Kathleen Edwards

I like the album a lot. "Sure as Shit" is a winner.

I like that Failer album, I bought it when I saw her in a support slot a couple years ago.

Did a roundup of lady singer-songwriter folkie albums for the Voice recently, and hers was my favorite, but I still have mixed feelings about it:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0810,351018,351018,22.html

"the cheapest key" was the one that jumped out at me first time through, so i put that on my ipod and have mostly ignored the rest of the album. but maybe i should give it another chance.

My big problem is with her voice -- when she's not slurring, the timbre gets too...I dunno, dulcet or something.

Well I don't know this album ye're all talking about

hey roxymuzak, i have one of her albums in some big mp3 disc book in my car. i like her, at least based on that album. "in state" is a good tune.

"the cheapest key" was the one that jumped out at me first time

Yeah, me too, and it was also the first one that reminded me of Johnston.

video for "in state", which sucks because it's totally generic and the lyrics deserve something a little more specific.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MHjOPsYhNrM

It's a good song.

There's just something about those Canadians who make country-influenced music.

I actually can't STAND "The Cheapest Key." I like the rest of the album.

If they're comparable at all, I think I like the Laura Marling album more (Alas I Cannot Swim), but this Asking for Flowers album is pretty damn good. It's weird though, cause her name seems really familiar, but I can't figure out where I heard Kathleen Edwards before.

Oh. Nevermind. An Amazon search reminded me. I really liked Failer in 2003.

On the title track, she kinda sounds like Laura Cantrell on Humming by the Flowered Vine.

I usually try to avoid saying things like this, but she seems just like a female Freedy Johnston!

NY'ers get to choose between them tomorrow nite. But perhaps she's more like a female version of tourmate Dan Wilson?

I hear an echo of Lucinda Williams, but filtered through raw-boned Canadian prairie winters instead of Louisiana bayous. But she also has a "sound", something unique to her, which sometimes makes her songs sound dangerously similar and indistinct. Failer is still my favourite -- "6 O'clock News", "In State", "Hockey Skates," "Mercury", and "National Steel" all being standouts. What I love about her slurry, supple voice is an endearing frailty at the heart of some fairly transparent tough chick fronting.

(I've only heard clips from her new one.)

"In State" is one of those rare songs that manages to successfully fit a whole lot of plot, character, and atmosphere into a single song. It's like a Sopranos episode.

Melissa McClelland (who may be in her touring band -- she's at least playing with Luke Doucet, the opener) is really good in her own right. I'm susprised her '06 CD Thumbelina's One Night Stand never has been released in the U.S. -- it's basically in the Sarah Harmer template, but with much more ambition, scale, and tunefulness.

It's currently in between Kathleen, Laura Marling, and Vampire Weekend for most played tracks this year on my iTunes. According to the counter, I like Buffalo, Oil Man's War, The Cheapest Key the most. (Oddly, tho I remember all the lyrics once the song starts playing - I can't remember which title goes to which song.)

My favorite is still "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory," though maybe I favorite because I can identify with the subject matter. It's one of my favorite songs about being in a touring band -- it's good (and rare) when songs about being a musician avoid self-hagiography.

I meant "though it may be my favorite because...", obv

I love love love Mercury and Westby.

Which is the one with the song about the incest-murder-thing?

Or rather, which song is the one about the...

Mercury is the Virgin Suicides condensed into three minutes, Westby is a brutally theatrical character study about a little bit on the side.

"Alicia Ross," it's a true story as well. xposts

"The Cheapest Key" is the alphabet song, of sorts. It's also her most energetic. I saw the video for it on one of the cable country music channels recently. It fit where the majority of her material does not. It sold the album for me, plus Back to Me. Not bad.

Right. So I love Alicia Ross. Great song. Very haunting, and reminds me of that Buffy Saint-Marie song about similar themes.

Her voice still bugs me.

"The Cheapest Key" is an alphabetish song, but I think its important to note that she only uses letters that correspond to musical keys.

Yes, teacher.

!

