The Rural Alberta Advantage  are a Toronto based trio including Nils Edenloff, Amy Cole and Paul Banwatt who 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.  Check out www.theraa.com or http://www.myspace.com/theraa.

 The Record Holder is a local indie rock band, formerly called Not Ned’s ipod, which include pop sensibilities and Nicole Hembroff’s violin.