Kathleen Edwards: The Write Stuff

Asking For Flowers
Kathleen Edwards
(Zoë/Rounder)

Since her 2003 debut, “Failer,” Kathleen Edwards has drawn comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Neil Young. Though there have been some thematic similarities, many of the parallels drawn were based on her sound. On her third album, “Asking for Flowers,” Edwards seems to be lobbying for inclusion in that company based on the depth of her songwriting.

The first notes of the album, three heavy piano chords that kick off “Buffalo,” practically open the case for Edwards the Serious Songwriter. But those mournful chords are only a suggestion. The proof lies in the songs themselves.

On her two previous discs, Edwards dabbled in story songs and character studies, notably on “Six O’ Clock News.” But none of her work to date has probed the depths of “Alicia Ross.” Based on a true story, it’s sung from the perspective of a woman who is kidnapped and murdered by a neighbor. It’s haunting in its from-beyond-the-grave approach. And it’s heartbreaking because the woman is singing to her mother, asking questions she didn’t get time to ask. Even the most mundane queries are sad because of the circumstances. The tension in the song builds, and Edwards saves the hardest one for last: “Was your darkest day as dark as this one?”

Edwards edges into political commentary on “Oil Man’s War.” But she doesn’t rely on the same old patterns on which anti-war songs are often built. She chooses an indirect approach, focusing on a young couple heading for north of the border.

She’s much more direct in “Oh Canada,” an indictment those in her home country who turn a blind eye to violence and racism. (“It’s not the year of the gun / We don’t say it out loud / There are no headlines / When a black girl dies”). Sonically, the song resembles those of fellow Canadian Neil Young and the ragged glory of his work with Crazy Horse. Colin Cripps’ guitar solo is in that same vein, and does a great job of conveying the anger and frustration voiced in the song.

Overall, the fullness of the arrangements on “Asking For Flowers” reinforces parallels to another artist to whom Edwards often has been compared: Tom Petty. The keyboardist from Petty’s Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench, plays on many of these tracks, as does guitarist/pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz. Only one track, “Sure as Shit,” features Edwards alone on acoustic guitar. Otherwise, most of the tracks are layered with acoustic and electric guitar, piano, organ, pedal steel, bass and drums. Bits of harmonica, autoharp and vibraphone are used for additional color. A string quartet, featuring Edwards on one violin, further fleshes out “Buffalo,” “Alicia Ross” and closer “Goodnight, California.”

Though there’s a lot of seriousness, “Asking for Flowers” is far from weighed down by heavy themes. Edwards in the past has excelled when writing relationship songs and romantic kiss-offs, and she revisits those topics on her latest. A couplet in the title track, “Asking for flowers / Is like asking you to be nice,” pretty much sums up how quickly she can cut to the chase.

Edwards toured extensively behind her first two albums, experience that gave her some road-related material this time out. “The Cheapest Key” pokes at a (presumably fictitious) bandmate by airing an alphabetical list of grievances: “A is for all the times I bit my tongue / B is for bullshit and you fed me some,” and so on. She doesn’t cycle through the whole alphabet, and she doesn’t need to. By the time Edwards gets to “F,” you get the picture.

“I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory” treads some of the same ground, but it’s a bit more lighthearted. Edwards praises another while downplaying herself, using wide-ranging comparisons that include, “You’re cool and cred like Fogerty / I’m Elvis Presley in the ’70s.” Like a true Canuck, Edwards manages to work in an ice hockey analogy, proclaiming, “You’re the Great One, I’m Marty McSorley.”

Any writer who can work Wayne Gretzky and his often-overlooked on-ice protector seamlessly into a song probably is well on her way to being mentioned in the same breath as the great ones in her own profession.