First Listen: Kathleen Edwards, 'Voyageur' npr.org
excerpt
Voyageur, out Jan. 17, has as good a shot of breaking through as anything Edwards has recorded. Sure, it's the sort of lovely, undemanding sleeper that tends to disappear amid strong reviews and slow sales. But it also gets a high-profile assist from heavily Grammy-nominated Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon, whose presence — both on the record and in Edwards' personal life — is bound to attract newcomers who've heard of the Canadian singer but never dug too deeply into her charming records. As a backup singer, multi-instrumentalist and co-producer (with Edwards), Vernon lends these songs only subtle shading; his presence is noticeable throughout Voyageur, but he never threatens to subsume Edwards' identity. This is her record, and she owns it.
