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Kathleen Edwards Wins 2012 ECHO Songwriting Prize For 'A Soft Place to Land'

Todd V. Wolfson

Kathleen Edwards has won this year's SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) ECHO Songwriting Prize for the song "A Soft Place to Land" from her latest album, Voyageur.

According to a press release issued this morning, the musician and co-writer John Roderick won the prize and the $5,000 accompanying award after a total of nearly 17,000 public votes were cast for the five nominated songs -- determined by a panel of Canadian music experts -- from Sept. 10 to Oct. 10 at the awards site.

"Being acknowledged for songwriting is the highest compliment I could ever hope to be paid," Edwards said, adding she was "humbled" by the honor. "It's nice to think that after releasing four albums and being a touring musician for over 10 years, I'm living proof that artists who are nurtured and supported can evolve and grow and do their best work years after making their debut."

Edwards was nominated alongside the Japandroids' "House That Heaven Built" written by Brian King and David Prowse and Dan Mangan's "Post-war Blues" written by Mangan, John Walsh, Kenton Loewen and Gordon Grdina. The other nominees include John K. Samson for his song "When I Write My Master's Thesis" and Sloan's "Unkind," which was co-written by the foursome of Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, Andrew Scott and Chris Murphy.

The winner of the French SOCAN ECHO songwriting prize was Koriass for the song "St-Eustache."

Edwards spent this week in Toronto's Kensington Market area shooting a video for the song "Chameleon/Comedian" and it seems to be very gory. "Doing knives," Edwards tweeted Oct. 16 with a photo of a fake knife (we hope) stuck in her back.

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On Wednesday Edwards posted another photo from the shoot on her Facebook page. "See you on the bloody streets of Toronto," Edwards said, this time with an arrow, a hatchet and the same knife in her back.

Meanwhile more pictures appeared on her Twitter account, this time with more cutlery stuck in her neck and upper left arm. It's unknown when the video, which is being directed by Noah Pink, will come out, but a Halloween release date would certainly be apt.

Edwards is back on the road again starting a U.S. tour tomorrow night in Fall River, Massachusetts. The singer also has a bevy of European dates set for later this year, including stops in London, Spain and Denmark.

Edwards was also nominated earlier this year for the Polaris Music Prize for Voyageur. Feist ended up winning that one for her album Metals.

Watch Kathleen Edwards' "Change the Sheets" Video

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