i started listening to kathleen edwards when she released her first album, ‘failer’ , in 2003. that launched a fairly successful career and she was a fixture on the americana scene from that point moving forward. i wasn’t exactly a diehard fan though, and so i was a little surprised a couple of months ago when i heard a new track of hers on sirius xm and thought to myself ‘i hadn’t heard that name in quite some time’. unbeknownst to me, she had been frustrated with the commercial success of her 2012 effort ‘voyaguer’ and, battling clinical depression and health issues, completely gave up on the music business and opened a small coffee shop in ontario (amusingly called ‘quitters’).

the shop was a success, she straightened out her life, and she got used to the quiet suburban life with her dogs. she found sustenance in the daily interactions with her customers, and didn’t look back.

then maren morris asked her to come to nashville for the weekend a couple of years back to help her cowrite a song, and she went, thinking it would be a nice break from the coffee shop. the process was intriguing to her, and all of a sudden she felt the urge to start writing her own songs again, and the flood gates opened.

she had been through a number of troubled relationships, both during her musical career and the hiatus, and much of the material is a reflection on that. as her producer said, this album is about ‘dogs and exes’. she gets much of her original band back together, and you can tell she put her heart and soul into it. the songwriting is right up there with some of her best, and the melodies are usually quite infectious. my first run through it was on my back porch on a beautiful saturday evening, and i got hooked on the very first track (‘redfern’).

welcome back, kathleen.