Kris Ulrich - Big In The USA (2023)

Winnipeg’s Kris Ulrich returns to his roots on his sophomore
album Big in the USA. His songs, some inspired from moving to
Toronto while working on his first album and some from his
small town roots were all recorded at Ulrich’s home and
co-produced by himself and frequent collaborator Boy Golden.
Ulrich performs most of the parts on the album but has a number
of friends from the Winnipeg music community contribute across
the album to fill out the tracks with keys, drums, or bass as
needed. What comes out is an introspective album about Ulrich
making peace with where his dreams have led him.

The album opens with its first single (and my fave from the
album) “Friends on The Internet”, an airy track that blends
Ulrich’s lap steel with Kieran Placetka’s synths over a steady
drum machine beat that gets elevated by a solid lyrical hook.
Turning internet acquaintances into friendships in the real is
tough, but Ulrich’s laissez faire take on it “Maybe that’s as
far as we’ll get / Friends on the Internet” makes it seem
stress free even as Ulrich himself was struggling with it in
moving to Toronto.

Other tracks to note are “Big in the USA”, “1994”, “Lucky”, and
“Things Are Changing”. “Big in the USA'' is a bittersweet song
about living the life of a troubadour in the modern world and
how the idea of a hit song can be as elusive as trying to
remember a dream. “1994” is a slow-moving track with an almost
subaquatic bassline that drifts through as Ulrich contemplate
the strangeness of comparing yourself with your parents when
they were your age. Following that, “Lucky” comes in like the
sun shining through a window with bright, jangly acoustic
guitar and an optimistic drive to not give up because you’ve
been lucky enough to get this far. The back half of the album
shows Ulrich looking inward: “Things Are Changing” sees the
return of the subaquatic vibe of “1994” but now Ulrich muses on
his current path and how he needs to accept the changes in his
life’s trajectory.

On Big in the USA Ulrich works on the idea that our dreams and
passions can shift as we grow and how we have to make peace
with that. The lyrics of the title track sum it up; from how it
started “When you’re a kid it’s hard to understand / And all you
wanna do is play guitar in a band” to the current day-to-day
“Worn cassettes, and rolled cigarettes / Livin’ on gas station
coffee” and accepting it “I wouldn’t change it for anything /
I’ve still got my guitar and i can still make it sing”. Across
the album, Ulrich doubts himself and his dreams but the album’s
finale “You’ve Got To Be Patient” is Ulrich taking a breath,
quieting the anxieties and recommitting to his musical dreams;
whether or not he makes it Big in the USA.