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After a six year coffee break Kathleen Edwards is back

By Paul Collins - For The Telegraph | Nov 21, 2020

After a self-imposed six year exile from music, acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards is back with a new album, “Total Freedom;” her first album since 2012’s “Voyager.” This new one was worth the wait. It’s clear that the Ottawa-based Edwards has not lost any of the creative talent that made her a treasured artist in her native Canada for nearly two decades. With her return she has crafted a poignant collection of songs that are both deep and personal. The tracks are steeped in nostalgia as she looks back at paths taken and not taken in her life.

There is an unvarnished emotion in her narrative. As an animal lover who likes dogs better than people, I was nearly brought to tears listening to the quiet serenity of “Who Rescued Who” as Edwards talks to her golden retriever, ‘Redd,’ in a way that clutches at the heartstrings. She reflects back on the first day they met: “You were so sweet, immediately.” She shares her touching memories of the long walks that they would take together, how her neighbors loved him, and of the place where she buried his ashes.

With “Total Freedom” Edwards takes stock of her life in a muted and misty way that resonates. The opening track, “Glenfern” she gazes at life in the rearview mirror. Musing about her first brush with fame that nearly broke her she sings, “We bought a rock & roll dream and it was total crap. We toured the world and we played on TV. We met some of our heroes. It almost killed me.”

With a buzzing undercurrent of raw creativity she shares her difficult voyage of self-discovery revisiting places she’s lived, and people she’s known and loved journeying down life’s highways and backroads. What bleeds thorough is her belief that time has taught her many important lessons in the classroom of life. She echoes the sentiment that we should enjoy being in the moment whenever and wherever we can. Sage advice from one who has waged her own private war against Clinical Depression and alcohol abuse, and appears to have emerged strong; finally comfortable in her own skin.

Teetering on the ragged edge of an emotional collapse, in 2014 she quit the music business and opened her own coffee shop in her native Ottawa. Ironically she named the shop “Quitters.” Owning and operating it brought her satisfaction in having direct contact with everyday people and being part of her local community. Running the through a gauntlet of emotions, the self-depreciating and gritty “Options Open,” has her examining the choices she’s made and lamenting how people hold on to thoughts that pass through us through their lives.

Edward’s songs have always carried the intoxicating scent of country-folk, and even a faint feeling of soft rock that lies just below their water line. This latest offering is no exception. For me, her music has always seeped into the core of my sentimental nervous system. Her lyrics and melodies have always furnished me with an appreciation for her gift of being able to connect with the rest of us. This album, with its warm and fleecy atmospherics, projects that same appeal. It wraps around the listener like a silk robe while taking you by the hand into the depths of the human heart and soul. There’s a clarity in her velvet voice that offers a safe harbor of sorts. It can melt the frost off of the heart of the most cynical and jaded among us.

Today, that warm and comfortable quality is alive and well. The memory of what made her lyrics and melodies so alluring drifted back to me as I listened to this album. “Total Freedom” reinforces the fact that, in a world that, for years, fed a steady diet of predictable, bland and uninspiring musical artists who released a stream of lackluster cookie-cutter songs for public consumption, Edwards’ soft voice washes over us like a fresh clean ocean breeze whispering across the waves through long brittle beach grass. Her lyrics tell stories about life while riding on the back of dreamy musical underpinnings. Kathleen Edwards’ return album highlights her soft honeyed voice in a way that makes one want to rediscover her all over again.

Paul Collins is a Freelance Writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.

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