Tag: John Showman

LISTEN: The Lonesome Ace Stringband, “May Day” (with The Andrew Collins Trio)

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: The Lonesome Ace Stringband with The Andrew Collins Trio
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “May Day”
Release Date: May 1, 2024

In Their Words: “Andrew and I wrote this tune together about 20 years ago. It was the first of May and we spent it in the sun, picking fiddle tunes, looking at flowers, and getting in the groove with the mycorrhizal network. This melody revealed itself to us in the early afternoon, setting the vibe for the rest of the day. I’ve always found this tune beguiling. It’s hard to put your finger on its mood; to me, it’s ultimately hopeful, but it has to go through a lot before it gets there! I’ve recorded ‘May Day’ three times now; each version is very different. I can’t seem to keep away from this tune! It was so wonderful for John and me to have the chance to collaborate with Andrew, Adam, and James on this release!” – Chris Coole, the Lonesome Ace Stringband

Track Credits:

Andrew Collins – Mandolin
Chris Coole – Banjo
James McEleney – Bass
Adam Shier – Guitar
John Showman – Fiddle

Video Credits: Edited by Chris Coole. P.D. archival footage filmed by Arthur Edward Pillsbur from the Prelinger Collection.
Photo Credit: Andrew Collins Trio by Andrew Collins; the Lonesome Ace Stringband by Jen Squires.

LISTEN: John Showman & Chris Coole, “Long Hot Summer Days”

Posted on by Editor

Artists: John Showman and Chris Coole
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Song: “Long Hot Summer Days”
Album: Much Further Out Than Inevitable – A Fiddle and Banjo Tribute to Some Music of John Hartford
Release Date: December 2, 2022

In Their Words: “This is one of 14 tracks from our new John Hartford tribute album. I’d always loved Hartford’s original version of this song, but a few years back, I heard my friend Maddie Witler play this song while we were on tour in Germany. I was taken by how she’d interpreted the melody and made it a bit more bluesy (at least in my memory). I tried to bring some of that into my cover of ‘Long Hot Summer Days.’ It’s played on a gourd banjo, which definitely helps bring the ‘skank’ a little. This is just one more example of Hartford’s masterful ability to use word imagery to turn a song into something more like a movie.” — Chris Coole

Photo credit. Jen Squires

LISTEN: Adeline Stringband, “Hickory”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Adeline Stringband (L to R: Chris Coole, Mark Kilianski, John Showman, Adrian Gross, Sam Allison)
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Song: “Hickory”
Album: Adeline
Release Date: July 23, 2021

In Their Words: “This session was definitely one of the loosest, most off-the-cuff, and most creative I’ve been a part of, and I’d hazard to say the same is true for the other guys. Smack dab in the middle of the pandemic — when none of us had really seen anyone besides immediate family for about a year — we holed up in a cabin in the woods and recorded old time tunes for three days and three nights. Seeing as it was -20º and there was a blizzard outside the whole time, there was nothing to do but pick tunes and roll the tape, and that’s exactly what we did. We learned “Hickory” from the great fiddler Earl White, and you can really hear the group interplay on this track.” — Adrian Gross

Photo credit: Chris Coole