Plus Middle-Of-The-Roadhouse Music

Kathleen Edwards

Moderate, equivocal Republicanism, unsatisfactory to progressives and Reagan conservatives alike. Via media theology, appalling to Rome and most evangelical Protestants. The third leg of the Episconixonian stool is American roots music, sometimes called alt.-country.

Think "No Depression" and "Paste" (God love 'em both). Think Ryan Adams and other caught-in-the-middle artists. I share a love of the stuff with a far more knowledgeable aficionado, The New Nixon's Frank Gannon.

My musical bit on TNN is a weekly "perfect song." Ear of the behearer, I realize. Ottawa's Kathleen Edwards, a classical violinist-turned-troubadour, first released "In State," about a woman who decides that she doesn't like bad boys after all, in 2005. If that opening progression doesn't get in your head, this isn't the music for you. But I'll bet it is!