Year in Review: So, How Was Your 2020, Kathleen Edwards?
So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.
After eight years between albums and a sojourn running her own coffee shop — the cheekily named Quitters — Kathleen Edwards came roaring back to music in 2020 with Total Freedom. Like its title implies, it’s a record of liberation that finds the Canadian songwriter embracing the ups and downs of her past and present. “Life’s imperfections, and how they all add up to a pretty perfect picture,” is how she summed it up to IndieLand earlier this year. Throughout 2020, Edwards continued to contemplate those imperfections as she reckoned with the irony of returning to music when the industry is all but shut down. Still, she persevered — all without losing her wry sense of humor.
The album I listened to the most in 2020 was:
Bonny Light Horseman and Mick Flannery.
My favorite TV show to stream during quarantine was:
Killing Eve.
The song that will define “2020” for me is:
(Ya ya ya, I know it’s my song) “Options Open” by me, because it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Seriously, how many times did we all say in conversation in the last 10 months keeping our …. OPTIONS OPEN FUCK.
I’d define my current state of mind as:
Mondays: Warrior.
Thursdays: Googling anti-depressants.
The viral video I kept coming back to in quarantine was:
The Husky and the screaming girl on the picnic table or any video where Melania rejects hand holding.
The old-favorite album I returned to for comfort this year was:
Tigerlily by Natalie Merchant.
The old-favorite movie I returned to for comfort this year was:
You’ve Got Mail.
A new hobby I picked up in quarantine was:
Libertarianism.
The celebrity I’d most want to quarantine with is:
Ricky Gervais.
The most interesting thing I learned to cook during quarantine was:
I’m a great cook and 2020 just allowed me to revisit my joy for it.
The best book I read in quarantine was:
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (that’s a joke).
Something positive that happened to me that nobody noticed was:
I got married.
The mistake I learned the most from this year was:
Expecting myself and others to accept change as a condition of survival.
The biggest hero of 2020 was:
My husband.
A word or phrase I never want to hear again is:
Fake News (a phrase coined so lazy people don’t have to consider opposing opinions).
The thing I’m least looking forward to in 2021 is:
Less news about fake news.
The thing I’m most looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over is:
Randomly coughing.
My biggest hope for 2021 is:
Copyright laws properly protecting (and compensating) content makers, now that we’ve been reminded what keeps us company when the shit hits.
