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+--- Thread: Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur (/showthread.php?tid=6541)
Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur - Music Head - 14-01-2012
online listen
Sheryl Crowe sound maybe
not a big fan of hers
nothing stands out here
liked a couple of tracks
not really bad just too bland for me
1.5 from me and a converted 2.1 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - Change The Sheets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdTF_M-h1J4
released Jan 17th, 2012
![[Image: q94205ho2sd.jpg]](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drq900/q942/q94205ho2sd.jpg)
Bio - from allmusic
A fixture on the female Americana landscape, Kathleen Edwards was born in Ottawa, Canada, the daughter of foreign
service parents who played piano and guitar in their spare time. At five, Edwards began to study classical violin,
which continued through her early teens. At that point, the Edwards family moved overseas. Removed from the
influence of mainstream North American pop music, Edwards delved into her older brother's collection of Bob Dylan,
Neil Young, and early Tom Petty records. After high school, she landed back in Ottawa, where she sang and played
her guitar in local clubs while networking with other musicians in the scene.
In 1999 Edwards recorded her debut EP, Building 55, and toured throughout Canada to support it, busking and opening
for acts like Hayden and Jane Siberry along the way. A bad breakup led to more songwriting, much of which took
place after Edwards moved out of Ottawa and into rural Quebec. Those songs became the basis of Failer, her debut
full-length, which she recorded in Ottawa in late 2001. The album was a heartfelt mixture of folk and country, and
drew upon influences like Whiskeytown and Gillian Welch. A major critical buzz began to swirl around her music, and
gigs at the 2002 South by Southwest festival -- as well as an opening slot for Richard Buckner -- led to a deal
with Zoe/Rounder, which released Failer in January 2003. The album garnered rave reviews, and Edwards toured
extensively in support, headlining her own club dates and playing arenas in support of Bob Dylan and the Rolling
Stones.
In 2004 she headed back into the studio to record her second album, with guitarist and bandleader Colin Cripps
serving as producer. The final product was Back to Me, which arrived in stores during the spring of 2005 and
introduced some pop elements into Edwards' dusty Americana. It was followed in 2008 by Asking for Flowers. It would
be four years before her next album, Voyageur, which chronicled a love affair from beginning to end, appeared in
2012.
Album Review
Singer/songwriter Kathleen Edwards has different kinds of traveling in mind on her album Voyageur. There is the
geographic kind, of course, but also the journey through the seasons of nature, and, especially, the trip a love
affair represents from its beginning to end. Edwards seems to be in transit right from the start, at least in terms
of intentions, with the folk-pop leadoff track proclaiming, "I'm movin' to America," before the singer quickly
adds, "It's an empty threat." Still, that's a good representation of the themes of the record, as Edwards explores
troubled feelings, often expressing dissatisfaction with a lover she is simultaneously obsessed with and unhappy
about. "I don't want to feel this way," she says on the slow, ethereal "Pink Champagne," but by the next song she
is declaring, "Anywhere you go, I'll follow," even though the song is called "Going to Hell." The folk and rock
arrangements, sometimes ambient, sometimes reminiscent of Sheryl Crow (especially the deliberately paced electric
guitar rocker "Mint"), support Edwards' listless, melancholy soprano singing, which in turn reflects her
unhappiness and pessimism. It all culminates in the seven-minute "For the Record," on which she simultaneously
compares her suffering with the passion of Christ and dismisses it as simply her chosen profession. "Hang me up on
your cross," she sings, "For the record, I only wanted to sing songs." She manages to sing through her torment on
Voyageur, in hope that the journey is ultimately redemptive.
Track Listing
1) Empty Threat
2) Chameleon/Comedian
3) A Soft Place to Land
4) Change the Sheets
5) House Full of Empty Rooms
6) Mint
7) Sidecar
8) Pink Champagne
9) Going to Hell
10) For the Record
Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur - gryphon - 14-01-2012
Did this as a weekly album review was not that impressed either!
Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur - Music Head - 15-01-2012
gryphon Wrote:Did this as a weekly album review was not that impressed either!thought that cover looked familiar, but I couldn't place it
just read your review. glad to see we agree