Kathleen Edwards calls from somewhere on the road as she wends her way toward an L.A. concert with legendary X front man John Doe.

"He's sitting in the back seat right now doing Bob Dylan impressions!" the Hamilton singer-songwriter says, chuckling.

Though they seem an unlikely pairing, the highly literate, classically trained Edwards and punk icon Doe share a penchant for socially conscious, emotionally angst-ridden compositions, along with a taste for Americana roots music.

Plus, they can harmonize.

"We met at a Gram Parsons tribute concert," says Edwards, referring to the godfather of country rock, who died in 1973 at 26. "I got asked to come sing a song and John was doing We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning. He needed an Emmylou (Harris) for his Gram, so he asked me to sing backup for him."

Edwards went on to provide vocals for Doe's 2007 album A Year in the Wilderness. And although this tour is meant to promote her third full-length CD, Asking for Flowers, which was released to broad critical acclaim earlier this year, she says the L.A. concert will be very much a collaborative affair.

Though not a typical one.

"We're actually doing the majority of the set together," Edwards explains.

"John has a Cirque du Soleil routine that he does in the background with some fabric while I'm playing songs. And while he's doing his solo songs, I wear a one-piece fleur-de-lis jumpsuit and do some interpretive dance to his X songs."

OK, the last part is a joke, but the pair will sing a few numbers together. Known for his spine-tingling duets with X-mate (and ex-wife) Exene Cervenka, Doe explains why he likes working with Edwards.

"I learned how to sing with somebody with Exene, and it's rare when you find someone that you sound good with immediately," he says.

"That's what happened with Kathleen and I. And she obviously is a great songwriter and a great singer.

"You add drinking whiskey and swearing like a sailor to that and it's like, 'Oh, good; all four boxes are checked.' "

The daughter of a diplomat, Edwards spent her early life in far-flung posts around the globe. She started studying music at age five and, after high school, took to performing her own songs in Ottawa clubs.

"Most of my background was in classical music," she notes. "I studied violin for a long time, but in my early teens, I was tempted by the evil genius of singer-songwriters like Tom Petty and Neil Young."

Her first two albums, Failer (2003) and Back to Me (2005), provided particularly thoughtful and detailed looks into troubled relationships. Edwards, who has been married to sometimes bandmate Colin Cripps for four years, endeavoured to widen her conceptual reach on Flowers.

"The latest one is a somewhat conscious effort to fade away from the stereotypical singer-songwriter chick, boys-boys-boys thing," says the songwriter, laughing. "I was on the road for a long stretch, and I lost a lot of connection with people who were early influences of mine in terms of just living lives in a more normal, stable way.

"Stories from your neighbours and family form your understanding of life and choices people make. So I tried to write songs of substance in that vein, not necessarily directly about me.

"The title track is about one of my best friends, who had gone through a really rough patch in her life," Edwards says. "She has struggled with mental illness and physical disabilities, and has really showed me a lot about what it means to treat somebody in that position with compassion and understanding.

"It's like asking for flowers: You can't ask somebody to buy them for you; they have to want to give them to you themselves."

Like so many of her influences -- Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Parsons and, yes, John Doe -- Edwards often writes in an impressionistic yet simultaneously precise kind of verse that leaves her lyrics open to haunting interpretation. Laughing off any hint of pretension, she says the elusive nature of some of her songs is mainly an effort at self-protection.

"It's clear to me because I have a specific idea in mind, and some of the words that I pick are very intentional," Edwards admits.

"Having said that, I've chosen words and certain lyrics to either mask my true intention or convey myself with a certain amount of cryptic edge so I don't actually have to confess too much."