Day: August 9, 2023

New album release: Try To Make It Fly – Lonesome Ace Stringband

Lonesome Ace Stringband’s upcoming Try To Make It Fly follows the trio’s legendary live show energy into a new era of Americana-leaning lyricism. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Lonesome Ace Stringband brings grit, skill, and abandon to Americana music, bridging old-time, bluegrass and folk traditions into a seamless hybrid of original material that is at once fresh and timeless. Instrumentation alone sets this Toronto-based trio’s sound apart: consisting simply of fiddle (John Showman), clawhammer banjo (Chris Coole), and upright bass (Max Heineman). Call Lonesome Ace Stringband whatever genre you want – they are just unorthodox enough to be brilliant. The spine-tingling harmonies and interchanging lead vocals only bring more magic to the equation. They have become festival favorites at Rockygrass, Celtic Connections, Winnipeg Folk Festival, MerleFest, and regularly tour the USA, UK, Germany and, of course, Canada. With more than a decade of group music-making under their belts, they are releasing their fifth album, a feisty and mighty collection of all-original material titled Try To Make It Fly on October 13, 2023. (IV-PR, 2023)

The release of their brand new album Try To Make It Fly marks not only their reinvigorated, live-on-stage sound but also a venture into more Americana-leaning songwriting. “We have a unique take on all of the traditional material we do and wanted to keep pushing our sound to new places,” says Showman—not unlike the paths taken by legendary predecessors like John Hartford or The Band. While Lonesome Ace Stringband’s finely tuned musicianship and command of the old-time and bluegrass music catalog has garnered new listeners and premier festival slots, the trio finds comfort in reaching out to a new, song-hungry audience. “It felt like a place where we could be ourselves as writers and craft music that would fit the genre regardless of what we found ourselves writing about lyrically.” Add that to the trio’s already dynamic concoction of fiddle, banjo, and bass, and the results reveal a bright future for the ever-evolving Lonesome Ace Stringband.

Folk Radio UK premiered the album-opening track, Sweeter Sound, which features the band’s inspired, layered harmonies. The song opens with Showman’s somber fiddle pull before Coole joins in on banjo, igniting the rollicking journey to “make a sweeter sound.” According to Malone, “The opening line of the chorus, ‘Try to make it better than the way we found,’ is something of a mantra for the band. Perseverance and belief in what you love to do and trying despite evidence of success is the essence of its message.”

Fans can stream or purchase Sweeter Sound, check out Lonesome Ace Stringband’s previously-released, BBQ-flavored single Smoke on the Shoulder music video and pre-order or pre-save Try To Make It Fly ahead of its October release.

Try To Make It Fly track list:
Sweeter Sound
Praying For Rain
You’ll Be There
First Frost/Blue Grouse
Midnight Band
Come With Me Tonight
Simply Going Sideways
Crossing The Junction/Deer River
Smoke On The Shoulder
The Echo
Country Mile
Lonesome Ace Number 1

Catch Lonesome Ace Stringband on tour:
August 26 – Sorrento, BC – Nimble Fingers Bluegrass & Old Time Workshop and Festival
September 2 – Pilesgrove, NJ – Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
September 15-16 – Flagstaff, AZ – Pickin’ In The Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival
September 19 – Nashville, TN – AMERICANAFEST
October 18 – Cambridge, MA – Club Passim
October 19 – Exeter, NH – The Wood Barn
October 20 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Caffe Lena
October 21 – Brownfield, ME – Stone Mountain Arts Center
October 22 – Greenfield, MA – Hawks & Reed
October 23 – New York, NY – City Vineyard at Pier 26
October 25 – Vienna, VA – Jammin’ Java
October 26 – Oberlin, OH – Music at Riverdog
October 28 – Manitowoc, WI – Sabbatical Brewing Co.
October 29 – Holland, MI – Park Theatre
October 30 – Ann Arbour, MI – The Ark
November 1 – Toronto, ON – The Tranzac Club
November 22 – Edmonton, AB – Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society
November 23 – Saskatoon, SK – The Bassment
November 24 – Red Deer, AB – The Velvet Olive
November 25 – Calgary, AB – Foothills Bluegrass Circle Music Society
November 27 – Missoula, MT – Longstaff House
November 29 – Sisters, OR – The Belfry
December 1 – Portland, OR – McMenamins White Eagle Saloon & Hotel
December 2 – Seattle, WA – Ballard Homestead
December 3 – Victoria, BC – Victoria Event Centre
December 4 – Vancouver, BC – The Anza Club
December 5 – Oliver, BC – The Oliver Theatre

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Book review: ‘Hospital’ by Han Song

‘Hospital’ by Han Song, translated by Michael Berry. Photo: Amazon

Han Song is a journalist with Xinhua News Agency and one of China’s leading science fiction writers. A native of Chongqing, Han earned an MA in journalism from Wuhan University. He began writing in 1982 and has published numerous volumes of fiction and essays. His novels include “The Red Sea,” “Red Star over America,” the Rails trilogy (“Subway,” “High-Speed Rail,” and “Orbits”), and the Hospital trilogy (“Hospital,” “Exorcism,” and “Dead Souls”), which has been described as a new landmark in dystopian fiction. “Hospital” is a twisted, experimental narrative of one man’s mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system. It is translated to English by Michael Berry.

Michael Berry is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA at UCLA. He is the author of “Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers” and “A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film,” among other books. He is a two time NEA Translation Fellow (2008, 2021) and has received Honorable Mentions for the MLA Louis Roth Translation Prize and the Patrick D. Hanan Book Prize.

“Hospital” – It begins in the Prologue – Red Cross On Mars where the destination of the SS Mahamayuri is Mars but inevitably ends in disaster. It has nothing to do with the rest of the book, which is divided into 3 main parts: Illness, Treatment, and Postscript: Surgery. Illness is where Yang Wei’s story gets underway. He is traveling to C City for work but aside from the usual business trip, he mainly expects a break from his daily routine and a pleasant stay at a nice hotel.  When he checks into his hotel room, that is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things do not improve; they only get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date, just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he is now circulating through. Armed with nothing but his own confusion, Yang Wei travels deeper into the inner workings of the hospital and the secrets it is hiding from the patients. As he seeks escape and answers, his mysterious illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.

This novel is described as dystopian, a “twisted and dreamlike tale of a man’s journey,” and indeed, reading through it, it definitely feels dreamlike and unstructured. It has elements of science fiction, suspense, social satire, experimental fiction, and commentaries on the Chinese social structure. It is narrated in the first person point of view but does not have much of a plot; it is mainly Yang Wei’s hospital experience in the ‘Age of Medicine.’ What begins as a normal hospital admittance warps into philosophical musings: “the pain reminded me that I was still alive” which leads to his spiritual enlightenment. Halfway through it, he feels like he has no control over what happens to him in the hospital, which could be considered a metaphor for life itself. The writing style is at times descriptive “Her blood flowed over my chest and dripped down over my stomach, which added some cozy warmth and colorful excitement to my pain,” but sometimes tends to drone on just like the philosophical musings. Even though Yang meets several people throughout his journey, they are in his life briefly and have little character development, unlike Yang himself. This review is for the English translation, so some cultural aspects might be overlooked or misinterpreted. Overall, “Hospital” is a long and dark novel with hints of satire, allegory, and social commentaries and is recommended for readers who appreciate dystopian fiction and dark humor.

“The bench was littered with a dense mass of patients huddled together like flies, their moans converging into a constant buzz-like drone as if they were all trying to tell me, Thank goodness you made it here to the hospital in time.”

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.

Rating: 3 out of 5.