Kathleen Edwards

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