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Kathleen Edwards
Back to Me
Rounder/Zoe Records
by Tracy M. Rogers 
Kathleen
Edwards’ critically acclaimed debut, Failer, was the work of a young
woman on the verge of adulthood. Filled with both crunching guitar-driven
tracks and acoustic folk songs, Failer marked the emergence of a new
alt-country ingenue. Two years later Edwards has re-emerged with Back to
Me, an album that builds on Failer’s foundation and evinces
Edwards as a more mature artist and songwriter. The self-described
“loud-mouthed girl” has mellowed, making music that is less about her chaotic
lifestyle and the war between artist and record label and is more about
relationships. The resulting album has a feel that is more grounded in rock
while still retaining an underlying country tinge of pedal steel and slide
guitar on most tracks.
The opening
track, “In State,” echos back to Failer's “Six O'Clock News,” except
this time Edwards thinks her lover might benefit from some time in prison.
But this is where the similarities between Failer and Back to Me end.
The title track finds Edwards, with her trademark tenacity, reminding her
lover that she can make him do as she pleases. “I’ve got ways to make you
sing my songs/Ones I ain’t written yet/I’ve got lights you’ve never seen/I’ve
got moves I’ve never used/I’ve got ways to make you come/Back to me,” she
sings in her gravelly alto. Ghosts of past loves return on “Independent
Thief” and “Old Time Sake.” “Good Things” finds her longing for home and family,
while her cover of former bandmate Jim Bryson's “Somewhere Else” finds her
singing of the difficulties of life on the road. “Summer Long,” the album's
one true love song, touches on longing of a different kind: the desire to
keep a loved one in her life past the end of summer.
Throughout Back
to Me, Edwards writes with passion and conviction about relationships
lost and found during her life. While Edwards continues to build upon and
polish the sound she developed with Failer, Back to Me begins a chapter
of more mature subject matter as Edwards explores some of the wisdom she has
found during two years on the road.
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