Voyage into the unknown

As well as dealing with a restless crowd and the imposing scale of the enormous hall, mischievous spirits were tinkering with her equipment. Guitars were twisting out of tune and little gremlins were at work in the amplifiers. If ghosts do exist, it might make sense for them to hang around the venerable old auditorium. But it made being the already tricky support slot for a burgeoning cult band a little more difficult. Edwards's gigs in Scotland had hitherto been in smaller, far more intimate venues such as King Tut's in Glasgow, and she appears at Oran Mor, Glasgow, on February 24, to support her glistening new album, Voyageur.

"I like King Tut's, it is pretty small," she says. "The Usher Hall – that was pretty intimidating. It was strange, there were definitely some gremlins. Our guitars kept going out of tune – there were ghosts in the room, I am sure."

On stage, her spiky between-song chats contrasted with her lovingly crafted, melodious roots rock songs. She seemed a little discombobulated on stage, having to deal with an audience clearly waiting in anticipation for the headline act.

"I guess it is really hard to go into a large room like that and expect people to be quiet all the time," she says, "but I enjoy getting up and playing music every time I have the chance; every night. I am really enjoying playing with this [backing] band, and musically it is always rewarding to tour: when you have to get up there on stage with the band and play, it makes you really up your game."

Edwards could be entering the most successful period of her career so far. Voyageur sounds lovely, its tunes are accessible and wise, and a little different from her previous, more traditional songsmithery. Born in Ottawa, Canada, she travelled often as a child, thanks to her parents' work. After high school, she was back in Ottawa, where she sang and played guitar in local clubs. Her debut EP came in 1999. Failer was her debut album, which came in late 2001, followed in 2005 by Back To Me and 2008's Asking for Flowers.

Edwards's Voyageur, released on January 16, is her fourth collection, and in preparation for its recording she decided to up her game in another way. Despite admitting she is not a natural collaborative songwriter, she has brought in other artists to the process, including Norah Jones, Francis and the Lights, Stornoway, John Roderick and Sean Carey from Bon Iver. Most prominent, however, is the collaboration with one of music's most acclaimed figures from the last year, Justin Vernon, the songwriter behind Bon Iver. Vernon personally contributed backing vocals, guitar, piano, organ, bass, banjo and xylophone. Bon Iver's second, self-titled album has already won album of the year honours, and its majesty became more visceral and air-shaking performed on the Usher Hall stage. Vernon, as can be heard on Bon Iver's first, self-produced album, is a talented producer with an eclectic ear and a passion for layering sound. He proved to be a perfect partner for Edwards's songwriting, as well as being her partner outside the studio.

Edwards bubbles with enthusiasm for his musical gifts. You can certainly hear the sympathetic combination of Edwards's songwriting and Vernon's production on songs from Voyageur such as Change the Sheets. "He is one of the most instinctive producers I have ever worked with," she says, "and I have worked with some great people."

"What was great about working with him is that I wanted to try things, and if I wanted to do something that wasn't roots rock, he was good with that. I have a lot of musical interests and he encouraged me to follow them. Working on music, for him, is just like going to the circus - which is good, because it is so exciting for me too. And he just let the songs come together as they came together."

Vernon said he wanted to lift her music out of the "boxes" she had been placed in before. And so the album tries to break out of that mould, while retaining her feel for the traditional verse/chorus and honest lyricism of her previous three records. But it involved attempting to change the way she works, which was hard. She said that really for the "first time" she was open to the idea of co-writing, where what have been an "intensely private process" became "a challenge to see what would happen with an open mind to a different approach."

Still, she says: "I am just not a collaborator as a songwriter, I know now I am just not that. I have really tried to be - I have tried to work with both friends and strangers but at most it has led to 1% of a tune." However, she adds: "I felt like I wanted to do something that was standing outside of the way I usually would work. I knew I didn't want it to be a marathon, but I wanted to do something different. And I feel that despite all the stops and starts, it was worth it." She adds, with a some sense of satisfaction: "Over the years you get into certain patterns or approaches to music - and you have to try other ways to shake it up a bit."

Voyageur is released on Monday and Kathleen Edwards plays Oran Mor, Glasgow, on February 24.