Live eTown Radio Taping with Kathleen Edwards and Cary Morin

Date and Time

• Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025  7pm - 9:30pm

Location

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Details

More than just a regular concert, eTown Radio Tapings are a unique live experience! The show includes performances and interviews with both of our visiting artists, and an interview segment with changemakers from our local and national community who are doing their part to make the world a better place. As an attendee, you serve as a vital part of our eTown show, which will be broadcast across the country on our affiliate radio stations and all streaming platforms.

About Kathleen Edwards:
For decades, Kathleen Edwards has been a cornerstone of North American roots music.

Since making her debut with 2002's Failer, she's spent the 21st century occupying the grey area between genres, swirling together her own mix of alt-country, folk, and heartland rock & roll. It's a sound that has earned its creator more a half-dozen Juno nominations, as well as Top 40 success on both sides of the Canadian/American border. Now in her third decade as an artist, Kathleen Edwards has done more than carry the torch of songwriting heroes like Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Lucinda Williams — she's opened the door for others, too, inspiring a new generation of artists who, like her, blur the boundaries between genre and generation.

A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Edwards was still in her early 20s when she released the critically-acclaimed Failer. The album's warm, woozy sound — crystallized on radio hits like "Six O'Clock News" — quickly turned her into one of the era's alt-country heroes. From the very start, though, Edwards' music seemed to exist somewhere out of time, resisting categorization even as Failer received a Juno nomination for "Roots & Traditional Album of the Year."

"No one knew what to call my type of music back then," she says of those early years. "The Americana genre didn't exist yet, so they couldn't categorize me. I just made the kind of music I wanted to make."

Edwards continued blazing her own trail with follow-up albums like Back to Me and Asking for Flowers. By the time Voyageur arrived in 2012, Americana very much did exist as a genre, and Edwards found herself riding a newfound commercial peak. The album reached Number 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart and Number 3 on Billboard's Folk Albums chart. Even so, a busy decade on the road had left her exhausted. After touring in support of Voyageur's release, Edwards left the music business altogether and moved to suburban Ontario, where she opened a coffee shop called — defiantly — "Quitters."

"Before I turned 30, I toured the world and put our nearly four records, performed on TV, and had an incredible run," she says of her first 10 years in the spotlight. "What's interesting is that I walked away from all of it, too — and when I came back, I felt better than the person who put out Failer."

By the late 2010s, Edwards felt recharged and revitalized. When a phone call arrived from Maren Morris, who was looking for songwriting partners for a new project, Edwards jumped at the chance to collaborate. The two musicians co-wrote "Good Woman," which appeared on Morris' Grammy-nominated album Girl in 2019. Back home in Canada, Edwards continued to write new material, eventually partnering with producer Ian Fitchuk for the album Total Freedom. Released in 2020, the album expanded her sound and her audience, boosted by two hit songs — "Options Open" and "Hard on Everyone" — that both reached the Top 30 on the Triple A chart in America. Total Freedom didn't just mark her return to the music industry. It was a rebirth, too.

What's next? New music, of course. Edwards remains a fan of "ripping guitar riffs and good songs," and she's combining both into a follow-up album that showcases her legacy as well as her evolution. She maintains a presence on the road, too, playing her own gigs one minute and sharing shows with her heroes — including Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, and Bob Dylan — the next.

"The amount of things I've gone through might make someone else quit…but quitting doesn't quite do it for me," she says. "I can't help but want to write great songs, connect with people, and see what's ahead. I don't love looking behind, even though it's one of the ways we can see what we've done, so I'm looking forward."

About Cary Morin: 

Internationally acclaimed as a mesmerizing live performer, Cary Morin’s soul-stirring voice and jaw-dropping fingerstyle guitar playing have captivated audiences for decades.

Dial into Morin’s career catalog and discover a musical chameleon whose sonic landscapes fuse together the best of American roots music: blues, folk, soul, bluegrass and the timeless and distinctive sounds of the countryside, from the Western Plains and Rocky Mountains to the rolling Appalachian Piedmont and the rhythmic melting pot of the deep South.

“Cary is a unique and brilliant player, songwriter and singer. I have huge respect for his style and technique,” says legendary multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Bromberg. “If you haven’t heard him yet, you should. Try to remember that it’s only one guitar.”

Morin’s latest project, Innocent Allies, honors his family’s Native American heritage and is inspired by the genius of famous Western artist, Charles Marion Russell. “This record is a masterpiece worthy of its place among the great works of art it was created to honor,” says Trina Shoemaker, the Grammy-winning producer who mixed and mastered the album at her Alabama studio. “Through the songs, I was able to visualize these unseen paintings with uncanny clarity and feel the powerful emotions.”

In an era when many aspects of indigenous culture were under threat, Russell’s paintings – and now, Morin’s musical accompaniments – serve as vital cultural artifacts. “If there is a white man who can be credited with preserving the history of Native Americans during the Western Expansion of the 1880’s, it’s Charlie Russell,” says author Brian Gevik, in The Cowboy Artist Who Painted Indians – April 2018. Rooted in his perspective as a Crow tribal member, Morin’s musical storytelling brings to life the subtle cultural and ritualistic details within Russell’s paintings in a way that not only preserves the past but paves the way for a more harmonious and culturally aware future.

Morin is excited to tour in support of Innocent Allies and feels at home on the road. His music has reached millions as he’s traveled the world with prestigious performances at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Paris Jazz Festival, Vancouver Olympics, Copenhagen Blues Festival, Folk Alliance International and has been featured on international television and radio programs hosted by the BBC and NPR. He stays in touch via his ever-growing social media followers, and streaming sites.

These travels have given him the honor of sharing stages as a collaborator or supporting act for musical luminaries such as Taj Mahal, Los Lobos, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Osborne, David Bromberg, Arlo Guthrie, Tony Trishka, Guy Davis, David Wilcox, and Phil Cook, to name a few.

Morin’s musical talents and creative contributions have garnered a multitude of awards and accolades: two-time winner of the Indigenous Music Award for Best Blues CD (2019 and 2017); Telluride Blues and Brews Blues Champion (2019); Independent Music Award for Best Blues CD (2018); Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship (2018); and, First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellowship (2017). He received an honorable mention in the 2018 International Songwriting Competition as well as other awards and nominations.

Morin has also achieved international recognition as a collaborator, dancer and musical theater composer. His song, “Ole Midlife Crisis,” written and performed with the Pura Fé Trio, reached #17 on France’s iTunes blues charts in 2011. With the Red Willow Dancers, he performed in Japan as a special guest of the world-renowned Kodo Drummers. Back home in Northern Colorado, he co-authored the play, “Turtle Island,” a critically-acclaimed 50-cast-member production that sold out for two consecutive years. Morin’s musical journey began in the late 1970s and burgeoned in the late 1990s when he founded The Atoll, a rock-reggae-blues band that toured the United States for over 20 years.

Born in Billings, Montana, he hails from a rich cultural heritage as a Crow tribal member with Assiniboine Sioux and Black ancestry. The son of an air force officer, he spent the formative years of his youth in Great Falls, picking through guitar standards at neighborhood gatherings.

Morin currently maintains a busy performance schedule as a solo artist, with his vocal partner Celeste, and with his band Cary Morin & Ghost Dog, a high-energy roots rock band. He also collaborates with renowned Indigenous artist, Pura Fé. When not captivating audiences across the US and Europe, he finds solace and inspiration in Northern Colorado, which he proudly calls home.