Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards walked onto the Ventura Theater stage last week, sized up the crowd and joked good-naturedly that “there are just as many of you out there as we have up here.”  Sadly, this was only a slight exaggeration.  We’d waited ten years to see the phenomenal Edwards so we weren’t about to miss it.  Edwards has written some of the best alt-country/indie songs of our time, and she and her talented band (Jim Bryson, Gord Tough, opener Hannah Georgas,  John Dinsmore and Lyle Molzan) deserved a much larger audience in Ventura.  Note to booking agents:  unless you rep heavy metal or lame rock-rap bands exclusively, skip the Ventura Theater offramp and motor on to Santa Barbara where there is a burgeoning indie and alt-country music scene supported by a savvy fan-base and several colleges.

To their credit, Edwards and her virtuosic band nonetheless played this night as if the joint was packed full of VIPs.  They played with spirited aplomb throughout, and Edwards’ voice and perfect phrasing were impeccable (despite recent vocal problems and steroid prescriptions alluded to by Edwards).  In sum, Edwards exceeded our high expectations and was more than worth the ten-year wait.  We hope she doesn’t take as long to return to the Central Coast

As seen above, she opened up the set as we would want:  solo and strumming a vintage Gibson (capo-4) and singing her frustration-love song Sure As Shit (“And I cuss because I mean it; and for that, in my heart, I am hopeful; and these words that I chose, I was so careful.”).  Only later would we learn that this was the first time she’s performed this song on this tour.   And despite the crowd-size and scatological surroundings, we sensed we were in for a special, intimate evening to spite the vacuous venue.

Edwards then played several gems off of her splendid recent album, Voyageur, before dropping back to a popcorn-infused read of fan-favorite Asking For Flowers.  In between songs, in the house-concert-esque ambiance, she answered audience questions about a guitar (a uniquely-painted, “found” Telecaster–shown below–that she demanded from her ex-husband), and told of a Dorito-loving “mouse” in the dressing room backstage.

Following Asking for Flowers Edwards broke out her violin (we had forgotten she played it so well) and played a sweet lead-in to the bass-buoyed Goodnight, California (titled appropriately enough, though a tad premature in the proceedings).  Gord Tough took over mid-way through the song with his ever-tasteful, but incendiary guitar (at times taking a page or two out of the Neil Young guitar primer).  Check out a different-night rendering of the song below the picture.  So very good.

After an emphatic rendering of In State, Edwards let on that she had recently met a (rare) industry-insider that she enjoyed.  Over coffee they discovered that they both shared (and who doesn’t?) a love of Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac album.  This would turn out to be an intro for Edwards’ stirring read of Houses on the Hill off of the seminal Strangers Almanac.  Check out her performance of the song on another night below.

Edwards and band followed with House Full of Empty Rooms, which included Gord’s evocative tremolo finger-strumming.  While the song’s rooms and the show venue may have been physically empty, the performance on this song made all seem full.  Check an alternate take with Sarah Harmer below.

After a couple of driving, mid-tempo rockers on which she played electric guitar, Edwards came back with Soft Place to Land, and it’s lovely delivery (an example of which can be seen below). Vive la violin!!!

This was followed by the rockin’, desperado-under-the-eaves of 12 Bellevue.  Below is a good vantage of what we saw:

Then came a couple more great, mid-tempo pieces (including Change the Sheets off the new album and Six O’ Clock News) and the slow burn of For The Record off the new album (as a bonus, below the setlist at bottom, check out Justin Vernon’s Neil-esque guitar playing on the song from an Edwards concert in Georgia in January).  Further proof of Edwards’ show-must-go-on ardor came at the end of their set when she returned to the stage for two more songs than planned (see their planned setlist below), adding on an encore of the affecting Hockey Skates and rocker The Mint.  As far as we can tell, she played more songs in Ventura than any other show on her tour.  On this night the audience was the few, the proud, the fortunate.

We look forward to her return to the Central Coast, though hopefully with a deserved full house in a Santa Barbara venue.

All photos by Lefort.