As The Animals said “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” My real weakness is strength of lyrics.  Over the coming few columns, I’d like to introduce a few of my lyrical heroes.

Primary among these has to be Tom McRae.  I think the man is great - and yet I haven’t given him a column.  There are two reasons for this.  Firstly, he’s fairly well known and the purpose of this column is to try to impress you with the obscurity of my musical tastes.  Second reason is because his second and third albums weren’t as much to my tastes as the first was.  Dear Reader, I wouldn’t recommend an artist to you unless I was convinced they had a solid gold reputation.  Try the following – the song ‘End of the World News’ taken from his eponymous first album

You wake up to the sound of alarms

and you’re driving your fabulous car

Listening to the music that reminds you

You used to be young,

You used to be young

And now you’re searching,

for a sign with your name

To define you, the king of the game

What will you do when there’s nothing left

For you to earn and for you to learn

…

This is the end of the world news - sponsored by God

Simply brilliant as far as I am concerned.  Similarly opening track from the same album ‘You cut her hair’:

Time

Has coloured in

The black and white

Of your sin

A song of longing and desire that, to my mind is up there competing with Elvis Costello’s ‘I want you’ to be title track on my all time classic stalker soundtrack album.  For similar reasons, I’m a massive Radiohead fan. 

And yet the majority of my lyrical heroes aren’t male.  I have a particular weakness for a female singer-songwriter telling things as it really are.  Three chords & the truth and all that.  To my mind, female singer-songwriters have a different perspective on life and how it inflicts itself upon us.  While men are speculating what new worlds to conquer, the female is trying to cope with the abusive relationship or the drink problem.  There are many such artists – Beth Gibbons, Patty Griffin, Gemma Hayes, Aimee Mann, Beth Orton and Laura Veirs to name just a few (at least one of which will be the subject of a future column).

Subject of this week's column however is Kathleen Edwards.  It is a source of some regret to me that I once missed a signing session by her in the Wicklow Street branch of Tower Records due to a simple timekeeping error (I thought the world revolved around me and it turned out it didn’t!).  She’s a Canadian singer-songwriter who came to my attention for her 2003 debut Failer.  I picked it up from a sample track on a giveaway CD in obscurist music mag Foggy Notions.  I liked it so much I went off and bought the album and never regretted it.  Take the lyrics for stand-out track ‘Hockey Skates’

Going down in the same old town down the same street to the same bar

And the same old people saying hi and I don't care

Going down in the same old bar and I don't even order anymore

I am so sick of consequence and the look on your face

I am tired of playing defense

I don't even have hockey skates

It positively reeks of world-weariness and emotional fatigue. Instead of losing the plot and throwing out a mediocre second album, 2005’s Back to Me just improved the reputation. Take first track ‘In State’ where a woman in an abusive relationship with a petty thief considers her options.

You only call me honey when we’re alone

Hiding at your place up on slack road

You’ve got an answer for every little thing

You can’t even tell me where you’ve been

My face couldn’t make you leave it behind

Maybe 20 years in state will change your mind

Cuz I know where the cops hang out

I know where you’ll be found

I know what you’re all about

I know when you’re going down

Check out the power of a real woman here.