Kathleen Edwards — Asking For Flowers

On her third disc, Kathleen Edwards is blessed with backers that include a Heartbreaker and those who've played with everyone from Wilco to Zevon, B. Dylan to H. Dillon. While the music is accordingly tight, it's always been Edwards' lyrics setting her apart from her contemporaries. Rather than usual girl-loses-boy acoustic fare, her songs have her shifting protagonists, with voice accentuating the perspective. The album's namesake track has our heroine reflecting on 10 years of working nights while her husband whines about how he's got it rough. In "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory," she wryly sings "I'm a Ford Tempo, you're a Maserati/You're the Great One, I'm Marty McSorley." Things take a darker lyrical turn on "Alicia Ross," where Edwards offers an uncomfortable victim impact statement from the murdered Ontario woman. It's an audacious act that could've backfired and seemed tacky or overreaching. Thankfully, her approach works. Perhaps less successful is "Oh Canada," where Edwards laments the media's hypocritical reaction to the random shooting of Jane Creba, lamenting "There were no headlines/when a black girl dies." It's not that she's wrong, but this kind of song doesn't feel like the right venue for this. Then again, tackling difficult subject matter in an alt.country/folk aesthetic might be one of Edwards' greatest strengths.