A quaint coffee shop in suburban Ottawa is receiving a lot of buzz, and it’s more than just the caffeine. It’s the familiar face behind the counter: Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards.
Overwhelmed and exhausted after more than 10 years on the road, the 36-year-old folk musician recently decided to pack up her guitar, head home and open a cafe.
“I remember just bursting into tears, telling my mom, I don’t want to play music anymore, I don’t want to sing anymore,” Edwards recalled in an interview with CTV News.
It was a dramatic life change for one of Canada’s most critically acclaimed artists. After breaking onto the music scene in the late 1990s, Edwards spent years performing in front of tens of thousands of people, even opening once for Bob Dylan.
When she decided to bow out, Edwards was promoting her fourth record while dealing with the end of her marriage to Blue Rodeo guitarist Colin Cripps.
“The pressure of the gigs, and being on stage, and having your game face on … I wasn’t up for it,” Edwards said.
Edward quit life as a musician, moved home, bought a house and became the proprietor of the aptly named Quitters Coffee.
Business has been good, Edwards said, and the community welcoming.
Edwards may have given up music, but her sense of humour is intact.
“This is what happens when you get nominated for a Juno seven times, and lose seven times,” Edwards says from behind the café counter: “You get to buy a $15,000 espresso machine.”
For loyal fans, the singer promises her career about-face isn’t permanent.
“The best possible outcome is that running this coffee shop will make me hate running a coffee shop and love playing music,” Edwards said.
And there’s plenty of inspiration.
“I’m just going to write a record full of songs of the worst customers at Quitters,” Edwards says with a smile.
With a report by CTV’s Katie Simpson
