The problem with liking all these Canadians is trying to catch them on tour. The Weakerthans always seem to play show after show in Winnipeg with the odd trip down to Buffalo. I doubt they'll ever make it to The 'Nati. Of those three, the only person I've managed to catch in concert was Kathleen Edwards and that was before I even knew much about her.
I saw Kathleen in the summer of 2003 when she opened for Guster at the Taft Theatre. I'd heard her song "Hockey Skates" on Coffeehouse Rock, one of my cable TV music channels, but that was it. At the concert I learned she liked Maker's Mark bourbon, The Cracker Barrel and upon her first trip to Over-The-Rhine said, "I thought crack went out of style in 1992." I knew pretty quickly that this was a girl I could hang with.So today's album is Failer, Kathleen Edwards' first album and also one of the albums Josh correctly predicted in the "F" albums contest. It's a great collection of melancholy tunes, but what keeps it from being too shoegazey is Edwards' sense of humor and angry edge. This is not a woman who goes around feeling sorry for herself. She might egg your car, though.
The end of the album gets a little slow for my taste, but I challenge anyone to find a better song about sleeping with an old married alcoholic man than "Westby."
"I don't think your wife would like my friends."
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