Kathleen Edwards

from:               Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
website:           www.kathleenedwards.com
myspace:         www.myspace.com/kathleenedwards

Kathleen Edwards played last year's festival, and my Canada-loving friend Chris was nice enough to contribute that preview, which I've reprinted for 2006:

Isn't music from the Great White North wonderful?  Beauty, eh? That's about all I listen to these days:  Rheostatics, Rush, the Tragically Hip.  Kathleen Edwards isn't exactly a CanRock act, as the previously mentioned artists, but she is a fine talent none-the-less. She burst out of the Ottawa music scene in 2003 with her "big label" debut disc, Failer, and stardom ensued.  The young singer-songwriter has since opened for the Stones, AC/DC and Bob Dylan.

Edwards, a classical violinist by training, was influenced early on by Dylan, Neil Young and Tom Petty... then later by Ani DiFranco.  The New York Times described her as a writer whose songs can "pare situations down to a few dozen words while they push country-rock towards its primal impulses of thump and twang."  AllMusic.com lists Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams and Shawn Colvin as similar artists.  I would add Suzanne Vega to that list.

Spring 2005 saw the release of Edward's newest CD, Back to Me. Her touring band (Colin Cripps - guitar/producer, Kevin McCarragher - bass, Joel Anderson - drums) provided core support.  Guests on the record include My Morning Jacket's Jim James as well as keyboardists Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan) and Richard Bell (The Band, Janis Joplin).

Despite the quality of Edwards' music, her videos are being shown on CMT.  Proof positive that, despite the odds, you don't have to perform awful songs with Hallmark greeting card lyrics to hit it big with the modern country music crowd.  Keep hope alive!

"In State" (from Back to Me)
"Westby" (from Failer)

(additional mp3s can be found on kathleenedwards.com)

Comments

[Gulliver]

She's one of my favorites! Thanks for the post.

[rob]

I'm pretty sure Kathleen Edwards cancelled her 2005 show at ACL due to the hurricane.