Kathleen Edwards "Asking For Flowers" A few of the characters Edwards sings about on her third album are probably Edwards herself: a Canadian songwriter with a breathy but obstinate voice who has played her country-rooted rock on tour far and wide. "Asking for Flowers" is about separation, whether it's a musician's homesickness or losing a loved one forever. In the title song, a breakup ballad, she ponders the "fading memory of all the things I tried to get right." Relying heavily on studio musicians instead of her touring band, she has created music that's more measured, suiting songs that are less contentious than she was on "Back to Me" and on her debut, "Failer." The studio players add flexibility and delicacy, as in "Goodbye California," a bleary late-night barroom conversation that drifts toward dawn in a long, graceful instrumental coda. In "Run" a female doctor remembers the day she was called to an accident scene where, perhaps, her son had been killed. In "Alicia Ross," a girl is suddenly grabbed by a man she had her eye on. He "laid me in his garden/All the years I've watched him tend" and, more ominously, 'took me, Mamma, so I could never tell you about it." Was she murdered? Song for song, the album falls short of "Back to Me." It could use more of her old feistiness. But even the quieter, kindlier Edwards stays tuneful and observant. Jon Pareles The New York Times				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews