Recorded in Los Angeles with Whiskeytown producer Jim Scott and a veteran group of studio musicians — keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassist Bob Glaub, drummer Don Heffington and pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz — Canadian country-singer Kathleen Edwards’ third album, 2008’s Asking for Flowers, is a solid, professional look at a world that is hardly as polished and self-assured. The band never falters with its modest, economical backing, offering up the perfect nightscape, leaving all the right spaces for Edwards to tell her stories and speak her mind. And speak it she does without restraint with songs that reflect her time spent on the road and the changes in perspective that living and aging bring. “The Cheapest Key” signals she has no time for the petty complaints of the past. “Sure As Shit” is a pointed solo acoustic lament that pulls no punches on her need for companionship. For “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,” Edwards imagines herself as the successful country musician and not the critics’ darling she’s been to this point. Surely, she’d like to break from cult artist to the big time, but clearly only on her own terms.