Kathleen Edwards

Flytjendur

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  Kathleen Edwards

  If you ask Kathleen Edwards, the best thing she ever did was quit. By 2014, the singer-songwriter had released four studio albums and amassed widespread critical acclaim. She had been touring since the release of her 2012 album Voyageur, and the prospect of returning home--only to start writing another album, felt impossibly daunting. She put her guitar away and opened a coffee shop aptly named "Quitters" in Stittsville, Ontario. “I had no desire to write, no desire to play. Quitters gave me such a clean break, I worked my ass off building a shop, I didn't have to be 'just a singer' anymore.” But in 2018, Maren Morris invited her to Nashville for a songwriting session. Their collaboration, “Good Woman,” wound up on Morris’ album, GIRL. “It reminded me that writing and creating music is entirely my wheelhouse,” she says. “Funny enough, the third writer in the room was Ian Fitchuk, and [we] ended up starting the process of producing a record.” Edwards made her long-anticipated return with Total Freedom, her fifth studio album out August 14 via Dualtone Records. Recorded in Canada and Nashville with longtime collaborator Jim Bryson and Grammy-winning producer Fitchuk, Total Free
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  Ken Yates

  Ontario-born indie-folk artist Ken Yates has a penchant for saying what the rest of us are thinking. Cerulean, his latest album, finds Yates at his darkest and most vulnerable - "the worst pain comes with no bleeding" he writes - as he explores the complicated reality of navigating the world through half-clenched teeth. Yates' "earworms of sadness" have gained him a new legion of fans, who have shared numerous fan covers on social media and helped spur a dedicated surge of audience growth. The new album found great success at streaming, where songs were shared on playlists including "Your Favorite Coffeehouse," "Infinite Indie-Folk", "Fresh Folk," and more. Guest vocalists Tiny Habits, Kathleen Edwards, Katie Pruitt, and Stephanie Lambring lent their talents to the new songs, produced by Ottawa's Jim Bryson. With praise in FLOOD, Atwood Magazine, NPR Music Live Sessions, and two Canadian Folk Music Awards under his belt, Yates has expanded his touring in recent years, supporting acclaimed artists including Passenger, Kathleen Edwards, and Stu Larsen, as he brings his "lyrical vessel of yearning and emotional reckoning" (FLOOD) on the road.