also storytelling from that era.

So we each had monologues and I wrote a lot of the script. The challenging thing for me is memorization. That's one reason why I haven't gone gung ho into theater. Like when I did the show with David Suzuki. For two seasons, he was used to memorizing long pieces of dialogue and I was not. I found it really anxiety producing that I can so easily mess with my own mind by thinking what if you can't remember it?

Peter McCully: I did a couple of things in theater, not musical theater, spoken word. There was no room on the palms of my hands because that's where I had all my words written down. 

Shari Ulrich: Yeah, it's really hard, but I did master it. I don't know if I still could. 

Peter McCully: Shari, you've been living on Bowen Island for many years, and you're originally from California, San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. I imagine you've been keeping an eye on what's been happening with the wildfires in the state? 

Shari Ulrich: Oh my god, yes. I moved to LA in the mid 80s, and the house that I lived in is right in the heart of one of the many neighborhoods that's burning. We've seen it coming, we just haven't seen it to this extent. We have in other parts of the world. And of course, when it's so close to home, it's terrifying. I don't want to be that person who says they tried to warn us, but they didn't try and warn us. And there are repercussions that are unprecedented that we are experiencing and it's heartbreaking and it's terrifying. 

Peter McCully: Any advice for aspiring musicians and songwriters, Shari, other than grow your own producer?

Shari Ulrich: I don't think you're obligated to do that. You can still have a thriving career without doing that. I have lots of advice. I don't even know where to start, so I won't give it all, but to remember that the thing that you have over anybody else because we're so prone to comparing ourselves to other people.

The only thing we have is that we are us. There's no one else like us. We are unique and that is our edge. And we don't have to think about it beyond that. We don't have to try any harder than that. We just have to be ourselves. And the same goes for being on stage. I was very uncomfortable on stage. I was never uncomfortable playing, but I didn't know how to be with the audience as a sort of hosting an evening.

And then the penny dropped that I just had to be myself. Just take myself on stage and be that same person. And the audience responds to that. That's what they want. They want to know you. They want to see you. They want to feel comfortable. My other mantra in performance is that we are obligated to make sure the audience is always comfortable.

What else? Tune your guitar, make sure it's in tune throughout the night, no matter how many times you have to tune it. If you're doing it to be famous and rich, which nobody ever says in that order. If you're doing it to be rich and famous, you're doomed to not necessarily fail, but the chances of you being happy are very slim.

If we do it to fill a hole, which is where the fame part comes in, because we're desperate to have that kind of notoriety, it doesn't fill the hole. And I think the reason that truly hugely famous people, which I have not been, thankfully, I think it's that huge dichotomy between who they feel like they are internally and how the world responds to them and how the world holds them up on a pedestal.

So they inevitably feel like a sham. It just magnifies whatever emotional problems or trauma or whatever they've experienced that they're trying to fill with this other thing called fame. It's just a recipe for disaster. I just think that making any kind of art is about processing life and sharing it with others, sharing your story so they can see themselves in your story and see their stories and share their story.

It's a very human thing. It's not about us. It's not about the person who is creating the art. I feel like when I make music and I've probably said this before, cause I feel it so strongly that when I'm on stage, I don't feel like, Hey, look at me. I'm so great. It's not about me. It's about the music and how amazing music is and its power to make us feel a huge range of emotions.

I feel so honored to get to do that, to get to create that sound that I lay out in between me and the audience, and we get to have an experience with it. I'm having an experience with it, and that's why they're having an experience with it. 

Peter McCully: Shari, thanks for your time today. 

Shari Ulrich: Thank you. 

Dave Graham: Shariy Ulrich, she's a hippy at heart. That's why she fits so well around these parts. BTU, that's Bentall, Taylor and Ulrich, respectively Barney, Tom, and Shari. They've been doing gigs together as time permits for over 20 years now and that's quite a concentration of talent performing select dates in BC this month, including Victoria and Parksville.

Peter McCully: If you're interested in joining our growing family of sponsors for The Pulse Community and Skookum Kid Stories podcasts, please let us know. Email peter at thepulsecommunity. ca 

Dave Graham: As mentioned earlier, we're starting to get out to meet people and connect that way. Always good fun. But we're always keeping the door open to hear from you, however, and we have one way our speak to us online link, you can use your phone or your computer, speak to us that way, or you can text us comments, questions, answers, suggestions. We're ready. Just click the link, 

Peter McCully: Dave. We're getting closer and closer to Robbie Burns Day. I had a call from one of your neighbors, though, asking me very politely if I could ask you not to learn the bagpipes at nine o'clock at night. 

Dave Graham: That's amazing. You should mention that because literally when I was a kid, I had a neighbor who decided to teach himself the bagpipes and he would go into his backyard to practice our backyards all adjoined.

There was, you know, there was no safe space and yeah, I could literally from my bedroom window throw a rock into his yard. And I think the thought might've crossed my mind is he would squeal and lurch about marching and blowing and squeezing, making all these noises. But, you know, in time, of course, it began to coalesce into something resembling music, but it does point to the problem. There are few safe spaces for learning the pipes. 

Peter McCully: Brian Weiss will be making an appearance on an upcoming podcast to recite the Ode to the Haggis, which is the highlight of any Burns Night Dinner. 

Dave Graham: You know, the thought dawned on me recently, I don't think there's anything else like it in the calendar. Is there? It's not like we have a Shakespeare brunch, or a Charles Dickens potluck, or an Agatha Christie feast. There's only this one Burns supper. And I learned recently there is such a thing as a vegetarian haggis. So that excuse is out. You gotta try it at least once. 

Peter McCully: So it's like a tofurkey, is that what you're saying?

Dave Graham: We have another project on the go. It's stories for kids. 

Peter McCully: Skookum Kids Stories podcasts are delightful. Original stories about a boy named Peter and his pet Eskimo dog, Gracie. They're always finding adventure. 

Dave Graham: And then there's Captain Dave, you know, I always want to lapse into some kind of a pirate voice, but Captain Dave isn't a pirate. Captain Dave and his stories of adventure aboard the Mellow Submarine. Captain Dave is the marine version of Dr. Doolittle. I think his best pal is a lobster, and boy do they have fun together. 

Peter McCully: You'll find those Pulse podcasts and Skookum Kids stories on the PulseCommunity. ca website, SkookumKids. com, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, and YouTube.

Dave Graham: We might be headed to a busy spot near you. Be on the lookout for the Peter and Dave Roadshow as we connect with you, the Pulse community, at various locations in the weeks to come. 

Peter McCully: Okay, Dave, let's head down to the cafeteria and see what special Mabel’s got on for us today. 

Dave Graham: Ooh, I hear it's alphabet soup!

Peter McCully: I tried making alphabet soup from scratch once, but it spelled disaster. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right. Com