Sunday, August 4 The Rural Alberta Advantage’s percussive folk songs about hometowns and heartbreak, and relentless tradition of touring have taken the trio of Amy Cole, Paul Banwatt and Nils Edenloff from humble recognition amongst indie rock die-hards as “Canada’s best unsigned band” to sold-out tours and devoted fans around the world with featured coverage from Spin Magazine, Pitchfork, The New York Times and Rolling Stone all taking note. The band has been nominated for two 2012 Juno Awards (Best New Group and Video of the Year for their song “Stamp”), long listed for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize, and awarded the CBC Music Prize for Best Independent Artist in 2014.
The RAA has released four albums on Saddle Creek/Paper Bag Records: Hometowns (2009), Departing (2011) and Mended With Gold (2014). Their most recent album, The Wild, was released last October featuring the singles ‘White Lights’ and ‘Brother’. The band recently completed a 7 week tour of the new album across North America, 3 weeks in Europe/UK and can be seen performing at festivals this Summer.