What are they putting in the water in Canada? The seemingly endless stream of female singer-songwriters door-stepping TLOBF Towers continues with Kathleen Edwards and her third album of alt-country/rock. Her brother's collection of Bob and Neil was her sole resource as she grew up a diplomat's daughter abroad, the first album she owned was by Tom Petty, and Ryan Adams has been a strong influence since his Whiskeytown days. You can sense a coming together of those sounds together with the honest and direct, even ballsy, lyrical approach of Ani DiFranco. She's got alot going for her personally, plus she has managed to put together a classy line up of musicians previously associated with the likes of The Heartbreakers, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Wilco, and Plant/Krauss (including husband and guitarist Colin Cripps). She co-produces with Jim Scott of Tom Petty and Whiskeytown fame. With that crew on board, quality arrangements and masterful playing are a given. More name-checking and shoulder-rubbing: Edwards has toured with Willie Nelson, Aimee Mann, My Morning Jacket, The Stones, AC/DC, Dylan, and Bryan Adams. Maybe that last one is some sort of hazing ritual for Canadian musicians, I'm not sure.

Cutting to the chase though, in a genre where there are so many stunningly-voiced female singers, Edwards falls short of the pack, and that's a superficial initial hurdle. At times her husky voice is slightly flat; on the rockers she can strain to find power; on slower songs there is a touch of Suzanne Vega about her vocals. Why can men with less than perfect pipes be deemed full of emotion and character whilst women don't get that subconscious benefit? Search me: Just sayin'. However, full redemption comes in her songwriting. She can be emotionally hard-hitting ('Alicia Ross' - a true story of abduction and murder) and political ('Oil Man's War', 'Oh Canada' - addressing tacit racism), but also humourous and candid in her story telling ('The Cheapest Key', 'I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory'). She has had radio hits in Canada, and let's hope the latter is not an autobiographical vignette describing her marital life. Then of course there's the heartbreak - the true test of mettle for any country singer. After some ambivalence to the first couple of rockers, the gorgeous melody of 'Asking For Flowers' hit home and signalled a sea change in my feelings for the whole album. From that point on it is the writing that takes centre stage and holds the attention. Upbeat tracks don't seem so formulaic, and delicate solo acoustic numbers 'Sure As Shit' and 'Scared At Night', together with the sombre 'Alicia Ross', contrast nicely with the venomous blast of 'Oh Canada'. Edwards sneaks in a bit of fiddle from time to time (she was classically trained in violin) and handles her first every lead guitar solo on 'Run'.

Almost worth it for the title track alone, the flawed savoury aftertaste from the album as a whole somehow lures me back for more repeated listens than many a sweeter sounding country rock record. 71%

Links Kathleen Edwards [official site] [myspace]