A Kamloops singer-songwriter has released a children’s album he recorded more than 20 years ago as he seeks to share his music far and wide.
Brian Bouthillier is a Thompson Rivers University instructor by profession, but outside the classroom, he remains an active musician, recording and releasing a folk album in 2018 and, more recently, resurrecting a children’s album he recorded with various musicians and a former bandmate in the 1990s.
Recorded in the mid-1990s, All in the Family is a seven-track album of children’s music that Bouthillier released digitally this summer through CDBaby.
The album’s official release comes after years of Bouthillier sharing the album privately and with his own family, including his 18- and 19-year-old sons who listened when they were kids, and his five-year-old son, who listens to it today.
The album is not Bouthillier’s first recording.
After picking up a degree in creative writing from the University of Victoria, he moved to Vancouver and co-founded the rock band The Love Weasels.
The rock band, which Bouthillier described as a contemporary to bands like 54-40 and Spirit of the West, was never signed, but did release a self-titled six-track cassette in 1989.
After a few years, the band called it quits and everyone went their separate ways.
Years later, Bouthillier reconnected with one of his bandmates, George Leger, who founded Utopia Parkway Music. Over the years, Leger has had various engineering responsibilities for acts such as Geddy Lee, Nickelback, The Paperboys and the Matthew Good Band.
“George was instrumental in the children’s project,” Bouthillier said.
“He was the natural go-to person. He had the studio, so he engineered, produced and played almost all of the instruments on the album — guitar, keyboard, drums.”
The release of the album, like his first solo album in 2018, is another chance for Bouthillier to share what he creates — and, in some ways, another shot at a dream he had when he was younger.
“Even after graduation, I kind of wanted to be a musician, but I didn’t think it was going to be something I could succeed at,” he told KTW.
Bouthillier’s contribution to the album includes music and vocals, while Alan Millen wrote the lyrics and Leger contributed other instruments and mixing.
“I think they still sound pretty fresh,” he said of the album’s songs. “I still think, after all these years, they came out really well.”
All in the Family is available on streaming services, including YouTube. More information can be found on Bouthillier’s website at bbouthillier6.wixsite.com/brianbouthillier.
