After 35 years, Jonathan Edwards is fairly certain he knows who his audience is. "They are, go figure, a lot like me, the same basic demographic," says the singer-songwriter, whose 1971 million-selling song "Sunshine" first brought him to national attention. "They are a lot of good, working, family oriented folks who come with an open attitude and a fondness for an attachment to the past when things were maybe a little easier to understand, a less complicated time for sure."

      The Minnesota native, who has resided in many parts of North America, currently outside of Austin, Texas, says he sees his role sometimes as a personification of that desire to go back home for a visit. "And maybe I'm a bit of an example to some people that if you don't take everything so seriously, and remember where our rampant idealism that we once had came from and what it felt like then, that memory will serve us well now and into the future."

      He is looking forward to stirring those memories again on stages across America. He'll be bringing some new compositions, as well as a large repertoire of other material, from which to draw.

      So far, he has recorded 15 albums and collaborated with artists ranging from Emmylou Harris to Jimmy Buffett. His widely varied career has included theater (he was the lead in the hit Broadway musical Pumpboys and Dinettes), commercials, record production and a movie soundtrack. He narrated and performed in the Media Artists series Cruising America's Waterways, which started airing on PBS-TV stations in 2001 and is still running. His most recent album, Live in Massachusetts, was released last December.

      He senses that music stores have a difficult time deciding where to file him, given his appeal to listeners of various genres. "I am the very embodiment of a 'tweener' and I always have been. I have heard on the very same day of working the phones that I was too country for this station and that I was not country enough for that station; too acoustic or not enough; too folksy or not enough and on and on."

      He hopes that his music also is embraced by people who identify themselves as primarily fans of country music. "The people who love and support artists like Merle, Emmylou, Ray Charles and Vince Gill can easily resonate with what I do," he says.

      Edwards grew up listening to Jim Reeves, Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, among others. "And so I had enormous respect for their artistry and the emotions that they evoke. I have always loved a simple message delivered with grace and soul; a story that draws you in that deals with the things that real people deal with."

      He says that even after all these years it is not difficult to maintain his enthusiasm for what he does. "Every night is a new crowd waiting to be inspired, involved and even entertained. My challenge is to try and be so in the moment that people start to forget their own challenges and join me in this journey to the present," he explains. Ironically, he adds, this journey often includes components of reminiscences and nostalgia and memories that all go together to enrich and inform this sense of the here and the now.

      Some artists have suggested that having a major hit so early in a career can be both a blessing and a curse. Edwards was and is philosophical about it. "I determined early on in the life of my charting success that I was out there doing what I loved and I believed I was making a difference in people's lives and so I saw little reason to change," he explains. "I let all the 'change' take place in the people around me while I endeavored to keep on being the person I was before my songs were on the radio."

      Rex Rutkoski is a veteran national and international music, entertainment and features writer who also has a bio-writing service for unsigned, new and established musicians in all genres. He can be reached at RRJR@peoplepc.com.