ALI MILNER: "Can't Change This Girl"

So there you are carving the Upper Panorama run and looking pretty damned good, truth be told, when a boarder with screaming red hair goes flaming by you at Mach two. That was not Shaun White.

But it could very well have been singer-songwriter Ali Milner, who is very comfortable up here in these hills because, you see, she grew up in Whistler. She's a Babe of the Blackburn, a Spawn of the Schuss. Incredibly, she doesn't have an Australian accent.

There were 350 kids in her high school and she had the same group in her graduating class she had in Grade 1. And grad wasn't that far back -- she turns 20 next month. But already she has her second album out and has scored random gigs from the Four Seasons in Whistler to work in Arizona, Tokyo and London.

There were also a couple of shows with the Olympic/ Paralympic activities. And to think it all started -- as good things in life always seem to -- with a trip to Costco.

"I was probably 10 or 11," says Milner. "I was with my mother at Costco and they have that little listening station where you can sample stuff and there was this CD called The Great Ladies and the Great Gents of Jazz and I just got really into it. I was really stoked on Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday."

Pretty alert for a kid that age but perhaps not too surprising considering she grew up in a home where musical tastes ranged from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Dave Brubeck to Garth Brooks. By 13, Milner was taking piano and, while she learned the great jazz standards that compilation CD inspired in her, today she's veering away from specializing in any one genre.

On her current I Dare You release, you can hear the jazzy inflections but there's a lot of contemporary pop in there.

Milner's free download this week is called "Can't Change This Girl," co-written with producer Don McLeod and singer-songwriter Sherry St. Germain.

"Me and Sherry were actually going through breakups at the same time," says Milner. "Pretty much our breakups inspired it. I think it says me, the singer, is a strong person and I'm not willing to change, you have to love me for who I am. I think it's important that you don't want to change someone. And you can't change anyone."

Download songs from these artists at theprovince.com/musicdownloadstoday and watch for more every Tuesday!

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