Shari Ulrich hosts Claire Coupland, John Wort Hannam & Deborah Holland for Tues. May 27th's Songbird North - Vancouver's longest running songwriters showcase (30 years!) presented by the Songwriters Association of Canada.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS – May 27, 2025
CLAIRE COUPLAND
A former Torontonian, now settled on the west coast, critically acclaimed singer songwriter Claire Coupland combines her smooth signature folk finger picking, soaring melodies and a dose of jazz-school chord changes to modern folk music. Claire has been relentlessly touring and appearing at festivals all over Canada, the US and the UK since 2017. Her latest release “New Light” was produced by and recorded with Juno award winning musician Sam Weber (Bahamas, Terra Lightfoot, Madison Cunningham) in California with contributions from some of LA’s finest musicians (Dawes, Alan Hampton). In Sam’s words "Claire is a compelling artist of deep significance. Her evocative voice, songwriting and harmonic sensibility assures this album to be an important piece of the Canadian cultural mosaic.” The songs deliver carefully crafted, darker and more vulnerable reckonings of self-worth, escaping abuse, fragile family dynamics and ultimate hope for the future. Her music has reached #3 in the national college/community radio charts, had steady CBC & BBC UK airplay and has received rave reviews from music publications around the world.
JOHN WORT HANNAM
John Wort Hannam has been on his folk and roots-fueled troubadour journey for two decades. Twenty-two years in, he shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, he’s gaining both momentum and a wider audience, winning two 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Solo Artist of the Year and Contemporary Album of the Year. Add to this a Juno Award nomination, a Kerrville New Folk Win, a previous Canadian Folk Music Award, and it’s easy to see why audiences and critics alike hear something special in his narrative and lyrically driven songs. Effortlessly mixing rich and clear timbered vocals with lyrics that tug at the heart, his sound is both unique and familiar.
Born on the island of Jersey in the UK, and now based in Alberta, he immigrated to Canada at the age of nine. He discovered the guitar and his knack for writing songs in his early thirties while working as a teacher on the Kainai Nation in Blackfoot country. In 2001, John quit his teaching job and made himself a promise - he would try his hand at writing songs for 10 months or until his employment insurance ran out. When time was up, he had a handful of songs. They became his first recording, released in 2002. Twenty-two years later, John is recognized as one of the best folk roots songwriters in Canada and has released 8 full length recordings.
DEBORAH HOLLAND
Since being introduced to the world as the lead singer and songwriter of Animal Logic, (with Stewart Copeland of The Police and jazz bassist Stanley Clarke), with whom she recorded 2 albums Deborah went on to record 6 solo albums, 3 with the folk-Americana "super-group" The Refugees with Wendy Waldman and Cidny Bullens.
Having performed on both The Tonight Show and Late Night, her songs from her vast catalogue have been featured in acclaimed series like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, CSI, My Name Is Earl, and dozens of others. She is also educator, first for a decade at California State University, then as Program Director of music at Langara College. She continues to teach the History of Popular Music at Douglas College.
In November of 2022, after a 30 plus years hiatus, Animal Logic released 2 new songs, "Can You Tell Me" and "Ordinary” and her new solo album, I MADE IT THIS FAR, was just released in March 2025.
SHARI ULRICH (Host / Producer)
2024 marked 50 years of making music for multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Shari Ulrich. She began writing songs at the end of the reign of The Hometown Band in 1977. Her first song "Feel Good" was a hit for the band. Her solo career followed from 1978 with radio hits with "She Remembers", "Bad Bad Girl", "Romeo", "Every Road", etc. Since then, she has released nine albums of original material, along with another 16 in her collaborations with Pied Pumkin, UHF (Bill Henderson & Roy Forbes), and BTU (Barney Bentall & Tom Taylor) and the High Bar Gang. Her work has garnered two Juno Awards and several nominations, an induction into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, and a Canadian Folk Music Award for English Songwriter of the Year. Thanks to her love of the unique chemistry of a song circle, Shari has been producing and hosting Bluebird North / SongBird North both nationally and locally since 1996 and at the Roundhouse since 2005. www.shariulrich.com/