I love the LP BACK TO ME! almost all of it is terrific!

another song that even more amazingly crams a story in: 'Pink Emerson Radio'

I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory

my favourite as well.

Mine too, for the hockey stuff mainly (among other stuff), though I keep meaning to go back and relisten to the Neil Youngy one that everybody says they like so much. For some reason, it's never jumped out at me. Album is pretty good though -- probably the best of her three, though I don't own the first two anymore and therefore can't check. (I did like one hockey song she did earlier, however.)

Man, I don't catch hockey refs! What are they?

You're The Great One,
I'm Marty McSorley.

Ah, I figured, cause I had no idea who those were!

Failer is still my favourite -- "6 O'clock News", "In State", "Hockey Skates," "Mercury", and "National Steel" all being standouts

Yeah, that was the other hockey one. And I liked "6 O'Clock News" at the time. Maybe should've kept it.

More about her on the Can We Talk About West Coast Country Rock etc thread and Rolling Country

Getting really into 'Asking for Flowers'...

Mercury is perfect, a sad bruised thing.

Listened to this in my car for a month, and "Sure As Shit" emerged as my favorite. The one that says "Believe me, all the days you're unsure/Believe in me, I don't want to anymore" is beautiful and I can't really listen to it without tearing up but it's slightly, ever so slightly...corny?

The flirting with corniness is what makes her really good, I think. Flirting in general, even. You get that unexpected tear in the corner of your eye and you fight it, feeling naively self-conscious, but then you just admit that it's very good songwriting and even better execution and you're hooked. I'm starting to think Asking for Flowers might just be her best now.

Asking for Flowers I definitely agree is her best. My mother compares her to Neil Young, and I think she's half-right (she's talking about his Harvest-era material). Just some drop-dead gorgeous stuff that also - at least for me - works on a few levels. It just wrecks me emotionally, or sometimes it's just pretty to listen to, and sometimes I dig it like I dig Dylan, as someone who I can appreciate their cleverness and their wit and their playfulness (with Edwards, way more playfulness than the first two).

Yeah, she reminds me of Neil a lot, too.

Hadn't thought of it, but yeah, I can see that. In the surprising emotional connection sense. Even if you're only half listening, it can just sneak up on you, which I find Neil can do as well. Maybe a crafty Canadian stealth thing?

i didn't like asking for flowers at first, but have come around to it ("oh canada" is a standout). whereas back to me grabbed me immediately, especially "copied keys." clearly she has a thing for writing about keys.

Yeah, she reminds me of Neil a lot, too.

Speaking of which...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXghGA9imzg

I can't really listen to it without tearing up

"Sure As Shit" does this for me, bad scansion, goofy denim king and all

She is brilliant. I discovered her around the same time I discovered Lucinda Williams, who I think has lost the plot with her last couple of albums. Unlike Williams, Kathleen just keeps on making superbly catchy songs with a gorgeous eye for lyrical detail and wonderfully subtle arrangements. Every single track on Asking for Flowers is at the very top of my iPod most played list.

I would, too.

My friend told me today that he sat next to Lucinda Williams at a show not too long ago. he asked her what she thought about Kathleen Edwards ripping her off, lol

Kathleen Edwards > Lucinda Williams imo

Kathleen Edwards > Lucinda Williams imo

^^^^^ on this

He said LW didn't think she was ripping her off, but she would, er, reverse the above equation definitely. He also said LW was cool as hell and bought everyone drinks and stuff, so much respect towards her.

I would say KE > LW now as well (see my earlier post). Kathleen lacks Lucinda's grit and sweat but that is no bad thing. I can't stop listening to "Scared At Night", I hang on every word of it and it makes me think about how I will feel when my father dies.

i met KE after a show where she was the support like 5-6 yrs ago and she was really gracious chilling with the crowd and signing stuff and shooting the breeze in general iirc

She's opening for Bon Iver this autumn. Seemed like an odd pairing until I learned that they are an item. Still, it should give her some much deserved exposure. New album out in the autumn as well I think.

