Kathleen Edwards
Ontario
This isn’t Kathleen Edwards’ first Vancouver Folk Music Festival, in fact this Ottawa musician took the main stage in 2013, singing to an audience eager for her alt-folk, country, roots rock sound, the dusty silk of her voice, her gobby wit, and her abilities as a lyrical sharpshooter.
She hasn’t been slacking since then though – in the meantime she took a career detour to revisit her days as a barista, opening local hotspot cafe Quitters in Sittsville, ON. One can only imagine that the emotional exhaustion of singing about her divorce on stage in the songs off of her most recent (2012) record Voyager night after night would take a toll – and swapping life on the road for settling into the centre of a community sounds as replenishing as a perfect cup of hot coffee.
Not one to take a break from hard work, she insists that Quitters is just a break from music, and her appearances at Hometown Hockey, the JUNO awards, and a never ending circuit of folk festivals doesn’t look like most people’s idea of a break, and for that her fans – including most definitely us – are most thankful.