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Music From This American Life - album

by Stephen Ulrich

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Music From This American Life - album via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $22 USD or more 

     

1.
Earthly 03:49
2.
Handheld 03:22
3.
The Swell 03:58
4.
5.
6.
Rinse Cycle 02:46
7.
Housebroken 03:43
8.
If And When 03:11
9.
Unpretty 03:39
10.
Bookworm 03:08

about

Guitarist and composer Stephen Ulrich first solo album is an antic and ambling assemblage of instrumentals composed for public radio’s beloved and iconic program This American Life.

The New York-based musician is, of course, widely admired for his decades of live performances and recordings, most often fronting his trio Big Lazy. The group, which also features drummer Yuval Lion and bassist Andrew Hall, is known for the immediacy with which it conjures something timeless, akin to a furtive glance down a rain soaked alley or a fugitive interlude at an all-night diner: melodic patches and scraps collected from the rich and crazy expanse of Americana, at once noir and pastoral, gothic and modern, spare yet elegant, nimbly shaded by all the essential and archetypal genres, from swing to rockabilly, blues to surf music.

As indelibly accomplished as he is in so many formats, Ulrich now turns to radio. In 2020, the Pulitzer Prize-winning show This American Life commissioned ten pieces from the composer to convey the yearning, intrigue, and beauty of a program that has become the benchmark of modern storytelling, its eclectic themed episodes drawing on the vibrant and colorful expanse of American oral traditions and narrative yarn-spinners. An ideal match for the broadcast’s unique, personal insights and surprising perspectives, the music Ulrich composes is both humorous and
unsettling, cloud-darkened and shining like a new dawn, a touch off-kilter and fancy on its feet.

These ten tracks, with evocative titles like “Unpretty” and “Rinse Cycle,” weave a melodic and textural thread through multiple episodes of the iconic show, and complement its tone, slipping in and out of focus, serving as both foreground and background.

Produced by Grammy-winning producer/engineer Dean Sharenow, the album also features the keyboards of acclaimed pianist/singer/producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman). With fluid style and cinematic scale, Music from This American Life tells its own tales in a distinctly American vernacular.

credits

released February 3, 2023

Produced by Dean Sharenow
Stephen Ulrich - guitars, composition
Dean Sharenow - drums
Thomas Bartlett - keyboards

2023, Barbes Records

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Stephen Ulrich Brooklyn, New York

Guitarist Stephen Ulrich has led the trio Big Lazy for over two decades.
Simultaneously noir and pastoral, gothic and modern, Ulrich's compositions dwell in the unmistakable landscape of gritty yet gracefully crafted American music conjuring images of everything from big sky country to seedy back rooms. Ulrich also composes for film and TV - and now, radio. ... more

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