They're an item? Does that mean Edwards broke up with the guitar player (who I thought was pretty crucial to her sound/show)?

I guess she must have done, yes.

woah, had no idea about any of that. Her last record was awesome.

holy fuck this new album is great

I had no idea she was even bringing a new one out any time soon! This is exciting, she's completely under-rated for someone so talented and consistent.

I haven't heard it yet. :(

Yeah I had worries about her working w/ schmindie types but this is sounding good so far.

New album is good, the first by her I'm actually looking forward to playing again since "Failer". Bon Iver dude doesn't appear to have ruined anything about her sound; the flaws I find here (professional/polite music saps a bit too much of the urgency of her songwriting) are the same things that bothered me about her last two.

"Sidecar" is flat out wonderful (even included it on my 2011 P&J ballot thanks to iTunes releasing it as an early single) and "Pink Champagne" is devastating. Still coming around to the rest.

I do think a Canadian invoking "moving to America" as an "empty threat" is both cheeky and clever.

this album is so fucking great- huge grower

see me smile / its not for funny joke / its for every time (every time)
i don't need a punchline

Love that song. The rest, especially the second half, I find hit-or-miss.

I am curious to see if the Bon Iver connection suddenly gets her adopted by all the folks that have slept on her for three albums.

....or on the other hand if folks like me who have loved all those albums get turned off her by the Bon Iver connection. Haven't heard the new one yet but I wouldn't say that was an impossibility.

Eh, his influence is subtle. Biggest dif. is that this one lacks the polish of anything that even remotely aspired to radio play. It's indie-dull in sound.

It's indie-dull in sound

well that's down to him then b/c none of the previous three have been indie-dull at all

Bet she had to change the sheets after Justin jizzed all over them.
imshippyupup 4 days ago

xpost Yeah, but it's not like the arrangements are all indie chamber rock all of a sudden. It's just less shiny and major-label sounding, ie indie-dull.

on Dave Letterman tnite!

she was really good

she performed Change the Sheets -- which is a really great second-half cut

good performance, she looked great. however the song did indeed sound "indie dull" as described above. I like my Kathleen polished and radio-friendly.

Not sure why this song didn't make the record? Melds the "indie-dull" sound with her songwriting more effectively than anything on the album, IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af66lh1uYvI

Really into this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVt7Tgf09Xw

Wanted to go to this, but couldn't get it off work. Shoulda tried harder, as I doubt she's coming back 'round this way again any time soon...

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/09/10/kathleen-edwards-stung-by-bee-nearly-dies/

Wow, that's wild. With all the talk of nut allergies, and wheat allergies and whatnot, it's easy to forget all about good ol' bee stings.

hockey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m69S1dfrak

:-(

http://www.canada.com/entertainment/music/Kathleen+Edwards+says+doesn+want+make+music+anymore/9494991/story.html

Blame Bon Iver.

Covers of Springsteen's "Human Touch" and REM's "Sweetness Follows" up at her Soundcloud page. The latter is gorgeous.

https://soundcloud.com/kathleen-edwards-1

Man, is she good. We're due a new album, aren't we? Didn't she say something about opening a restaurant?

:) for her, :( for us ... guessing (or maybe hoping) she'll make another record and play more shows someday?

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/11/29/kathleen_edwards_calls_it_quits_opens_quitters_coffee.html

That's so romantic.

Yeah, that's a great story. Hope I can make it over there myself one day. Voyageur was a real misstep for her and I'm sorry but I have to lay a lot of the blame for that at Vernon's feet, it was far too limp and watery for my liking. Asking for Flowers was a masterpiece – as indeed were the first two records – so I hope that if and when she returns to recording she rediscovers that side of her muse.

Voyageur was a bit limp, but it had good songs, imo, and I thought Vernon affected/hurt it less than I feared he would. It *was* a step down from the first three, but I mean...that's a pretty tough bar to try to reach, you know?

