On Chinese New Year Feb. 7th 2026 (Year of the Fire Horse), GARY LUCAS released THE EDGE OF HEAVEN VOLUME TWO, featuring Chinese vocalist and erhu virtuoso FEIFEI YANG and multi-instrumentalist JASON CANDLER, on over 140 digital formats, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

"Even if you are totally, thoroughly unfamiliar with the genre known as Mid-century Chinese Pop music, you may still find yourself hypnotically drawn into this record THE EDGE OF HEAVEN VOLUME TWO, the latest collection from guitarist Gary Lucas, singer and musician Feifei Yang, and multi-instrumentalist Jason Candler. This is music originally recorded in Shanghai during the 1930s and '40s by some of the great female singing stars of China—in particular (for this program) Bai Kwong, Chow Hsuan, and Yao Lee—not exactly household names even for western aficionados, but with an indescribable allure nearly a century(!) later that is impossible not to warm up to and feel comfortable with. Gary Lucas is an adventurous musical soul whose affection for this vintage arcania is second nature, and he succeeds in delivering the magic."
—Arthur Levy, rock writer and editor emeritus, music historian, album annotator, researcher, archivist, mensch

"The ever prolific Gary Lucas has just released a new album. With this one he is revisiting the music of his earlier album Edge of Heaven where he takes a deep dive into 1930s – 40s Chinese pop from Shanghai. Edge of Heaven Vol. 2 features Gary's guitar accompanying singer Feifei Yang with Jason Candler on reeds and percussion. It took me a while to get into that first album, but once I'd listened to a few of the original songs and then went back to the album, it all made sense. There's a dreamy, otherworldly feel to the music, although that is probably a response based on hearing it with Western ears...or maybe not. Fascinating stuff, give it a go if you haven't already."
—Steve Froy, The Captain Beefheart Radar Station

Amazon Music album link here

See a 4 star review in MOJO!

Interview with Gary and Feifei Yang about the album in The Lifestyle Republic.

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN VOLUME TWO is the follow-up to Gary's album THE EDGE OF HEAVEN—GARY LUCAS PLAYS MID-CENTURY CHINESE POP, originally released on the French government-backed Label Bleu, which received stellar reviews internationally and rose to #1 on the World Music Charts.

Both albums are filled with Chinese pop songs known as shidaiqu, Mandarin for "popular songs of the era"—a fascinating amalgam of Eastern and Western musical influences.

Lush, romantic, hypnotic, and melodic, these songs were originally recorded in Pathe Studios in Shanghai in the 30's and 40's, a cosmopolitan free port at the time known as "the Paris of the East".

Here Gary focuses on the music of several of the best-known female vocal stylists of the era—part of a group known as the Seven Great Singing Stars of China—including the songs of sensual, husky-voiced singer Bai Kwong. known as the "Mae West of China": "Pretense", "Old Dreams", "If I'm Without You", and "Where is My Home", and the girlish high-pitched tones of Chow Hsuan, known as the "Golden Voice of China": "Tell Me", "On Two Roads", "Mad World", "Tale of the Man-Jong Game", "New Pair of Flowers", "Seeing Older Brother Off", and "Spring in Zhong Mountain".

The album also includes an instrumental version of a song made famous by Yao Lee ("Rose Rose, I Love You"), and a song made famous in more recent times by Taiwanese superstar Teresa Teng ("The Moon Represents My Heart").

GARY LUCAS: The former Captain Beefheart guitarist has written over 300 compositions included co-writting Jeff Buckley's "Grace" and "Mojo Pin", the first two songs on Buckley's platinum "Grace" album; composed scores for film and television; recorded over 50 acclaimed albums to date in his own right in a variety of genres—jazz, rock, classical, folk, blues, dance, electronic, avant-garde and world music—and has performed in over 40 countries—including the UK, Canada, Australia, all over Eastern and Western Europe, Japan, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Holland, Scandinavia, Israel, South Korea, Serbia, China, Russia, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Taiwan, Morocco, India, and elsewhere. Gary has received several Lifetime Achievement awards for his songwriting with Jeff Buckley and many honors—including performing solo before the General Assembly of the UN to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. He has performed and collaborated with a who's who of musical luminaries including Captain Beefheart, Lou Reed, Jeff Buckley (he co-wrote two of Jeff's anthems "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" and 10 other songs), Nick Cave, Thurston Moore, John Zorn, Chris Cornell, Joan Osborne, Nona Hendryx, Bryan Ferry, Van Dyke Parks, Bob Weir, Los Van Van, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra and many others. Dubbed "The Thinking Man's Guitar Hero" by The New Yorker, "The world's most popular avant-rock guitarist" by The Independent (UK), "One of the 100 Greatest Living Guitarists" (Classic Rock), "Legendary Leftfield guitarist" by The Guardian (UK), "Guitarist of 1000 Ideas" by The New York Times, "a true axe God" by Melody Maker, and "One of the five best guitarists in the world" by the national Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny; the British world music magazine fRoots recently described Gary Lucas as "without question, the most innovative and challenging guitarist playing today." Rolling Stone's David Fricke wrote, "Gary Lucas is one of the best and most original guitarists in America...a modern guitar miracle." Best-selling author/producer Dan Levitin ("This Is Your Brain On Music") recently cited Gary as "the greatest living electric guitarist". Gary was also dubbed "one of the world's greatest guitar players" by HITS Magazine. Pete Frame, music journalist, founder/editor of legendary UK music magazine ZigZag, and author/creator of 5 volumes of "Rock Family Trees" wrote of Gary, "Can there be another musician as adventurous, ingenious, accomplished, diverse, intrepid, hard-working and well-travelled as Gary Lucas?"

FEIFEI YANG is an internationally recognized Chinese string virtuoso, mezzo-soprano, and Voting Member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY Awards). As a Global Music Award and Berlin Music Video Award winner, she has brought the erhu to major cultural stages. Featured by media outlets including CBS, NBC, and AFP, she is acclaimed for interpreting Chinese music with emotional depth, artistic refinement, and a distinctly modern voice.

JASON CANDLER is a multi-talented musician, producer, sound designer for films, and recording engineer who has played reed instruments, guitar and percussion with Gary Lucas in a variety of ensembles since the mid-90's, as well as working with the Hungry March Band and his own group Earth People.

JUST CONFIRMED: SAT MAY 23rd at the BARRYMORE FILM CENTER in Fort Lee NJ Gary is performing his live score accompanying the Chinese silent masterpiece "THE GODDESS" (1934, d. Wu Yonggang and starring Ruan Lingyu) followed by a special live performance of songs from his album "The Edge of Heaven Vol. One and Two" with the incandescent Feifei Yang and projections of images of Old Shanghai. More details and ticket info coming soon!

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN live

The musicians in the orchestras assembled for these recordings included many European refugees fleeing the Nazis, Fascists, and Bolsheviks.

The Story of Shidaiqu (the Golden Age of Chinese Pop)

Produced by Gary Lucas and Jason Candler
Recorded and mixed in NYC by Jason Candler
Cover design by Joe Dizney
Cover photo by Jesse Winter
Executive Producer: Bob Rubin