Kathleen Edwards

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!

People totally get into fights at games, but those events are literally about getting worked up over the opposite team. I'm talking about the real world, not a formal place of imposed conflict, lol. It's funny, because I was just having this conversation a couple of weeks ago, about what it would take to actually get beat up for wearing the wrong baseball team cap. It would take effort!

It's definitely too generous to read the hat line as anything but the MAGA hats, imo.

I thought the "uniform" line was about military. But then again, I generally don't care about lyrics that much. Police probably makes more sense.

I mean, I think besides the hat line, the rest of it is just sort of *barely* abstract enough that it's fine. The unsympathetic reading (which I don't disagree with) isn't a great look.

You would think that if anyone might try to nudge her in the right direction on this, it'd be Isbell. It'd be interesting to hear his honest thoughts about it and/or any discussion they had.

Maybe "a place I love / you've only seen from above" is her working cafe and she's talking to someone on their high horse rather than the flyover state thing.

obviously, i might be straining to find a way to make this better for her. god i love her first three albums.

Read the lyric and listened to the song. I don't think this song occupies any shadier a position on the moral spectrum than, say, Alex G's "Runner", in both songs the actual thesis seems to be an expressed reticence to shun individuals out of communities for being problematic or having different beliefs or whatever. Alex sings "I have done a couple bad things" and Kathleen's focus is more about the fact that somebody attempted to call her out for owning a truck. Difference of course is that Alex's song is far superior in its blithe obliqueness and wittiness. "Need A Ride" is hectoring and leaden, but I don't think the song's narrator is aligning herself with MAGA hats and police uniforms so much as hoping to reserve a place for cops and Trump supporters at her table.

I mean, the bridge about the hippies pretty much makes it clear that this song is criticising leftist infighting and cancellation more than any personal alignment with cops and MAGAs

It's funny, I feel like my family and social purview has fewer cops and MAGAs than it does Zios and anti-vaxxers, but if "Need A Ride" were to use those political views as their example-objects (instead of "hats" and "uniforms") the song would likely be even more strangely enraging haha

welp

Have been a subscriber of @TheFP and enjoyed so many interviews by @bariweiss over the years. Congratulations to you and your team! https://t.co/Bfzt4xNbvQ

— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) October 6, 2025

oy

can I get my posts deleted above (jk). bummer

The responses to the tweet kind of reenforce that "Need A Ride" bridge.

Gah! Haven't listened to the new album yet and...am unlikely to now.

Failer still rocks, though.

yeah, i'll just adore her pre-hiatus catalog forever and call it good.

Asking for Flowers is my favorite top to bottom, but Failer's got "Six O'Clock News" and "Hockey Skates"

Ugh, all my fears confirmed. What a bummer.

Bummer, but won't stop me from listening to her music or buying her records.

Fair. I wasn't implying anyone should not listen to her; I'm just taking this revelation as an excuse not to prioritize listening to a record I was already dragging my feet on anyhow.

HI DERE! I just came across another singer-songwriter with a similar vibe. I've enjoyed what I've heard so far, but not sure yet if the writing is strong enough to recommend to others.

I would happily take that recommendation

Feel like the songs are just a little too generic-sounding so not gonna say more.

Great! Good revive.

Okay, this is the artist, not sure if I can listen again in the cold light of day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hshgjNgew