Kathleen Edwards’ new album returns to roots, with some help from Jason Isbell
Kathleen Edwards was looking for a home run.
After establishing herself as one of the most heralded songsmiths to emerge in the new millennium, she walked away from the music business, immersed herself in a private business and gradually reentered the artistic world on her own terms.
But this year, she wanted something more. She wanted to be a billionaire.
Well, not in the literal sense. Edwards simply wanted to make an album of new songs that enhanced her sense of personal reflection with an electric attitude, much in the same way her sublime debut record, “Failer,” did in 2002. She wanted the songs to be solid, the production to be bold and the sense of artistic satisfaction to be rich enough to befit the album’s title: “Billionaire.”
“When I started working on the songs for this record, I was just very singularly focused on ‘I want to knock it out of the park,’” said Edwards, who performs Sunday evening at The Burl. “I wanted to make a record where every song was undeniably easy to listen to — not easy like pop, but songs that would make people feel like they wanted to drive faster. That’s always a good sign of a good song.”
To help make “Billionaire” the kind of album that might earn you a speeding ticket, she enlisted a modern expert at the art of giving a rocking punch to keenly crafted, but still highly personal songs — Jason Isbell.
Enlisting his longtime recording engineer Gena Johnson as co-producer, Isbell gave the 10 new Edwards songs making up “Billionaire” the same mix of electric urgency and accessibility that distinguishes his own music. That Isbell’s guitar work was generously worked in to several tunes added to the album’s assured air.
“One of the things I learned from Jason was that he didn’t overthink an approach,” Edwards said. “He didn’t overthink the performance. He’s like, ‘The songs are here. We’re all great players. Let’s go put this out.’ I think I realize now that a lot of his records have been in that spirit of, ‘We’re not going to spend five hours tinkering with whether or not the tempo on this song is right. We’re going to play it so it feels right and that’s it. We record it and we move on.’ For me, I’m more of a tinkerer, so having them reassure me that we have it was a good learning experience.
“Jason’s playing is impeccable, his talent in incredible and Gena is equally the star of the show because she mixed and recorded the record and made us all sound so good. She really understood what is required when you’re making a record like this. I was lucky. Really lucky.”
Of course, such A-team production doesn’t matter much if the songs they address aren’t sufficiently arresting. To hear how well Edwards’ music goes with Isbell’s production, check out the title tune to “Billionaire,” a requiem for a close friend of the songwriter who died unexpectedly at a young age.
It is lyrically gripping (“Grief is love that makes sense except for those of us still left to figure out what to do”), sung with solemn vulnerability and sails to the heavens with an anthemic, but artfully tasteful Isbell guitar solo.
The song is also a reminder of where Edwards’ best songs emanate from — specifically, personal experience.
“I would say I am still very much rooted in airing my personal grievances through songs,” Edwards said. “I’m still very connected to the way in which the songs I’m writing are tethered to my own experiences. Sometimes, when I’m thinking about another person’s perspective, I try very much to sit inside that perspective and embody that. Even though it’s me, I try to be them as much as possible. I suppose it’s a bit like the method acting style of songwriting. But all of these songs feel very real to me, even when they’re not necessarily about me in the first person.”
“Billionaire” also marks the second album (the third if you also include an EP of cover tunes released last winter) Edwards has made since returning to the music industry.
After a decade of making records that concluded with 2012’s “Voyageur” album, she quit the business, moved back to her native Ottawa and opened a coffee shop (called “Quitters,” no less). A request by pop/country star Maren Morris to co-write a song helped bring Edwards from behind the counter and back to the stage. She returned fully to making music with 2020’s “Total Freedom.”
“Before I quit music, I think I was just generally overwhelmed by the whole experience. I think I was overwhelmed by the pressure to put on a good show or to deliver what I thought people expected of me. It was like people wanted something from me, like when they would relay a story about how a song, sometimes a very sad song, was there at a difficult time for them in their life. I always felt a little bit like that sort of peeled away a few layers of my own skin in the process.
“Now, if anything, it makes me feel stronger and more certain that I’m doing the thing I’m really good at in life. Playing live for people... it’s the thrill, the gift, the validation and all the satisfying aspects of music that cannot be eclipsed by anything else.
“When I look out and I’m playing a song from an album that came out 20 years ago and somebody is singing along and they’re thrilled that I’m playing it... I mean, you can’t even put into words how much that means. It’s not that my ego is soothed. It’s more to know that I wrote something at a time in my life that meant something to me that still means something to a person I don’t know. That’s truly an extraordinary feeling.”
Kathleen Edwards
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 2
Where: The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd.
Tickets: $25
Online: theburlky.com/shows.
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 11:59 AM.