Singer looks for next CD success kathleen edwards: ottawa native follows up strong debut cd. - going back into the recording studio after a critically acclaimed debut cd can be a daunting task. the sophomore jinx, as it's known to insiders, has caused countless musicians to crack. singer kathleen edwards was well aware of the pressure as she wrote back to me, the followup to 2003's failer. that first cd was showered with praise from the international press which compared her to lucinda williams. rolling stone called her one of 10 artists to watch in 2003, while mojo and entertainment weekly raved about her gritty tell-it-like-it-is attitude. ''for a while i was cocky about it. i was going to pretend like (the pressure) didn't exist,'' the soft-spoken singer recalled recently from toronto where she was rehearsing for a tour. ''but we went into the studio and it was hard to forget that there are other people. there's a life outside the studio that's waiting to hear what i'm going to be doing. . . when i made failer i didn't even have a manager. i didn't really have anyone looking over my shoulder.'' the 26-year-old ottawa native, who moved to toronto following her brush with fame, found confidence and security by leaning on trusted friends, including producer colin cripps, who happens to be her husband. ''The real key to us getting through it and making a record that's really strong and not a sophomore jinx, is that i took people into the studio that knew me and had toured with me,'' she said. not that it was easy. ''it took me a while to get through the self-doubt period,'' she recalled. ''a couple of weeks of me going 'i think this sucks. ok, this definitely sucks.' '' her strategy and patience has paid off. back to me contains 11 cleverly worded songs set to simple acoustic instrumentation. collectively, the disc provides listeners with the cosy comforts of folk, the grittiness of rock and heartache of old-world country. from the bouncy title track, back to me, about the crazy things people will do to stay in a relationship (edwards said she wanted to name it psychotic girlfriend blues), to the tender summerlong (about the vulnerability of falling in love) and wispy pink emerson radio (about rescuing her violin and guitar from an apartment fire), the songs reveal very personal, dark emotions drawn from real-life experience. on away, edwards sings: ''memory is a terrible thing when you use it right.'' it's a heavy-hearted autobiographical track about edwards's head space during her two-year touring trek, during which she performed more than 200 shows. ''my life changed a lot since failer came out. i thought i was pretty content living in the country, north of ottawa. i had my cats and a fireplace, and i'd go on walks in the snow. suddenly i'm living life out of suitcase for two years,'' explained edwards. ''i'd put all my stuff into storage and every time we were going home from the road it wasn't home anymore. i wasn't in the country anymore. memory ends up being your worst enemy because you remember what you loved about everything. that can be a really dark and sad source of memory. . . it can make it hard to appreciate the moment that you're in now.'' the daughter of a senior ottawa diplomat, edwards started out in classical music at age five, studying the violin. in her late teens she was turned on to neil young and bob dylan by an older brother. suddenly the guitar was all she thought about. long story short, she wrote some songs following a painful breakup and recorded them with ottawa musician friends. they eventually got the attention of rounder, a small american label, which stretched its marketing muscle to get her on tv talk shows and in glossy magazines. edwards hopes her accolades will eventually translate into commercial success. while her debut record was a hit with critics, that didn't exactly translate into big sales (about 20,000 units in canada). ''i didn't make it alanis-style, let's just put it that way,'' she said referring to her ottawa peer. reddeeradvocate.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews