A Song for Alicia Ross

"Mamma can you hear me
as I dragged on my day's last cigarette"

These are the words that have been ringing inside my head since Tuesday. They are from the Kathleen Edwards song, "Alicia Ross", which I first heard her sing the last time I saw her live in April 2006. (Until its release I had just been calling it 'the dead girl's song'.) Alicia Ross was a girl who was murdered outside her home by her next door neighbor-her disappearance in 2004 led to the largest manhunt in Canadian history. In that, and the way her story captured attention, Alicia is kind of like the Canadian equivilant of Polly Klaas.

The song is masterful in its economy. Alicia goes from "the girl with the forgettable face" to "the girl whose face they'll never forget" in just 5 minutes and 6 seconds not because of any deeds that she did but rather by the cruel and singular way of her death which takes away the possibility for all she might have done.

"He pulled me so hard
off my very own back door steps
And he laid me in his garden
All the years I've watched him tend."

The song is chilling for its matter of factness-Kathleen has done great angry songs before but this is new territory. Her singing is controlled with just the right amount of wistful longing. Pitchfork Media called "Alicia Ross" a murder ballad which is technically not the case, just cause a song has a slow tempo and a killing doesn't make it a murder ballad. Intended or no, Kathleen's biggest debt for this song appears to be author Alice Sebold. More than a true murder ballad "Alicia Ross" the song seems to be a musical Lovely Bones.

"He took me, Mamma
So I could never tell you about it"

The true heartbreak of this song is that murder isn't the worst violation nor is the descration of the body after-no, the worst violation is that her mother will never know the truth of all happened. I am not a parent myself but that feels right to me and gets more right the more I listen.

Proceeds from the sale of "Hope for Flowers" and "Alicia Ross" on iTunes benefit Project Canoe, a charity for at risk kids started in Alicia's name. Visit www.aliciaross.ca for more details.