I'm not good at keeping anything

Welp, we’re only 17 days in but I've already gone ahead and broken my secret New Years resolution, and it’s all Kathleen Edwards fault. In my bid to fight for Calgary’s music, I silently told myself that I would only buy albums by Calgary artists, or from musicians playing at Calgary venues. I still vow to keep as close as I can do that goal, but my (secret) girlfriend Kathleen Edwards released her 4th album today and I just couldn’t help myself. Back in 2008 when I was a naïve fledling musician in an old man cover band playing keys, “Back To Me” was one of the first Canadian roots songs I ever heard. I thought it was so cool and rad and I just had to go buy that album. Kathleen had also just released her newest album at the time “Asking For Flowers” so I snatched that up as well. I must have listened to that album 20 times before I let it out of my car. I was sold. This was the girl I wanted to be. I ended up covering her song “I Make The Dough, You Get the Glory” in the band The Pines, though I gave it up after awhile after I felt I couldn’t do justice to the vocals.

So, fast forward to 2012, and I’m listening to “Voyageur” right now for the very first time. I can’t make any comments on it yet other than its lovely so far. On the drive to work this morning, I heard on the radio (660 News no less!) that her and her husband Colin Cripps were in the middle of a divorce. I just saw Colin playing with Jim Cuddy at the Jubilee on the weekend, and had been wondering at the time if Kathleen was in the crowd somewhere. I can only assume that she wasn’t. All of Kathleen’s albums have a blanket of melancholy over them, but knowing now that this album is most likely a product of that relationship’s demise… it makes everything just a bit heavier, especially considering that he had contributed as a writer and producer on her previous albums. He’s entirely not absent from this album though, as one can imagine that most of the material is about him.