Man, I knew she was threatening to quit and open a place, but I didn't realize she actually went and did it. She's one of my favorite songwriters of all time. Could somehow see her fitting in with the current Pistol Annies/Clark/Musgraves crew.

has anyone tried her cafe yet, I keep meaning to trek there on one of my days off

It's in Stittsville, right? A bit too much of a trek for me. I went to high school with her so I'd be kind of curious, ha.

i love kathleen edwards

cosign x1000000

tbh think she is too dismissive of "Elvis Presley in the seventies."

Eh, aka "fat Elvis," definitiely worthy pejorative shorthand imo.

Polk Salad Annie to thread.

failer is one of my fav albums of all time. nobody's really about voyageur upthread but i kinda think it's her second best, i love how lush it is

i can't believe voyageur was already 4 years ago

asking for flowers was her best imo

the fog rolled in on the back of a storm / in the night you and i drove / have you ever seen lightning and snow

Voyageur has some great songs but the production and arrangements make it mostly a soppy blur for mw. Luckily there's a clear scapegoat handy

Yeah ... Canada!

the back half of Failer is about as devastating as music gets for me.

yuuup. "Sweet Little Duck," goddamn.

So I stopped by Quitters Cafe this past Saturday night and yeah, it was a tightly packed house. It looks like a fairly successful business but I kept wondering how many in the room were hoping that she'd bring out a guitar and sing something.

Been playing the first three albums a lot lately but still can't find anything nice to say about Voyageur. Will she ever make another record?

I'd love to visit Quitters one day.

I think Back To Me just has the edge over Failer.

what do y'all think "change the sheets" isn't beautiful

all four albums are 8+ out of 10, Failer may have the highest highs, but Asking For Flowers is the best overall, imo

if she's happy that's all that matters ... but i still wish she'd come back to music. maybe someday.

Like that little burr in her voice, it adds an edge and doesn't sound at all like an affection unlike, say, Little Lucy Williams.

Was trying to figure what Alfred's problem was, but now I reread and it seems like the time he doesn't like it is when she DOESN'T sing like that.

Fascinated by "Buffalo." Seems to have a parsable story, but I've been burned before and I know the score so maybe I'd better leave it alone.

Don't be-e-e like that

otm

Even quitters quit quitting. See you at Massey hall. https://t.co/lFdsxEedNf

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) January 22, 2018

omg

Y E S

this woman is a genius

ICYMI, KE seems like she is getting much closer to a full-scale revival of her music career:

...making a new album:

I leave in 5 days to start making a new album. “I’m so excited for you!”, “how amazing” is what I’m hearing from friends and family. And they’re very kind and supportive. But I’m peaking out on the anxiety meter. Big time. And that’s how mental health rears it’s ugly head.

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) March 4, 2019

It's with heartfelt gratitude and excitement i get to say.... I wrote a song with Maren for her new album! "Good Woman" was written during a devastating heartbreak hoping the phone would ring. Maren has turned it into a loving expression of joy, can't wait for release day!! https://t.co/cFLGrVmNw4

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) March 1, 2019

signing a record deal via DocuSign is infinitely less cool that on the hood of a car. but still. signed a motherfucking record deal today. this old broad stillllllllz gots it.

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) March 5, 2019

very good news, imo

Incredible news.

oh my fucking god

I saw she’s playing a festival in Camden this summer and I thought it was a one off how exciting that there’s actual new music coming!!!!

Ahhhhhjhhhhh

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Kathleen Edwards will release her highly anticipated new album, Total Freedom, August 14 on Dualtone (an Entertainment One Company). In advance of the release, the album’s first single, “Options Open,” is debuting today.

Alongside the album announcement, Rolling Stone is featuring Edwards in an exclusive, in-depth profile chronicling her long-awaited return to music, praising, “Total Freedom is the result of profound self-reflection from Edwards, who’s reached a place where her past trials, false starts, and wrong turns have begun to feel less like a burden and more like a blessing.”

