Kathleen Edwards “Billionaire”

Canadian Americana maven continues her impeccable ‘comeback’, with added Isbell.

Listening to the powerful and joyous declaration that is “Billionaire” it is almost impossible to believe that Kathleen Edwards ever doubted her peerless station in the American firmament. Edwards ‘break’ from music between 2014 and 2020 is well documented, as are the issues that presaged it. Part of which coalesced around the “pressures of other people’s expectations” and worries about her audience “…no one cares. I’m just not good enough. The only reason I sold two hundred tickets is because Bon Iver fans are coming to see if Justin might show up” (she was in a relationship with Vernon at the time).

These days, thankfully, Edwards is much kinder to herself, viewing her earlier work with a relaxed detachment “… I might check in on a song or two and think, ‘That’s me? Weird! Who was that girl?” and even being positively animated by some of these previous efforts “holy shit, I wrote a lyric on ‘Failer’ my first record that went, ‘I’m a little bleeder with white pants on.’ Cool!” It’s great to see her reconciled with, if not the glory at least the worth of, these earlier records. Especially so as she has allowed, even encouraged, their essence to seep through every pore of “Billionaire” , delivering a record that is characteristically Kathleen Edwards, just ‘bigger’ and, a good chunk of the time, better than before.

The sonic and lyrical themes that underpin her work are well established. She sings of the simple absurdity of life, the heartache and humour that accrues from the pursuit of happiness and the endurance of pain. The vicissitudes of relationships good and bad along with the trials of ageing or the challenges of youth. She communicates these vagaries of being in a way that is at times nostalgic and poignant and at others raw and angry but always, above all, affecting and hugely relatable. The songs here are laced with vulnerability, regret, even remorse but they are never resigned or powerless and always etched with hope, wit and the promise of better times ahead. All of this plays out to a dazzling soundtrack, deftly combining the essentials of country, rock, and folk to fashion the sound that remains uniquely and unmistakably Edwards’ own.

Over the years, much has been made of her spare and intimate – ‘novelistic’ – lyric writing. How she carefully represents the core of our experiences with a few carefully chosen and poetically rendered details. In this instance it is easy to reach for the Raymond Carver or Richard Ford comparisons, settling on writers who are also able to render profound meaning from everyday situations. On “Billionaire”  though there is also an element of Richard Brautigan in the stories. Not the surreal dreamlike quality you understand but the direct, concise and personal nature of the writing, drawing heavily from observation and reminiscence to witness the human condition in times of change and in search of meaning.

As she ages, one shift in Edwards’ outlook is discernible on “Billionaire” . She seems less willing to suffer fools and some of the songs are less than kind to their protagonists. It’s not as if she’s become Dylan circa ‘Idiot Wind’ or ‘Positively 4^th Street’ but on a number of the tracks (hear ‘Save your Soul’ ‘Other People’s Bands’ and ‘Need a Ride’ for starters) she calls out certain specific individuals (or even just people in general) in a direct and unequivocal way. The effect can be scornful and perhaps a touch jarring when set against her more usual tenor but it certainly adds to the depth and interest of the record.

This freshly minted disrespect is shouldered by a newly beefed-up musical setting. Perhaps not new as such, more of a shift away from the gentler, stripped-back sound of later records to return to the boisterous energy of her earlier work. In truth, nothing Edwards has recorded has rocked as hard as “Billionaire” . Sure, there have been occasional tracks of edgier guitar-driven rawness – ‘Maria’ (‘Failer’), the title track on ‘Back to Me’, or ‘Cheapest Key’ and ‘Oh Canada’ from ‘Asking for Flowers’, but a lot of this LP puts these in the shade. It is just louder, with arrangements that are denser and more muscular, playing that is intense and somehow dirtier even and an overall sound that is vigorous and dynamic, even the slighter tracks have seem to have added punch.

Responsibility for this fuller, grittier sound can be laid at the feet of new production duo Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson, together with a band that includes Isbell himself on guitar (along with Edwards) with the 400 unit rhythm section of Ann Butterss and Chad Gamble together with Jen Gunderman on keys. There is a live in the studio vitality to much of the record which emanates from what Johnson has called a ‘joyful recording experience’ and Edwards’ feeding off the energy of the full band in the studio. Whilst the production team and the process of recording can be credited with much of what makes “Billionaire” such an engaging listen, it is also likely responsible for the one slight bum-note of the record.

Just occasionally the density of the production and arrangements fails to leave the songs enough room to breathe, they are just too full, witness the 90 second plus instrumental breakdown of ‘Say Goodbye, Tell No One‘ and the equally bombastic guitar that closes out the last two minutes of ‘Need a Ride‘. The songs do not need this extra help, they carry sufficient emotional heft in themselves without the occasional overplaying of the band’s hand. For evidence listen to the records’ highlights of ‘Little Pink Door’, a simple acoustic one-take number that Johnson describes as ‘something truly special’ and ‘Little Red Ranger’ a song that might just be the pinnacle of Edwards’ recorded output to date.

Despite this very minor misstep,”Billionaire” is an immaculate summation of Edwards’s art. All the power and pathos, the vulnerability and vigour and the unflinching, clear-eyed honesty we have come to expect. Edwards’ evocative storytelling is more affectively eloquent than ever and continues to engage listeners on a direct personal level. Her own manifesto for the record is a perfect summation “we should all want to be billionaires in life, to be rich in experience, friendship, purpose, and the pursuit of the things that bring us joy.” Giving this wonderful record some of your time would be a perfect start.