KATHLEEN EDWARDS RELEASES FIRST ALBUM IN EIGHT YEARS. “TOTAL FREEDOM” IS OUT TODAY!
August 14, 2020
In celebration of the release, Edwards will perform a special livestream concert this afternoon at 3:00pm ET/2:00pm CT broadcasting from her own coffee shop, bar and café, Quitters. Available to stream via Amazon Music’s Twitch as well as Edwards’ YouTube and Facebook pages, the event will also feature a conversation between Edwards and WXPN’s World Café host Raina Douris.
Additionally, Edwards will be featured on “CBS This Morning” tomorrow speaking with Anthony Mason and performing songs from the new album as part of their “Saturday Sessions” series.
Co-produced by Edwards, longtime collaborator and guitarist Jim Bryson and Grammy Award-winning producer and musician Ian Fitchuk, the album marks a major return for Edwards.
Listen HERE.
Recent critical acclaim for Total Freedom:
“Edwards has the conversational vernacular and emotional eloquence of a great short-story writer…the most thematically panoramic album of her career”—The New York Times
“the result of profound self-reflection from Edwards, who’s reached a place where her past trials, false starts, and wrong turns have begun to feel less like a burden and more
like a blessing”—Rolling Stone
“an energetic guitarist and singer whose urgent vocals can cut to the heart or flash with sarcasm…Total Freedom is the work of a relaxed and confident artist.”—Associated Press
“a snappy and crisp reintroduction to her formidable gifts”—Entertainment Weekly
“It’s great to hear Edwards’ soaring, rather angelic voice again…such a beautifully strong instrument”—Glide
“shimmering, confident”—Brooklyn Vegan
“her singing remains strong…it’s encouraging that Edwards has returned to releasing new material and doing what she does best”—American Songwriter
“lyrically delightful and melodically charming”—PopMatters
“gorgeous”—Wide Open Country
“pristine voice”—XPN’s The Key
“I had no desire to write, no desire to play,” she says of what she refers to as her “working sabbatical.” “It allowed me all the time and space I needed to even just enjoy listening to music again. There wereso many times where, if I was thinking about my own writing or playing, my heart just wasn’t in it.” She continues, “I don’t want to write songs that are going to keep me in a dark place for two years. I didn’t have to carry a lot of the pressure of whatever course I was on previously…There’s a pressure sometimes to keep that ball rolling, and that’s what was so freeing about stopping altogether and starting again. I realized I’m entirely in control and deciding what my course of action is.”
Total Freedom is Edwards’ fifth-studio album since her 2003 debut and her first since 2012’s Voyageur. The album reached #39 on the United States’ Billboard 200 chart, #2 in Canada and received widespread critical acclaim—NPR Music praised, “Her songs feel as personal and lived-in as ever…Edwards has never seemed more confident in her own considerable gifts,” while Pitchfork declared,“Each song emphasizes change and risk, and Edwards never resorts to tired sentiments or platitudes about healing and hope” and Rolling Stone proclaimed, “an exquisite, widescreen beauty.”
TOTAL FREEDOM TRACK LIST
- Glenfern
- Hard On Everyone
- Birds On A Feeder
- Simple Math
- Options Open
- Feelings Fade
- Fool’s Ride
- Ashes to Ashes
- Who Rescued Who
- Take It With You