ATHABASCA – The only thing better than live music is free live music.
This year’s Magnificent River Rats Festival will be open to all at the Athabasca Riverfront thanks to some solid community support and generous donors.
“The Kid Zone Is going to have some special surprises. We have a strongman competition which we’ve never done before. We have a little more food,” said Fred Minnville, President of the festival board. “Going big on a budget was kind of our theme this year.”
It’s certainly going to be a different festival this year — Minnville said the organization has had a tough time since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of a Maroon Five-type headliner reflects that.
“This year was smaller, but you can expect next year to be a name you recognize because we’ve got a strong crew,” said Minnville.
Despite the smaller billing, the organizers went out of their way to find strong Canadian talent, and Sunday’s headline acts show that.
Justin Sutton and North of the 49 will be the first of two late-night headliners. The band is fresh off their nomination for the 2024 Country Music Alberta Roots Artist of the Year, and they’re eager to share their music here in town.
“These days you almost have to say it’s like old country,” said Sutton in reference to the band’s sound. “We try to stick to the more traditional songwriting and with our line up we’ve got fiddle and keys with us too. We like the older stuff and giving it a new twist.”
“It’s gonna be a good high-energy country show.”
Sutton and his band have been together for five years, and with a busy schedule planned for the summer, he said it was as good a time as ever to come check them out.
“We’re just starting to kick things off and really get a lot shows so I mean, we must be doing something write,” he said. “It’s just great to get in front of new people, and I’m pretty biased, but I think we’ve got a good sound. All around Alberta there’s just great local music.”
Right after Sutton and North of the 49 comes another great Canadian band, albeit from a bit further away.
Rum Ragged will be bringing their own take on traditional music from their home, Newfoundland and Labrador, which co-founder Aaron Collis said has been an important part of his life since he was a child.
“We both grew up in communities that had a lot of traditional music, a lot of music that has passed down to generations,” said Collis, who grew up in the Town of Appleton just northwest of Gander.
“We figured since we were around the same age playing an older style of music, we should try to make a band.”
Since that meeting, Rum Ragged has racked up a variety of awards, performing internationally and across the country. In 2021 alone they were nominated for the JUNO Traditional Roots Album of the Year, and the Canadian Folk Music Awards New and Emerging Artists of the Year.
“We’re not trying to put the songs in a museum or anything. We want to keep recording tunes that are maybe not known, but we want to still make people dance to them,” said Collis. “We take it seriously, and we want to keep the music alive, but we don’t want it to be stuffy …. We want it to be relevant to today’s age.”
