. : : September 19th, 2021 : : .
Total Freedom.
A feeling that can only truly be understood, only appreciated, after the heavy weight of oppression.
Eight years after the Voyageur album, Kathleen Edwards returned from semi-retirement with an album of songs that are reflective, appreciative, contemplative, and (mostly) positive in Total Freedom.
Maybe the most honest, open, and all but entirely unconcealed work yet, fans seem to have found the album a welcome breath of fresh air.
Committed to returning to live music in a post-pandemic(?) America, Kathleen took her band on a stretch of dates shortly after the first anniversary of the album’s release.
Fans were awestruck to find that former lead guitarist and ex-husband (not to mention target of much of Voyageur’s turmoil) Colin Cripps would be joining on the tour as well; it’s perhaps fitting, given that the album’s opener and recent live set mainstay Glenfern, is a ode celebrating the happiest days of their relationship if not some of the most difficult days of Kathleen’s professional career.
Like how I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory is unabashedly about keyboardist/guitarist Jim Bryson, there’s something increasingly meta about Kathleen singing frankly about the boys in the band while they share the stage with them. How they do it without blushing is beyond me.
The stretch of tour dates takes her in and out of Willie Nelson‘s Outlaws tour, but where it doesn’t take her is to any Canadian dates. So, as a favour to fellow Canadian fans, here’s a recording of the band’s truncated half-hour set for NPR’s Mountain Stage series of shows. It’s captured from the live video stream (and is thus is a dreaded transcode), but the audio is crystal clear and solid.
As with anything Kathleen-related, it’s well worth a listen. More to come?
- [soundcheck]
- [introduction]
- Options Open
- [banter]
- Simple Math
- [banter]
- Glenfern
- Six O’Clock News
- banter
- Hard on Everyone
- [outero]
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