Sometimes an artist you've categorized and filed away surprises you. So it is with Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards. Her 2003 debut Failer introduced her as a total kick in the pants -- an Americana-tinged female singer who combined disarming vulnerability with raspy, almost confrontational bluntness.

The follow-up, Back to Me, sounded less varied and more effortful, and I more or less wrote her off.

Three years have passed since then, and this month, out of nowhere, comes Asking for Flowers, an astonishing leap forward. I haven't been this in love with an album in a long while -- I go to bed humming it and wake up wanting hear it. Everything has gone to the next level: Her voice is richer and more expressive. The songwriting is more varied, more empathetic, more catchy, more honest.

The first few times I heard it I thought, "this is reminiscent of Whiskeytown" -- for my money the best Americana band in the last decade -- and sure enough, it was produced by Jim Scott, who produced that band's seminal album Strangers Almanac (which by the way was just released as a special edition double disc).