“Up until that point, I had studied quite intensely, and I had been in youth orchestras, and music festivals, and conservatory examinations. I had committed myself quite heavily to it. And then I took a few years off, and I realized when we’d moved back to Canada after being in Korea, I wanted to do it again. It was actually my own choice to do it, and suddenly I had a new passion for it.”
Classical orchestra recitals and rock ‘n’ roll on the radio always seemed like a case of never the twain shall meet, though. “I never felt the same rush as when I would pick up a guitar and play a song,” she says of her formal training. “Or just listening to songs — it just had such a different identity to it.
“I played in orchestra and I didn’t really enjoy it. I was one of those violinists who played really quietly and hopefully no one would hear the mistakes I was making. That’s sort of how I ended up feeling about the violin. Even though I still love it, and I’m really glad that I have that skill, there was never really a connection for me.”
Nowadays she occasionally finds a way to apply her string schooling to her current musical endeavors. She added violin accents to two songs on Back To Me, and she’s joined friends such as Jim Bryson and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy onstage as a supporting instrumentalist on occasion.
“I’ve done shows playing violin and singing backup and mandolin, and I love that stuff,” she allows. “But I’d rather play guitar in my own shows and leave the strings for a little color in an album.”
Not that she hasn’t given it a shot. “I used to do this thing where I’d loop my violin through a delay pedal, and layer it, and then have this like nice little kind of string pad. And I remember going to one show once, and everyone was wanting me to fiddle. They were like, ‘Fiddle, like Natalie McMaster!’ And I was like, ‘OK, I’m never bringing this violin out again…'”
She hasn’t entirely made good on that threat. Last September she backed up Bryson at a Toronto nightclub, playing violin and mandolin and singing harmony on a few songs. ND Canadian correspondent Paul Cantin’s review of the show observed that “their interaction onstage was less Gram-and-Emmylou and more Sonny-and-Cher, with good-natured banter firing back-and-forth between the pair.”
Bryson’s career has yet to get a foothold beyond Canada, where he’s released two fine albums in the past few years. Edwards turned to his latest, The North Side Benches, for one of the standout tracks on Back To Me, a cover of Bryson’s “Somewhere Else” distinguished by a splendid horn arrangement.
Their kinship has seemed tricky at times. Where Bryson has worked hard for years to establish a name for himself, Edwards — who has repeatedly credited Bryson as a primary influence and early mentor — has garnered considerable attention relatively early in her career (she turns 26 this year). That she’s hired Bryson as a player on her current tour is sort of a two-sided coin: It’s good work and valuable exposure for Bryson, but he’ll be in a supporting role.
He actually had a similar role in Edwards’ band a few years ago, before Cripps entered the picture. “Jim was my guitar player, but he does his own thing, and he was away for about a month,” she recalls. “I had a few shows booked, and someone suggested, ‘Well, why don’t you get this guy Colin Cripps to fill in?’ Our managers shared offices, so we ended up arranging for Colin to play in the band. We did a few shows, and it was pretty much, that was it.”
In more ways than one, indeed, as Edwards and Cripps also became romantically linked. Their budding relationship inspired another standout track on Back To Me, “Summerlong”, which is the closest thing to a hopeful song the typically cynical Edwards has written to date: “There are some things I can hardly say/You’ve got me feeling a brand new way/Please don’t let this be summerlong.”
“It’s definitely like this little upbeat poppy love song,” she acknowledges, almost apologetically, but ultimately cops to the tune’s special place in her heart. “I remember Jim Bryson saying, ‘I really like that song because it’s different than anything you’ve done, and it’s a good contrast to you wanting to kill yourself.’ I think it’s good to have songs like that. It’s my love song, you know?”
One wonders whether being lucky in love will be a problem for a songwriter whose material has generally leaned so heavily on the dark side.
“I won’t lie about that one, it’s definitely a little harder,” she confesses. “I’d like to be writing more than I am — but I also think it’s a good challenge. I’ve written a few songs since we finished the record, so they certainly haven’t dried up or anything. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of songs I write for my next record. If I ever make another record!”
That’s not something Edwards takes for granted. “I think in Canada, some people have this perception I’m this big success,” she says. “And it’s like, well, no, I’m just getting started. I’ve had a really great go, but there’s still a lot for me to do. Like anyone, I just hope I can continue to make records. At the end of the day, that’s kind of what it comes down to — it’s be great to be able to continue to do this.
“And I’m not one of those people who would be embarrassed to go have a day job as a waitress. There’s people who don’t want to go and wait tables, because they don’t want their fans to come and see that they actually have a day job. But I’m kind of up for doing anything. I just haven’t had time to have a day job! That’s what it’s come down to. There’s this cool restaurant in town I’d really like to work at, but I don’t really have time.”
ND co-editor Peter Blackstock played violin from sixth through eighth grade and also never felt a connection between school orchestra and pop music on the radio. Unlike Edwards, however, he can no longer play the fiddle to save his life.
