Kathleen Edwards (CAN)

Live from Quitters Coffee – Album Release Show

For decades, Kathleen Edwards has been a cornerstone of North American roots music. Since making her debut with 2002’s “Failer”, she’s spent the 21st century occupying the grey area between genres, swirling together her own mix of alt-country, folk, and heartland rock & roll. It’s a sound that has earned its creator more a half-dozen Juno nominations, as well as Top 40 success on both sides of the Canadian/American border. Now in her third decade as an artist, Kathleen Edwards has done more than carry the torch of song writing heroes like Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Lucinda Williams—she’s opened the door for others, too, inspiring a new generation of artists who, like her, blur the boundaries between genre and generation.

A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Edwards was still in here arly 20s when she released the critically-acclaimed “Failer”. The album’s warm, woozy sound—crystallized on radio hits like “SixO’ClockNews”— quickly turned her into one of the era’s alt-country heroes. From the very start, though, Edwards’ music seemed to exist somewhere out of time, resisting categorization even as “Failer” received a Juno nomination for “Roots & Traditional Album of the Year.” “No one knew what to call my type of music back then, “she says of those early years.” The Americana genre didn’t exist yet, so they couldn’t categorize me. I just made the kind of music I wanted to make.

“Edwards continued blazing her own trail with follow-up albums like “Back to Me” and “Asking for Flowers”. By the time “Voyageur” arrived in 2012, Americana very much did exist as a genre, and Edwards found herself riding a newfound commercial peak. The album reached Number 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart and Number 3 on Billboard’s Folk Albums chart. Evenso, a busy decade on the road had left her exhausted. After touring in support of Voyageur’s release, Edwards left the music business altogether and moved to suburban Ontario, where she opened a coffee shop called—defiantly—”Quitters.”

“Before I turned 30, I toured the world and put our nearly four records, performed on TV, and had an incredible run, “she says of her first 10 years in the spotlight. “What’s interesting is that I walked away from all of it, too—and when I came back, I felt better than the person who put out Failer. “By the late 2010s, Edwards felt recharged and revitalized. When a phonecall arrived from Maren Morris, who was looking for songwriting partners for a new project, Edwards jumped at the chance to collaborate. The two musicians co-wrote “Good Woman,” which appeared on Morris’ Grammy-nominated album “Girl” in 2019. Back home in Canada, Edwards continued to write new material, eventually partnering with producer Ian Fitchuk for the album “Total Freedom”. Released in 2020, the album expanded her sound and her audience, boosted by two hit songs —”Options Open” and “Hard on Everyone”—that both reached the Top 30 on the Triple A chart in America. “Total Freedom” didn’t just mark her return to the music industry. It was a rebirth, too.

Kathleen Edwards - shows:

• That’s How I Remember It / Craig Finn feat. Kathleen Edwards
• Kathleen Edwards & Craig Finn

Kathleen Edwards - venues:

• Frølageret
• Magasinet