An old soul with a fresh sound canadian singer/songwriter kathleen edwards' wistful, commanding voice betrays her 24 years. possessing the grace of wilco and deft lyrical style of a warren zevon or townes van zant, edwards' debut album, "failer" (released in january on zoe records), was the calling card that never stopped knocking. positive mentions in rolling stone, blender, usa today, billboard and other mainstream media outlets launched the album, and a performance on "late night with david letterman" produced even more buzz when letterman declared edwards' songs 'The kind of stuff that makes you just want to get in your car and drive all night." "it's quite a shock," edwards says of the attention. the singer, fighting off a cold, is speaking by phone from a tour stop in asheville, n.c. "i recorded this album sort of as a demo. the only intention i had with it was to maybe get a manager and an agent so i could play canada a bit more than what i was. it's pretty amazing that what's happened has happened." on sunday, edwards will perform at the magic bag in ferndale. she refers to this outing as the "neverending tour". "it started some time in early january, and i've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off," she says. "it's just gonna keep going." it wasn't so long ago that edwards took to the highways of canada in her 10-year-old chevy suburban, determined to launch her career by traveling from club to club. but the vagabond lifestyle wasn't entirely unfamiliar. "i've always considered myself to be from ottawa because that's where i was born and that's where my family lived in between postings," says edwards who resides in toronto. "but my father was in the foreign service, so my brother and i grew up in switzerland and korea. there are times where you wish you could stay in one place like everyone else, but it's a pretty amazing way to grow up." a love of classical music and, later, artists such as tom petty, neil young and the indigo girls inspired edwards. and, though it would be easy to lump her in with alt-country acts such as whiskeytown (a favorite) and uncle tupelo, edwards seems to have transcended convenient labels. "i don't really care what category people put me in because, really, that's not something i can control in making the music that i make. i'm just happy that i can stick to what i'm doing and not feel like i have to do something else for the sake of audiences or record companies." and that, at the end of the day, is what edwards values most. 'The best part is that, even though i'm a relatively new face on the scene, i feel like everything that's happened to me has happened without me having to change anything about who i am and what i do," she says. "in a world where people are trying to cultivate something that they think will have mass appeal, i'm really happy (about that)." wendy case detnews.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews