Kathleen Edwards is in love.<\/p>\n
The Canadian singer\/songwriter and her band play Skipper\u2019s Smokehouse Thursday. Edwards is absolutely gaga over St. Petersburg, where she and her husband, property developer Sean McAdam, bought a home in 2022.<\/p>\n
It was a permanent move. Renowned musicians, just like actors, can live anywhere they like and still get to work on time.<\/p>\n
Reviews of Billionaire, her sixth album, were positively glowing when the record appeared in August.<\/p>\n
The general consensus was that the Edwards\u2019 sharply lyrical and melodically robust music \u2013 if you must stick on a genre label, call it Americana \u2013 has never been framed so well. \u201cEdwards\u2019 voice elevates the storytelling, revealing characters, colors, and context with the slightest inflection,\u201d raved Paste.<\/p>\n
The too-cool sonic palette and languid pace of Billionaire is due, in no small part, to the participation of Jason Isbell, who co-produced the record (with Gena Johnson), plays most of the electric guitars and brought in members of his own band, the 400 Unit, to power and shape the songs.<\/p>\n
Edwards discusses all this and more in this Catalyst interview.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Pete Catalyst: Tell me why you like St. Petersburg, and why it works for you in so many ways?<\/p>\n
Kathleen Edwards: Well \u2026 how much time do we have? Look, Ontario is very charming, and I always loved the winter, and I sure do love the fall. All the picturesque stereotypes about Canada are very true. It\u2019s beautiful. But I really love the weather here. What I noticed as a new resident, and being from somewhere else, is that everyone is in a good mood here. That is undeniable. I feel like people have taken a few more deep breaths than anyone anywhere else. And that\u2019s really appreciated.<\/p>\n
And people are active, and outdoors, and the climate plays a huge role in people being in a good mood, I think. The sun really is a healing factor.<\/p>\n
We love the city. We think the waterfront and the seawall of downtown St. Pete is world-class. The access to bike trails! It\u2019s 20 minutes across town to go from the beach to Tampa. There\u2019s just so much to do and see here. And I think the shopping is great. Elliott Aster (in the Vinoy) is now my favorite restaurant anywhere. I mean, it\u2019s a fancy, special-occasion place \u2026<\/p>\n
Our neighbors are friendly. Everyone has a dog on our street! And everyone goes out and walks together, depending on what time of day works for them. My neighbors have offered us the use of their dock. My husband and I just cannot say enough about just how great this place is.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure people who\u2019ve been here a long time probably feel like it\u2019s changing very quickly. And it\u2019s a little daunting, I\u2019m sure, with the amount of people moving here, and these bigger buildings going up downtown. It probably feels like the cityscape is changing, but it also feels like it\u2019s a place where there\u2019s a lot of opportunity and all these things feel really positive. It\u2019s nice to see a beautiful place full of great people be prosperous, and growing and changing. It just feels exciting.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re a professional musician with a considerable reputation. Do people here know who you are? Do you get stopped on the street?<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t happen a lot, no. Which actually is a really great thing. I\u2019m very lucky that I\u2019ve built up a fan base over the years, and some places I go it feels a little bit more like people might recognize me in certain parts of town, but there\u2019s something nice, too, about the anonymity.<\/p>\n
But if I\u2019m being honest, I\u2019m pretty dedicated to the vision that I want to take Jimmy Buffett\u2019s baton. I would love to be his successor in Florida\u2019s really magical songwriting history, and part of building cool songwriter tours here in the state. There\u2019s just so many cool little spots throughout the state that I would love to play, and build an audience. So that not only could I make a living but I could help maybe facilitate maybe bringing in other people in the same way that 30A has sort of been a great cultural thing for the Destin area. I would love to do that here.<\/p>\n
My booking agent is from California, and Florida\u2019s always been kind of a no-man\u2019s land for a lot of the artists he represents. He\u2019s like, \u201cWell, the only festival that\u2019s in St. Pete is a reggae festival \u2026\u201d And I said \u201cYou know, I think it\u2019s changing, and I think paying attention to being part of building something that\u2019s a reflection of how the city has changed, and how the state is changing, would be really worthwhile.\u201d And I\u2019d like to be part of that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
You took several years off, discouraged by the music business and you part in it, and successfully owned and operated a coffee shop near your hometown. Was it the recharge in your confidence level that you needed to \u201ccome back\u201d?<\/p>\n
Big time. You know what, it was less confidence and more perspective. I think I had really lost perspective about the work that I had done, and the course that I was on. Touring is hard, and trying to make your balance sheet work in music is really hard. Putting your heart and soul into something, and facing rejection, is hard. That is true in all walks of life.<\/p>\n
And I think what I just needed was to take a break from it, and do something that was rewarding in a completely different field. I\u2019m an entrepreneur, and obviously I was an entrepreneur when I started playing music, too. I was the product, and nobody was going to give me a gig if I didn\u2019t go knocking on doors and ask for one<\/p>\n
I had really lost perspective of confidence, as you did touch on, but really appreciating how special it was that I had even gotten as far as I did.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
What did hooking up professionally with Jason Isbell do for you?<\/p>\n
He breathed a whole lot of hope into my trajectory, for one. Trying to come back from the beginning again, and trying to build the foundation of a music career, takes a lot of time \u2026 and sometimes you get lucky and you get someone who\u2019s got a huge audience championing you. For him to say \u201cHey, I\u2019ll produce your record\u201d was an incredible gesture on his part to say \u201cI\u2019ve built an incredible audience, and me working with you will hopefully be helpful to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason\u2019s got his own life, and his own business to run. He\u2019s not responsible for me. And you can\u2019t assume that his fans are just automatically going to latch on to my music because they like Jason.<\/p>\n
But what he did was, he\u2019s untouchable and thought so highly of, that it makes people go \u201cOh! I should go check her out.\u201d And that\u2019s a hugely helpful thing.<\/p>\n
Because he is so busy, and has such a limited schedule, it really forced us to just make the record and not fuss and sort of overthink anything, which is I think what makes my record probably better than the other ones. They probably dilly-dallied too much when things didn\u2019t need to be overthought.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The guitars are great on the album.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a Jason fan, you\u2019ll love this: Most of the guitars are him, live off the floor, single pass. We set up in the studio, we ran the song two or three times, and the one that we kept is most drums, bass and his guitar just live off the floor, with no fixes, no overdubs. He really is truly an extraordinary guitar player. His approach, and his ability to jump into a song and make it completely different from the part he played previously, is really impressive.<\/p>\n