Why do we do what we do? Why do we chase elusive goals? Why do we work ourselves to death just trying to live?

These are the questions Berk Jodoin was asking himself as he wrote “Aces & 8’s,” the first single from his new album Fly Away, slated for release in Spring 2024 via Merilainen Music.

The answer he offers? “It makes no difference, ‘cause we’re all gonna die,” Jodoin intones over the song’s stomping blues beat. It’s fatalist to be sure, but in Jodoin’s view, “This is as honest as a song can get. We all have our own answers to those questions, but in the end it’s the same for everyone.”

Of course, anyone familiar with Old West mythology knows that aces and 8’s were the cards Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was fatally shot during a poker game, hence inspiring the infamous moniker, “the dead man’s hand.” But for Jodoin, “Aces & 8’s” symbolizes the larger day-to-day struggles so many in Canadian society face. They’re all laid out on the 10 songs that comprise Fly Away, from the tragic portrait of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in “Hastings & Main,” to the scathing, self-explanatory indictment, “White Man’s World.”