Kathleen Edwards preview

Kathleen Edwards
Metro, Chicago
Saturday, April 5, 2008

“But you have to see them live” should be a given. We hear it all the time, especially from publicists who can’t get anyone to see their bands based on the albums they’ve released. But with Kathleen Edwards it’s pure fact. In order to see how good she is, you need to get off of your couch.

Perhaps it’s coincidence she’s Canadian, but her latest, Asking For Flowers (Zoe/Rounder), has an inverse relationship with a certain sport played with sticks on ice. If it were music, hockey would cut to the chase, kinda like Edwards’ lyrics. But flip everything over, and Edwards’ musical arrangements are, well, have you ever listened to a hockey player talk? It’s not that they’re dumb — no more than other athletes — but the aw-shucks, Western Canadian farmboy shrug is beyond boring. Novocain addicts are edgier.

Translating my belabored metaphor: Incomprehensibly, Edwards preferred Flowers fight its way through a sleepy morning mist of textbook adult alt-country arrangements. No corner goes unrounded, no surface unsanded. You could be forgiven for forgetting you ever heard it. But you would also pay a price if you did.

Not that lines like “B is for ‘bullshit’ and you fed me some,” “Don’t tell me you’re too tired/10 years I’ve been working nights,” and all of the disrespectful “Oh Canada” need extra punch, but there’s nothing a feral quartet couldn’t do to straighten out these arrangements. In one of her more prescient analogies, she mentions both “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky and his on-ice bodyguard, Marty “I Brained Donald Brashear” McSorley — expect a combination of both (Gordie Howe?) Saturday night.

Luke Doucet opens.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly