Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.105) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"
Rolling Stone (1/23/03, p.64) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Sounds like Lucinda Williams fronting Crazy Horse....Instantly accessible yet complex enough to sustain interest..."
Spin (4/03, p.107) - "Debut album from a 24-year-old alt-country siren with an arresting, unruly voice..." - Grade: B+
CMJ (1/20/03, p.7) - "...Edwards's breathy voice is as comforting and endearing as an old friend's..."
Mojo (Publisher) (2/03, p.94) - "...Resisting easy pigeonholing, mixing folk, country and rock influences, but with a unifying feisty attitude to the lyrics..."
Personnel: Kathleen Edwards (vocals, acoustic guitar, strings); Jim Bryson (electric guitar, banjo, background vocals); Fred Guignon (slide guitar, lap steel guitar, National guitar); Tom Thompson (pedal steel guitar); Keith Snider (banjo); Petert Cancura (soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone); Blair Phillips (alto saxophone); Maury Lafoy (piano); Dave Draves (organ, vibraphone); Kevin McCarragher (bass); Joel Anderson, Peter Von Althen (drums, percussion); Dave Dudley (drums).
Recorded at Little Bullhorn, Ottawa, Canada and Rogue Studios, Toronto, Canada.
There's a certain vastness of space in Kathleen Edwards's country-pop compositions, a quietude that seems to brew only north of the U.S.-Canadian border. The Toronto singer-songwriter's 2000 debut, FAILER, plays like a slightly peppier HARVEST MOON with a more honeyed voice. She sells sadness sweetly, whether bitterly tearing down an urban outlaw ("Six O'Clock News"), lamenting the crazed nature of the music game ("One More Song the Radio Won't Like"), or throwing in the towel on an exhausting love ("Hockey Skates").