Mixtape: The Rural Alberta Challenge

If you haven't heard us wax rhapsodic on the virtues of all things Canadian then stick around long enough. We've mentioned this band before, but they bear mentioning again. I could not describe this band any better than they describe themselves:

The Rural Alberta Advantage play indie-rock folk songs about hometowns and heartbreak, born out of images from growing up in Central and Northern Alberta. They sing about summers in the Rockies and winters on the farm, ice breakups in the spring time and the oil boom’s charm, the mine workers on compressed, the equally depressed, the city’s slow growth and the country’s wild rose, but mostly the songs just try to embrace the advantage of growing up in Alberta.

They play two shows at the Mercury Lounge (same night): Saturday, January 9, 2010