Kathleen Edwards

Pity the fool who broke up with Kathleen Edwards and inspired the lyric You say you love me in your memory/You've gotta be fucking kidding me. The lanky Canadian calls bullshit better than any of her singer-songwriter peers, drawing out each discriminating word with an I-mean-it-buddy conviction. But there's also a lightness to Edwards' three albums of articulate folk and rootsy rock, as in lines such as You're the Great One, I'm Marty McSorley (a reference to the oft-penalized hockey enforcer). Other constants are the sublime guitar evocations of sideman Colin Cripps and a lush instrumental palette that recalls Whiskeytown. Both forces are in full bloom on Edwards' latest LP, Asking for Flowers.