Co-produced by Edwards, longtime collaborator and guitarist Jim Bryson and Grammy Award-winning producer and musician Ian Fitchuk, Total Freedom marks a major return for Edwards, who took an extended step away from music in 2014. After spending the last six years running her successful small business (a coffee shop, bar and café aptly named Quitters, in her hometown of Stittsville, Ottawa), Edwards is back with a refreshed creative outlook and a new sense of freedom. Across the album’s eleven songs, Edwards revisits past relationships with a new perspective, explores her own resilience and optimism and for the first time pursues what she feels is right rather than what is expected.

“I had no desire to write, no desire to play,” she says of what she refers to as her “working sabbatical.” “It allowed me all the time and space I needed to even just enjoy listening to music again. There were so many times where, if I was thinking about my own writing or playing, my heart just wasn't in it.” She continues, “I don’t want to write songs that are going to keep me in a dark place for two years. I didn’t have to carry a lot of the pressure of whatever course I was on previously…There’s a pressure sometimes to keep that ball rolling, and that’s what was so freeing about stopping altogether and starting again. I realized I’m entirely in control and deciding what my course of action is."
Total Freedom is Edwards’ fifth-studio album since her 2003 debut and her first since 2012’s Voyageur. The album reached #39 on the United States’ Billboard 200 chart, #2 in Canada and received widespread critical acclaim—NPR Music praised, “Her songs feel as personal and lived-in as ever…Edwards has never seemed more confident in her own considerable gifts,” while Pitchfork declared, “Each song emphasizes change and risk, and Edwards never resorts to tired sentiments or platitudes about healing and hope” and Rolling Stone proclaimed, “an exquisite, widescreen beauty.” Now based in Ottawa, Ontario, Edwards is a five-time Juno Award nominee and winner of the SOCAN Songwriting Prize for Voyageur track, “A Soft Place to Land.” She has also had her music featured in several hit television shows including Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, Hart of Dixie, House and more.

TOTAL FREEDOM TRACK LIST
1. Glenfern
2. Hard On Everyone
3. Birds On A Feeder
4. Simple Math
5. Options Open
6. Feelings Fade
7. Fools Ride
8. Ashes to Ashes
9. Who Rescued Who
10. Take It With You

Ooh great I can't wait to hear this. Good news that she's dumped Vernon as producer (following their break-up). I loved her first three albums but I found the last one close to unlistenable.

AAAAAAHHHHHH

I was wondering what happened to her old guitarist/producer/boyfriend (I think?) Colin Cripps, and it turns out not only is a member of Blue Rodeo now, he and a friend released a surf album under the name C & C Surf Factory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQmi5eDrorY

it makes me very happy to hear "Crappy Tire" used in a lyric

I found the last one close to unlistenable.

― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Tuesday, May 19, 2020 7:54 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

come on it's a good record

i am so fucking thrilled this is happening

This new interview is a great read. Sounds like she's in a better place at the moment:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/kathleen-edwards-comeback-new-album-total-freedom-1001469/

aoty without having heard a note

since no one has posted this yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyFjqmWgqug

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/06/kathleen-edwards-on-quitting-music-falling-for-a-conman-and-her-comeback

damn it *I* could have been that conman if I'd only made an effort to actually go to Quitters

for real though I hope the new album is up to snuff but mainly I'm glad she's doing well

sad to read this piece. hard to believe it's been 9 years since Voyageur. excited to hear this one.

I swear to god I can hear someone getting a text at 0:19 into "Simple Math"

i love kathleen edwards

i love kathleen edwards

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, July 22, 2015 11:03 AM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

"birds on the feeder" kicking my ass

"take it with you when you go" is the best song ever written

great album imo

I'm afraid to listen to this in case it's just OK but I will rip the bandaid off later today

I know what you mean, but I am going on in!

so yeah, this is great

what a crass misstep voyageur was, but she's back on top form with this one

I don't get what's wrong with Voyageur, unless you hear way more of Bon Iver in it than I do.

