Группа Son of James представила китайско-канадскую версию хита The Chicks перед выходом нового альбома

Vancouver band gives “There’s Your Trouble” a Chinese Canadian twist ahead of new album Vancouver band Son of James have released a new version of The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble”, reimagining the country classic through the band’s Chinese Canadian musical identity. The track was inspired by an unlikely setting – the planning of the band’s upcoming Lunar New Year celebration, Fire Horse Rising, which is built around a country-inspired Kung Fu Saloon in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Frontman Shon Wong says the idea came to him while driving home from work, with “There’s Your Trouble” playing on his playlist. “I was driving home from work while organizing Fire Horse Rising, our Lunar New Year celebration built around a country-inspired Kung Fu Saloon, when The Chicks’ ‘There’s Your Trouble’ came on my playlist,” Wong explains. With the event already bringing together Johnny Cash favourites, line dancing, mahjong and ping pong through the lens of Chinatown, Wong began imagining how the song might sound performed by Son of James. “Almost instantly, I stopped hearing it as the original recording and started hearing it as a Son of James song,” he says. The arrangement came together during that journey home, with Wong hearing traditional Chinese instruments alongside the song’s country instrumentation. “When the fiddle came in, I could hear Anna Fang’s erhu. When the banjo and pedal steel entered, I imagined Michelle Kwan’s guzheng weaving through those parts,” he says. He also began hearing the band’s voices building harmonies throughout the track. The recording brings together Richard Pinto and Adam Richards on guitars and vocals, Johnny Walsh on stand-up bass, Ed Whelan on cajón, Michelle Kwan on guzheng, Anna Fang on erhu, alongside vocalists Tannie Lam and Yung Coffey. Rather than attempting to simply reproduce the original, Son of James approached the track by asking what it might sound like if it had originated somewhere very different. “Our goal wasn’t simply to reinvent a country classic. It was to ask a different question: what would this song sound like if it had been written in Vancouver’s Chinatown instead of Nashville?” says Wong. The result places the erhu and guzheng alongside the country influences rather than replacing them, creating a meeting point between musical traditions. “It’s country soul, Chinatown, and a whole lot of Chyna Trucker Funk,” Wong adds. “We hope people don’t just hear a cover. We hope they hear how music from different cultures can naturally belong together and maybe hear a familiar song in a completely new way.” The new track arrives ahead of Son of James’ forthcoming album, Things I Never Knew.