Monday, August 19, 2019

Whoa, It's Been Thirteen Years Of Trouble!! Day One: Kathleen Edwards



Yes, it's true. Teenage Dogs In Trouble is still going strong after celebrating 13 years of being online earlier this month. Despite the lack of posts so far in 2019, I'm hoping to make up for it with more frequent posts for the rest of the calendar year. Similar to last year's #12daysoftrouble challenge, I'm going to attempt to make 13 posts in the next 13 days! To be realistic (who am I kidding!), this will not happen, but I do hope to complete this within the next month, so I will write, day 1, day 2, day 3...for each of the thirteen posts mainly to personally keep track and as incentive I'm going to make it.

Every year in early July, I agonize whether or not to attend the annual Winnipeg Folk Festival. Nowadays, even though I love music and watching musicians perform it usually takes a lot of convincing or some interesting acts to get me to make the trek. This year I have some regrets because Kathleen Edwards performed on the last night of the festival and according to people I have talked to it was a fine performance. She has been in the studio recording, so I think a new album will be coming soon and I haven't seen Kathleen live for several years so I hope to have the opportunity soon with luck in an indoor venue within driving distance. If you're familiar with this blog, you know I'm a huge supporter of Kathleen's music and I can never have enough live recordings of hers.

A very good source of Kathleen Edwards live shows was a music blog I followed called, blog.haterhigh.com. Unfortunately, the blog is no longer online, but Jason who operated the blog had tons of excellent concerts he recorded including 11 Edwards shows for download. This site was one of my favourite live concert blogs, not only because he shared lots of local (Toronto) shows, but because he wrote a very detailed description of his recording experience including the equipment he used, where he recorded from and his interaction with people that attended and performed. To top it off he is Canadian and it's refreshing to read something written by someone so passionate about the music. I don't know the circumstances of why the blog is no longer around, so if anyone knows Jason or familiar with the blog I would love to find out why. Through the magic of the Internet Wayback Machine (archive.org), you can read the archived screenshots of webpages. The download links do not work, but fortunately I downloaded all the KE shows before the site went down, and I don't think they are presently being shared anywhere else.

The show I'm sharing is from the haterhigh site and it's an intimate, unique show that sounds amazing. To best describe the concert here's an excerpt from the taper stolen ripped off from haterhigh.com:

In the first night of a once-weekly residency series of shows at the Drake Hotel (Underground), Kathleen Edwards debuted some brand new songs for the loving Toronto crowd, paced through some old favourites and finished off with a welcome cover. The sound was absolutely phenomenal, allowing the band’s performance to shine brightly through. The intimate Drake Underground encourages a strange, respectful silence amongst the rapt crowd, reserving their loud enthusiasm for between-song applause and the curtain call.


And the crowd had a reason to be enthusiastic on this night. Kathleen brought a new band and a batch of new songs, but her same old inimitable self. Good news! All of the above were great!


I was initially disappointed not to see Kathleen sharing the stage with local legend Colin Cripps, but Gord Tough filled his large, clown-like shoes admirably. The rhythm section was also superbly on point, and was perhaps one of the tightest sets I’ve seen performed in some time. The new songs sounded as fleshed-out as nearly decade-old favourites, and show a powerful strength and confidence that hint at phenomenal follow-up record to 2008’s acclaimed Asking For Flowers LP.

Additionally, it's interesting to note that some of the early performances of songs that would eventually appear on her next album, Voyageur sound quite different than on the studio album. In particular, Chameleon/Comedian (Chameleon) is missing the "Punchline" chorus and Change The Sheets (Change) is much more rock and upbeat. In some ways I prefer the rawer early versions to the slicker sounding album versions. These residency shows are an opportunity for the band to work out the new songs live and an extra special treat for fans to hear the transformation of the songs taking shape. The band does sound surprisingly tight and the atmosphere has a relaxed and intimate vibe to it that makes this a very special recording. Thanks so much Jason!
Enjoy!


Please do NOT sell!
Do NOT trade this in lossy format.
Convert to lossy for personal use only.

Kathleen Edwards
April 20th, 2010
The Drake Underground
Toronto, CAN

Source:  CSB>Edirol R-09hr (WAV 24bit/48kHz) [AUD > SD
Location:  ~ 10ft from right stack, toward centre
Transfer:  PNY Class 4 SD>USB>PC
EQ Process:  WAV>Goldwave>Cool Edit Pro>Goldwave>SRCdrop>CDwave
EQ Details:  GW: Volume, Fades; CEP: EQ; SRC: downsample to 16bit/44.1kHz WAV; CDw: track splits,
  ENCODING:  FLAC(6)
                          
time:  01:13:47
01. I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory
02. Empty Threat
03. In State
04. Asking For Flowers
05. [banter]
06. Chameleon
07. Run
08. Mercury
09. 6 O'Clock News
10. The Cheapest Key
11. Mint
12. Change
13. [banter]
14. Hockey Skates
15. Back To Me
16. [encore]
17. [banter]
18. Soft Place To Land(?)
19. Houses On The Hill [Whiskeytown]

KATHLEEN EDWARDS- 2010-04-20 The Drake Underground FLAC. rar

NOTES:
The first of three residency shows Kathleen performed at the Drake Hotel.

2 comments:

blureu said...

Thanks! The haterhigh site was a great one. Enjoyed many shows that he posted.

setlistthief said...

Boy, I sure do miss Haterhigh. I hope Jason's doing okay.

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