With her curly red hair in a scrunchy and jerky body movements as she takes songs into extended instrumental breaks at Webster Hall on Saturday, Kathleen Edwards was the Maureen O'Hara of rock. A fiery, bipolar personalty suffering from over share and a band leader thriving on over zeal.
The Canadian singer-songwriter, in town to push the product, her excellent album # 3 Voyageur, performed a thrilling and intimate 90 minute set which seemed like a drunken drivier smashing into anything that got in its way, or maybe a Lifetime movie for socially dysfunctional chicks in their 30s. As Kathleen shouted out to her best friend, tried and failed to be a good sport over the Rangers beating Ottowa in the playoffs rushing off stage mid-set for a pee or telling us revealingly stories about herself, she was an easy artist to daydream about.
Or daydream about what her boyfriend-producer Justin Vernon had gotten himself into. "I was walking back to Webster Hall today," she said (or close enough to it) "When two girls behind me said 'I wonder if she calls him Bon Iver?'" Pause "I knew what they were talking about." Another pause. "I have size twelve boots, I call him whatever the fuck I want" she snarled before tearing through a rooting, tooting rockabilly rave up "Back To Me", on the penultimate song of the main set.
But if that is all good, what do you make of a woman who claims "Xanax is a real awesome thing"" and wears her insecurities like a badge of distrust. "I am a worrier and I worry that I worry too much", she claims. before a Flaming Lips cover, while men might give her the benefit of the doubt, the possibility she has dated more than her own fair share of assholes on record, in person, the woman is a fresh, moody troublemaker. Justin has his hands full.
The set itself was really very good. It began with a bang, a blistering "Empty Threat" where any thoughts that the band would be folkies dissipated immediately, three guitars and a rhythm section were quite capable of raising the roof and shredding and this version cut the recorded version. I didn't think Justin overproduced the album at first but listening to these organic and powerful versions, I could well be wrong. Kathleen follows it with an equally revealing "Mint" -both are new songs, both are very impressive. But her third song is one of her best "Asking For Flowers" and she doesn't capture it at all. The song is slow and needs 100% and Kathleen seemed about as diffident as she ever can. "House Full Of Rooms" is saved by a terrific instrumental break, and though "Going To Hell" is a furious song, I am not among those who admire it particularly. Still, a pretty damn good version.
A little later, Kathleen reaches the pinnacle of her writing prowess with the joyful ode to new love "Sidecars". I wish she had gone further with it. I wish she had really smacked it out of the ballpark. Instead, Kathleen lets it speak for itself. It was during this song that I began to wonder about Edwards the romantic avatar, her Maureen O'Hara in "The Quiet Man" persona… maybe I mean character. I hadn't noticed it before, but if I was a bed with a new love and she harangued me with "Wake up, wake up, wake up…" and "Get up, get up, get up…" I might wake up but not happily, not blithely. It is an interesting song in another way: Edwards is imaging a day that hasn't happened yet… will they really be "Sidecars".? It gives the song an edge of doubt.
Yup, even at her most romantic, she has a distilled distrust. And at her most miserable, she burrows into it. This leads to some terrific moments with her back up band. It is an assaulting, smashing, hard rocking sound, adept at folk, rockabilly, hard rock, there is even a metal break in one song. And Edwards has a lovely voice, and a powerful voice, she has no problem leading and singing over the ruckus
The story goes that Edwards broke up with her longtime collaborator in 2011 and hooked up with Justin, this duality evolves throughout her current album, makes it all a little psycho sexual on the couch stuff. Not bad, just… all over the place. The encores first song is "Six oOclock News" off her first album. A quiet, but quietly delicious moment, to cool down her feverish brow: like Maureen O'Hara, Kathleen is either dashing through the hills of Ireland chased by John Wayne, or packing her bags and going home to her brother, or playing patty fingers in the holy water.
Should be an interesting career. Not to mention love life.
Grade: A-