Edwardian drama come snow, tornados or comparisons to sarah harmer, kathleen edwards still delivers when it comes to touring, nothing surprises kathleen edwards. when she was 21, edwards packed up her equipment in the back of a decade-old suburban and made her way across canada on her first independent tour. she booked her own gigs, slept on strangers' couches and passed the hat around after shows for gas money. for years she played the smallest dives, suffered the biggest assholes and ate at the greasiest diners. after international critics slobbered praise onto her first album, failer, and she landed herself on the glossy pages of rolling stone as the "next big thing," the venues got bigger, the assholes were deflected by managers and, well, the food's still greasy, but at least now there's more of it. but she's still not used to air-conditioned first-class touring; if her truck could accommodate her and the four burly members of her band, she'd probably prefer it. so last march, when all flights to new york city were cancelled by a snowstorm the day before she was to make her third appearance on letterman, she jumped onto a greyhound and traveled to manhattan trailer-trash style. "we played ottawa on a sunday night and monday the band was driving to new york to play on letterman," explains edwards. "i stayed in ottawa and was flying later that evening and at about noon i get a phone call telling me that all flights had been cancelled because they're anticipating this big storm coming through, so i'm like, 'fuck! so my only option was to get on a greyhound and i got to new york city after a 12-hour bus ride. it was funny because the staff at the show said to me, 'you know most people just cancel.'" a little snow wasn't enough to make the ottawa native disappoint dave, but mother nature had something even worse in store for her when edwards first opened for her current tourmate, willie nelson, at a festival a couple summers ago in birmingham, alabama. 'They used to hold this festival in july and then they pushed it back, because everyone in the town complained that it was too hot. so they pushed it back right into tornado season," she says. "every year one of the shows gets cancelled because of a tornado and the night i was supposed to open for willie, it was this crazy night where this tornado came through town and we were like on the third song of our set and the whole pa system shut down and everyone was told to run for their lives. "i shit my pants i was so scared," she laughs. 'that was my first willie nelson experience, so hopefully with this tour we'll get back on track and have some time to hang out instead of running for cover." even though most emerging singer-songwriters don't meet legends like nelson in a life-or-death situation, she's still grateful that the momentum of failer and her sophomore release, back to me, have afforded her the opportunity to play with some of rock's biggest names-edwards has opened for dylan, ac/dc, even the rolling stones. but she's still waiting for a call from tom petty, who's been one of the biggest influences on her musical career since edwards discovered one of his albums in her big brother's record collection as a teenager. "i haven't even met tom yet," bemoans edwards. "it's funny ,because benmont tench [keyboardist for the heartbreakers] played on the song 'back to me' and jim scott, who mixed the record, have both worked with petty for years and know him really well. but there just hasn't been the right opportunity yet, much to my chagrin." while it's evident from her music that she wears influences like petty and neil young on her sleeve, it still hasn't been enough to stop people from comparing her to other women-not based on similarities of genre or style, but rather only because they happen to write and sing their own songs too. "at the beginning, i couldn't get arrested in the ontario music scene without getting compared to sarah harmer; i was like this mini-me of sarah harmer," she says. "i can imagine it's very irritating for her and as many times that it's happened to her, it's happened to me twice as many times. but how can you get us mixed up? it's so fucking funny. "people used to, and they still do compare me all the time to lucinda williams," continues edwards. "i guess i've graduated to being the mini-me of lucinda williams. comparing me to a woman is such a lazy comparison." it's all the more frustrating for edwards, who's never really identified with her gender as far as her music is concerned. sure, most of her songs are about women, but they're about women doing what men do everyday without question. her tortured heroines sleep with married partners, steal, drink and get high. in fact, her dirty mind and potty-mouth are the probably only things that have kept her from being compared to shania twain. "i tour with five or six guys and i'm the only woman on the bus so i get pretty used to talking about farts and sex," she laughs. "do i get embarrassed when i talk about sex? no, i dunno, i don't, but maybe i should. "when we first sent [the song] 'back to me' down to the record company, my manager went and somebody asked him, 'so what is that song called?' i told my manager to say that it was 'ways to make you come' (a line from the song). he totally tried to play them like, 'why? what's wrong with that?' i was actually threatening at one point to name my record cameltoe just to scare the shit out of the record company. it was the best gag we had going for awhile. but if that's really what i wanted to do, i'm sure i could do it. why the fuck not?" tyson kaban vueweekly.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews