Aimee and I caught Kathleen Edwards at the Paradise last night, and she put on another great show. We’d seen her there once before, with a significantly smaller audience, after the release of her first album a few years back. This time around, the place was pretty packed (though still no Paradise Guy; I think he’s moved on, but we spotted a few understudies who could easily replace him), and the crowd was skewed pretty heavily towards 30- and 40-something guys.

Her band consisted of bass, drums, lead guitar, and then the multi-talented Jim Bryson on vibraphone, keyboards, tambourine, guitar, and vocals. They had a great big sound, and spent most of their time rocking out, creating a sound sort of like Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams meet Neil Young and Tom Petty.

She played mostly material from the new album, but mixed in some re-worked versions of “Westby” and “One More Song the Radio Won’t Like” as well. Lots of good Canadian humor as well.





On a completely different note, we leave today for Helsinki, Aimee and her parents and her brother and sister-in-law and I, to watch as her dad receives an honorary degree from the University of Helsinki. It should be a fascinating, brief, and weird time, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. A full report on Monday…