Posted inLive Recordings

Kathleen Edwards @ Phoenix Concert Theatre

[caption id="attachment_1261" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards @ Phoenix Concert Theatre[/caption]

. : : April 23rd, 2008 : : .

Of course, I remember being charmed by Kathleen Edwards' set at NXNE for Six Shooter Records Outlaws & Gunslingers showcase in 2007. I was introduced to a lot of great new music that night, so I don't remember quite what it was that lead me to investigate Kathleen's recorded music specifically shortly thereafter.

But I do clearly remember queuing up the Asking For Flowers album for the very first time. I remember the intimacy of the sound of the piano bench creaking under the sparse but powerful chords of Buffalo. I remember the drums and guitar kicking in, matching intensity with a literal and metaphorical storm chasing the song's protagonist across the Canada-US border.

I was instantly and irrevocably smitten.

Posted inLive Recordings

Kathleen Edwards @ Xponential Festival

[caption id="attachment_1246" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards @ XPNfest 2019[/caption]

. : : July 28th, 2019 : : .

Here's yet another professionally recorded festival performance from Kathleen Edwards and company!

Originally captured last summer at Xponential Festival in Philadelphia, and as such, has a handful of songs not performed during the 2012 festival circuit as posted in the Bonaroo a few days ago.

Chief among them are the two new songs, then-previews from her now-freshly released album Total Freedom, which only recently has come to see the light of day.

Posted inLive Recordings

Kathleen Edwards @ Quitters Coffee

[caption id="attachment_1310" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards @ Quitters Coffee[/caption]

. : : August 14, 2020 : : .

Future readers (hello from the past!) may not immediately connect the dots, but summer of 2020 is ... different. We're in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the doors to public places have been shuttered indefinitely. Live music venues, legally unable to assemble audiences and artists but still obligated to pay rent, are closing up shop all over the world. Restaurants struggle with having been shut down for months; some have begun re-opening with extremely limiting restrictions, others have likewise been unable to stay afloat and closed their doors permanently.

Kathleen Edwards, six years after retiring from music and opening a coffee shop in the Ottawa suburb of Stittsville, picked one hell of a time to try and transition back to music.

Posted inLive Recordings

Kathleen Edwards @ Bonnaroo Festival 2012

[caption id="attachment_1241" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards @ Bonnaroo 2012[/caption]

. : : June 10th, 2012 : : .

I'm going to try something a little bit different.

Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of on-going live concerts, and my ever-shrinking budget, I'm going to start sharing some recordings made by other fans from time-to-time.

Where else to start, but with perennial favourite Kathleen Edwards, who is being celebrated upon the release of her first album in eight years, Total Freedom.

Posted inLive Recordings

Kathleen Edwards @ Memorial Park

[caption id="attachment_1226" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards @ Memorial Park[/caption]

. : : August 12, 2017 : : .

Long time visitors of the site probably remember that I'm a big fan of Kathleen Edwards. If you're one of those long time visitors of this site, the odds are better than good that you're also a Kathleen Edwards fan. This blog built it's reputation upon my recordings of Kathleen's Drake Underground residency and Dakota Tavern shows.

So it would be redundant to tell you that, following the touring cycle of her 2012 album, Voyageur, Kathleen effectively retired from music, opened up a coffee shop in her hometown of Stittsville, Ontario called Quitters, and otherwise dropped off the proverbial map of Canadian musicians.

I, of course, was profoundly sad, but the last time I saw her at the Oakville Waterfront Festival, she played my request of Away as the last song of the night. I didn't know it then, but the request was prophetic.