Kathleen Edwards Takes On Canada
Wednesday April 09, 2008 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

By David McPherson

Since her critically acclaimed 2002 debut Failer, when Rolling Stone labelled her one of "the 10 artists to watch," Kathleen Edwards has shared the stage with everyone from The Rolling Stones to Neil Young and toured around the world. After some much-needed rest away from the rigors of the road and three years less three days since the release of Back To Me, the spunky Canadian songwriter returns with Asking For Flowers. The album grabs you from the opening rhythms of "Buffalo" to the haunting delivery and beautiful despair of "Alicia Ross." It shows the depth of Edwards' song chest and brings her muse to new heights. Edwards is excited to get back on the road with her bandmates and "drink some bourbon on the tour bus." ChartAttack recently caught up with her to chat about some of the songs on her new disc.

Kathleen Edwards

ChartAttack: The new record features many sombre songs. Was this leaning to the sad side of the spectrum deliberate?
Kathleen Edwards: The initial couple of songs I had written were definitely a lot sadder sounding. "Alicia Ross" and "Scared At Night" were written at the end of my last run on the road. When I first went into the studios, producer Jim Scott's reaction was "Wow, you really have a batch of heavy, sad songs." I didn't realize they were, but I was glad I got them out of the way and was able move on to stuff that is a little lighter and more fun like "The Cheapest Key" and "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory."

"The Cheapest Key" is one of the most upbeat songs on the new record. It sounds like you had fun recording that one.
Oh yes. I wanted to thrash it out. I love that it's only two-and-a-half minutes. I've finally been able to write a song that is Beatles' length! I always feel I go on and on and sometimes find it hard to close the door on a song or capture what I'm trying to convey in a short amount of time or a small amount of words, but "The Cheapest Key" was so easy. It's a pretty simple song, but I had a lot of fun coming up with the words like "f is my favourite letter." I laughed out loud saying that over and over… people who know me know what the "f" stands for.

On the song "Oh Canada" you tackle the hypocrisy inherent in your home and native land, examining everything from racism to the environment. What inspired this song?
I had wanted to write a song like that for a while. There had been some things on my mind that I thought lyrically would be appropriate as a song. Folk singers tend to shy away from things that are nasty and ugly and hard to think about, but I tried not to be afraid of going to that place.

How do you think Canadians will react to this song?
I wouldn't be surprised if I get a lot of negative reaction and so be it. But I'm not sure I'm alone in feeling that way. As great a country as Canada is, I still think there are a lot of things we can do better. One of them is the environment and I think we suck. Considering we are natural-born environmentalists, it's ridiculous that as citizens we are not being more vocal in our displeasure in that ring. And, as multicultural a country as we are, we are still a racist country. We still have these things we don't want to admit. There are people living in third-world conditions in our country and yet we pat ourselves on the back and say we are one of the best places in the world that immigrants would want to come to. I feel strongly that that needs to change. The only people that make a change are the ones that live in the country. I like to think I speak for myself and I carry with me the morals and ethics of a young Canadian woman… so, I wrote that song. I don't think it is groundbreaking, but I hope it makes people think about taking ownership of those issues.