Vancouver Roots Rockers Son of James Reimagine The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble” Through Chinese Canadiana
Vancouver’s Son of James has released a cover of The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble,” rebuilt through the band’s own Chinese Canadiana lens and pulled from an unlikely source: a Lunar New Year party still in the planning stages.
The idea took shape mid-commute.
“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,” says frontman Shon Wong. With that event already blending Johnny Cash favourites, line dancing, mahjong and ping pong through the lens of Vancouver’s Chinatown, the song landed differently than it ever had before. “Almost instantly, I stopped hearing it as the original recording and started hearing it as a Son of James song,” he says.
The reimagining happened fast, and by ear.
“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,” Wong says. “Then I started hearing all of our voices, Richard, Adam, Tannie, Yung, and mine, stacking harmonies throughout the song.” That drive, he says, became the beginning of the band’s version.
The recording brought together the musicians Wong calls the heart of Son of James: 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, and vocalists Tannie Lam and Yung Coffey.
Rather than a straight tribute, the cover was built around a single question.
“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?” Wong says. “The erhu and guzheng don’t replace the country influences, they sit beside them, creating a conversation between musical traditions that reflects who we are as Chinese Canadians.”
Wong says the finished track holds onto the spirit of the original while carrying a sound distinctly its own.
“It’s country soul, Chinatown, and a whole lot of Chyna Trucker Funk,” he says. “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.”
“There’s Your Trouble” follows Son of James’ earlier singles “Come On” and their cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” both drawn from a catalogue built on the same premise: rock, funk and soul instrumentation running alongside the guzheng, erhu, and the sounds of Vancouver’s Chinatown. The track arrives ahead of the band’s forthcoming album, ‘Things I Never Knew.’
Hi, Shon! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
I’m Shon Wong, frontman of Son of James, a Vancouver band blending roots rock, funk and soul with traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu and guzheng. We call the sound Chyna Trucker Funk.
A lot of what we do comes from growing up as a third-generation Chinese Canadian in Vancouver and finding my own way to express that through music. Instead of treating those influences like separate worlds, we throw them together and see where they take us.
At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make music that sounds like where we come from — Vancouver, Chinatown and everything in between.
You’ve said the whole idea came to you mid-commute, hearing The Chicks’ original and almost instantly hearing it as a Son of James song instead. What was it about that specific drive, that specific moment, that made the song click differently than it ever had before?
I think it was because I was already deep into planning Fire Horse Rising, our Lunar New Year show built around this idea of a country-inspired Kung Fu Saloon. I’d been thinking about Johnny Cash, line dancing, mahjong, Chinese instruments — all these things that probably shouldn’t fit together on paper, but somehow do.
So when “There’s Your Trouble” came on, my brain was already in that world. I heard the fiddle and immediately heard Anna’s erhu. The banjo and pedal steel became Michelle’s guzheng. Then I started hearing Tannie, Yung, Adam and Richard stacking the harmonies, with Ed and Johnny holding down the rhythm underneath it all. By that point, I wasn’t really hearing The Chicks anymore — I was hearing Son of James.
It wasn’t something I sat down and tried to arrange. The whole Son of James version basically started playing in my head while I was driving home.
Once you got into the room with Richard, Adam, Johnny, Ed, Michelle, Anna, Tannie, and Yung, did the song come together the way you’d imagined it on that drive, or did it change once everyone started playing?
The funny thing is, we never actually rehearsed it. Honest to God.
I arranged the video shoot with Hugh and Nic, sent everyone the song and the idea, and everybody learned their parts on their own. The one thing I did arrange beforehand was the vocals. I literally worked out the harmonies and singing parts on paper — who was singing what, where they came in and where the harmonies would stack.
The day of the shoot was basically the first time we all played it together. We ran through it a couple of times, figured out a few things on the fly, and what you see in the video is the third take.
And somehow, it sounded pretty much like what I’d been hearing in my head on that drive. Obviously everyone brought their own personality to it, which made it better, but there wasn’t some big rehearsal process or weeks of arranging. It was more like, “Okay, everybody know what they’re doing? Cool. Let’s roll.”
Sometimes you can rehearse something to death. This one just needed everybody to show up and trust their instincts.
You’ve said your goal wasn’t simply to reinvent a country classic, but to ask what it would sound like if it had been written in Vancouver’s Chinatown instead of Nashville. Once you started actually building the track, what surprised you most about how naturally, or not, that question answered itself?
There really wasn’t much “building” involved. To me, traditional Chinese music is country music. It comes from the same kind of place — storytelling, tradition, instruments with very distinct voices and music that’s connected to where people come from. So I just knew in my gut it was going to work.
What surprised me was how easily everyone else heard it too. I thought we might have to spend time figuring out how the erhu and guzheng would fit into a country song, but Michelle and Anna just got it. Everybody did.
Nobody was trying to force Chinese music into a country song. We just played it as ourselves, and everyone nailed it.
This single arrives ahead of your album ‘Things I Never Knew.’ Does “There’s Your Trouble” tell us anything about where that record is headed, or does it sit apart as its own kind of statement?
“There’s Your Trouble” probably sits a little apart musically, but the spirit of it definitely connects to the record.
Things I Never Knew is really a walk through Vancouver — its history, its nightlife, Chinatown, personal struggles, love and loss. It’s a musical journey too. One moment you’re in a late-night jazz club. The next, you’re caught in a street shootout. Then a gospel choir comes in to lift your soul before giving way to experimental Chinatown beats and, finally, a sweet serenade for the one you love.
From the Streets of Chinatown to a Downtown Kiss, a Black Mini Dress, Wild Canyons and eventually Off to Alaska, these are songs about the places we go, the people we meet, the times we get Beat Up and what we learn along the way.
The title has a couple of meanings for me. There are the things you discover about your city, your history, other people and yourself. Then there are the things you wish you’d known earlier. Sometimes life feels like a showdown — you walk Ten Paces, turn around and ask yourself, are you Tough Enough? And sometimes you realize There’s Your Trouble.
And sometimes, even with everything you know now, there are things you just can’t change.
That’s really Things I Never Knew — looking back, learning from it and continuing to move forward.