A blend of folk, rock, country and pop from 3 of Western Canada's most unique and well-loved singer-songwriters. No overdubs: guitars, violin, piano, mandolin, & dulcimer live off the studio floor--simply acoustic, simply amazing voices and musicianship.

12 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, FOLK: Folk Pop



Details:
The enigmatically named acoustic/vocal trio, UHF, are Shari Ulrich, Bill Henderson, and Roy Forbes, as brilliant a teaming of three disparate talents as a Canadian West Coast accident could ever be.

When they first joined forces in 1989, Vancouver-born Henderson was best known as the long-time lead singer and songwriter for the successful Collectors and Chilliwack bands. Ulrich, an ex-Californian, had been a former key member of British Columbia's Pied Pumkin, the Hometown Band, and a respected solo singer-songwriter; while Forbes, a Northern BC, Dawson Creek émigré, known for years as Bim, was a long time formidable staple on the North American folk/roots circuit.

As it happens, Vancouver's annual Winter Roots Festival organizers approached Forbes and Ulrich eight years ago about teaming with a third musician/singer for a one-off performance. The only question was, who?

"It was actually Roy," remembers Ulrich, "who said, 'what about Bill Henderson?' So, we called him up and he was game. We had the intention of only doing that one concert but we just had such a blast, we wanted to keep going."

After coming up with the name UHF and weighing the success of that first show, an album seemed the next logical move.

Ulrich, Henderson and Forbes are all seasoned and prolific songwriters - indeed, each continues a solo recording and performance career to this day - but it took a special focus to come up with tunes that suited the trio. The 1990 release, UHF, was an inspired tour de force that more than fit the bill.

Opening with the scat-laced fan fave "When I Sing," a Henderson composition, and working through Forbes' up-tempo "Keep Lightin' That Fire," and Ulrich's moving "House Up On the Hill, the record was a critical success.

"It's a wonderful balance," Henderson has said of the group. "I find some neat mysteries in it. One of them is how we get the vocal blend we do. I would never have expected that to work. But it just did, an amazing surprise."

For his part, Forbes considers his and Henderson's driving guitar work an integral part of the mix.

"The twin guitar attack that Bill and I have is really developing...and with Shari in the middle playing fiddle and mandolin...we're pulling things out of each other. It's a powerful force."


To learn more about these artists and UHF, please visit the artists' websites:

Shari Ulrich, www.shariulrich.com
Bill Henderson, www.gonegonegone.com
Roy Forbes, www.royforbes.ca