Voyageur is less of a departure than it is a journey, and like any transforming trip, it demands that we let go of any preconceptions about the destination. Edwards guides us through a house full of empty rooms, revealing the sadness behind a public smile and the numbness that follows broken expectations and the casual cruelties of love. And yet, this isn’t a bummer ride at all — it’s elevating. Releasing the album at the beginning of 2012 has lead to the most exciting year in Edwards’ career. With an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman shortly after release and a May appearance on Jimmy Fallon, Voyageur reached number two in the Canadian Album charts and number three in U.S. Folks Album Charts, by far her highest career rankings. The Ottawa singer won the 2012 ECHO Songwriting Prize put on by SOCAN for the tune “A Soft Place to Land,” co-written with John Roderick, and was also shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. The album celebrates the many pleasures of survival and reinvention, suggesting that an acceptance of life’s changeability is what will allow us to face the hardest of hard times — as well as the exhilarating longing and dislocation of the unknown — head on, with grace.