By: David Rachac
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| Kathleen Edwards - Photo by Alexa Jones |
I can’t say that I was totally enamored by Kathleen Edwards’ latest CD Asking For Flowers – compared to previous efforts, too many songs seemed overly orchestrated and subdued, custom-made for appearances on “Grey’s Anatomy” or NPR, but with only a couple of songs that allowed Edwards to let her inner Tom Petty out. Mix my weak enthusiasm with yet another dreary day from the Winter That Will Not End, and the best that I was hoping for was that the potty-mouthed, whiskey-drinking Canadian songwriter who I loved from the first chords of Failer would at least make a showing during the night.
That took all of about 10 seconds to arrive—“You’ll reminisce about what a nice cool day it was today when it is so fucking hot out this summer,” she said before tearing into “In State,” the first track off the Back To Me CD. The show started about 15-minutes late (and I am sure it is merely coincidence that the hockey game on TV went into overtime), but Kathleen and the band were in fine form, sanding a lot of the pretty sheen off of the studio-crafted songs and putting grit and guts back into them. Songs like “Run” went from glossy to grimy, complete with a two-note Neil Young-style guitar solo from Edwards that relied more on emotion than technical precision. Any fears that Edwards was going soft and middle-of-the-road were quickly abated.
She talked about fighting with her record company about a video they will be making for “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory,” refusing to do one unless Edmonton Oilers enforcer/goon Marty McSorley (who gets name-checked in the chorus) was willing to be in it. She went on to describe how the entire video would unfold, ending with guitarist (and Edwards’ husband) Colin Cripps as referee calling a penalty on McSorley and Edwards spending the rest of the song making out with McSorley in the penalty box.
From complaining that the tour bus smells of “12 kinds of ass” to thanking the owner of Al’s Breakfast for giving her a “near sexual experience” courtesy of his blueberry pancakes, Edwards’ unchecked stream-of-consciousness rambling is such a welcome departure from the trite and studied patter that tends to come from the stage. When she gave a shout out to Lee’s Liquor Lounge and the Basilica Block Party (the two local shows she did during the Failer tour) and said Minneapolis was one of her favorite places to play, you could tell she wasn’t just blowing smoke. She has this innate gift to connect with the audience in a very matter-of-fact and honest way.
Over the course of the 18 songs they played, Edwards showed her considerable chops on acoustic and electric guitar, violin and harmonica, but it was always in context with the band, never solely about her. And when the attention was on her, she had a way of deflecting it in a very self-deprecating way, rolling her eyes at a particularly gushy lyric or engaging the other band members playfully in a musical tug-of-war. When my wife mentioned how blissful Edwards looked singing the serene “Good Things,” I chuckled to myself, figuring it was all about the whiskey. Turns out I was close. After the very next song, Edwards announced how happy she was that Megan Hickey, the singer/songwriter from Last Town Chorus, was joining the tour, because she was “so nice and so cute and she brought an entire bottle of XANAX with her!”
The last few songs of the show really turned up the tempo, with the fiery “Oh Canada” and “The Cheapest Key” and finishing with the raucous “Back To Me,” with the lines that always kill me each time I hear her sing them: “I’ve got lights you’ve never seen/I’ve got moves I’ve never used/I’ve got ways to make you come…….back to me.” Can’t wait to see her again – she is about as authentic as they come.
In State
What Are You Waiting For?
Asking For Flowers
Run
Copied Keys
I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory
Oil Man’s War
12 Bellevue
Sure As Shit
I Can’t Give You Up
Summerlong
6 O’Clock News
Good Things
Oh Canada
The Cheapest Key
Hockey Skates
Goodnight California
Back To Me
Location Info:
The Varsity Theater
Artist Info: Kathleen Edwards
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