Houston Chronicle:  Beginner's pluck canadian kathleen edwards, 24, may have hoped to launch her recording career quietly, with new album failer. she didn't know she was bridging a chasm in female songwriting. for years, leading female artists such as sheryl crow and bonnie raitt have been battling personal demons through rock, while lucinda williams and shawn colvin did the same through folk and country. and for years there's been a line between them. fresh voices like aimee mann, kasey chambers and shelby lynne have blurred it in recent years. on failer, edwards simply stomps on it, mixing arena guitars and lap steel with country twang and punkish moans. opener six o' clock news is a love story with a rural twist. set to a wobbling lead guitar chord straight from u2's epic album the joshua tree, it tells the story of a guy whose personal frustration has spilled into public desperation. edwards' narrator is a lover trying to calm him with visions of a future together, though there's no storybook ending. backing slide guitar and banjo set the small-town scene, while the guitar blares like the consciousness of a man on the brink. 12 bellevue rocks like anything crow or john mellencamp have done recently. the driving melody supports this story of relationship manipulation and celebrity dodging. the point seems to be that ultimately, one isn't that different from the other. the loud, purposely out-of-tune moans of westby are the exultation of a confused young lover. basking in the bliss of her affair, like a teenager screaming into the wind from inside a speeding convertible, all glee stops when she realizes: "i don't think your wife would like my friends." edwards' gift of song is equaled by a spare, but powerful talent for language. hockey skates' vocals barely get louder than a whisper as disappointment hovers over her acoustic strings. a highlight of heartbreaking beauty is national steel. edwards' simple chorus asks, "are you writing this all down?" over staccato fiddle notes, sounding like the end to every failed relationship. edwards has a satirical side, as dry and unrepentant as williams' best barbs. on one more song the radio won't like, she writes a perfectly palatable tune about getting used for her perfectly palatable tunes. by framing it in such an uncompromising country-rock way, though, she loudly declares she's not playing ball. the song is the better for it. only three weeks into 2003, failer is the early find of the year. grade: a michael d. clark chron.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews