Kathleen Edwards
Folk / Country
After being hailed as one of the finest and most distinctive singer-songwriters to emerge in 2003, Kathleen Edwards is poised to vault to the front rank of contemporary music with her superlative sophomore album, Back To Me.
Back To Me (out March 1, 2005 on Zoë/Rounder) features 11 new songs that cover an ambitious range of themes, styles and emotions: from the brash bracingly-delivered self-confidence of the driving title cut to unique takes on matters of the heart on "Old Time Sake" and "Summerlong" to the bruised emotions of "Independent Thief" and "Away," climaxing with the hard-earned wisdom of "Good Things."
The New York Times praised Edwards 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," and on Back To Me, she once again demonstrates that she can rock hard but also move a listener with heart stopping insights.
"It's always been important to me that my records work as an album - that it isn't just a collection of songs, but something that creates a real, vivid, three-dimensional portrait. And I don't want to rely on the same dynamic and style on every song. I want to use every crayon in the box, and I feel like I accomplished that with Back To Me," says Edwards.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter's 2003 debut Failer started as an indie project recorded with friends in the Ottawa music scene. It was released by MapleMusic in Canada and Zoë/Rounder in the U.S., and on the strength of three singles - "Six O'Clock News," "One More Song The Radio Won't Like" and "Hockey Skates" - Failer was acclaimed as one of the finest debut records in recent memory. No Depression said the album marked "the arrival of a rare talent." Rolling Stone declared her one of year's most promising new acts and Blender said Failer's songs possessed "an indefinable pull that makes you love the characters they describe, no matter how fucked up they are." Edwards toured relentlessly with Failer, collecting an armload of accolades and fans around the world.
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