I haven't listened to it in years, but iirc it was kind of more amorphous and atmospheric?

i have "hard on everyone" running on a loop in my head

"crass misstep" is not fair to Voyageur at all. especially the word crass.

it has a lot of good songs, a couple snoozers, the production may be questionable, but she'd made three albums of roots-rock (this is not totally fair to Flowers, but whatever), can't blame her for wanting to try something different.

i think it's better than Back To Me, but even if you say it's her worst album of the four, it's a lot better worst than most artists, imo.

thank you for this revive, I finally listened to her & I love her music!

anyone who's just getting into her now, for the love of god seek out Asking for Flowers.

Haven't heard the new one yet but agree Asking for Flowers was the best of her first four. I get misty eyed in some of the quieter songs. Consider it one of the better alt-country albums of the 00s.

I listened to the kathleen edwards essentials on apple music & it was fabulous

I think the first album is perfect and the second album sort of improves on that one without necessarily being better, if you can square that circle.

Wait, I'm thinking of "Asking for Flowers." Yeah. "Asking for Flowers" and the first one are perfecto.

I adore Failer (six o'clock news, hockey skates) and the Cry Cry Cry material / Shindell collabs.

Have barely scratched the surface of anything since, alas

Cry Cry Cry is Shindell with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplanksy, no? Unless I missed something (only know their ‘98 album).

Oops, my bad. What was I thinking? Possibly drinking.

HOWEVER I know she did do backing vocals or was a touring vocalist on something at least some of those folks did. Crud. Hang on, I'll find it. Or not.

One of the worst humans I know is a huge Kathleen Edwards fan. Probably can't bring myself to get over that hurdle.

Dar Williams... that's a name I certainly haven't heard for 17 lifetimes. Anyway, came here to say this album's sounding great.

god asking for flowers is so good, basically as good as failer, not sure why i keep forgetting this

"Goodnight, California" is the stunner on there for me: a guitar epic, in feels a sequel to "Cortez the Killer".

"F is my favorite letter, as you know ."

i think voyageur has better songs than the smotheringly shit production allows you to hear at first. I like empty threat ("in the city i once said "never" i'm learning to say "never, never, never ever"" is a line that stings)

I think of “pink champagne” a lot

"Going to Hell", "House Full of Empty Rooms", "Chameleon/Comedian" and "A Soft Place to Land" are all mighty fine.

This new album is great.

She’s the absolute best tbh

I will genuinely give this a listen soon but I just wanted to say once more that "scared at night" is the best song ever

wow the second half of this kicks the everloving shit out of the first, which for me was mostly pleasant throat-clearing

From the start Kathleen Edwards has been one of the few songwriters really able to stop me in my tracks, to all but literally incapacitate me, and this new album is no exception. I can barely make it through a song because I want to start them over from the beginning again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyLiL243X9g

aw Jim Bryson <3

ditto

And by the way, I guess that means Colin Cripps is back in the band?

Speaking of whom, was this one ever posted?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MreeHyNDZiA

Or this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPrBdwnqYc

There is a another Quitters video on FB of a different performance.

I can just barely do it. Can't put my finger on why, but I can't think of another songwriter who so consistently breaks my heart.

So glad you called @MarenMorris.@SXMOutlaw #TotalFreedom pic.twitter.com/rBAq0c9lcy

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) August 25, 2020

I can spot your kind a million miles away

Lol etc at the NPR description accompanying this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW6WICBscx4

the pet grieving one-two punch "Ashes to Ashes" -> "Who Rescued Who" is some amazing sequencing (not to mention very helpful to me recently)

it was driving me crazy but I finally realized what "Glenfern" reminds me of: Frente's cover of of Bizarre Love Triangle

now I just need to determine what very popular 90s song the guitar part in "Options Open" reminds me of. Anybody?

This album is ok. Better than Voyager but nowhere near Failer or Asking for Flowers. Too many twee songs about pets, for one thing.

the pet grieving one-two punch "Ashes to Ashes" -> "Who Rescued Who" is some amazing sequencing (not to mention very helpful to me recently)

― geoffreyess, Saturday, August 29, 2020 5:58 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

these songs come out of nowhere and kick my ass emotionally

Listening to Asking for Flowers again right now. Really hitting the spot.

It's a beautiful record.

"Alicia Ross"

stops me in my tracks every time

that third verse