Smithsonian Folkways
Alberta: Wild Roses, Northern Lights collects 19 tracks from one of Canada's most mountainous provinces. These are not scratchy recordings of trappers and Cree horseman captured over a campfire in the early 1900s, rather the songs on
Alberta have feet firmly planted in the present. Recognizable Alberta natives like
k.d. lang, whose "Big-Boned Girl" from 2006's
Reintarnation gets the remix treatment, and
Ian Tyson are sequenced alongside newcomers like the Swiftys and the Corb Lund Band. Highlights include the sweeping Celtic folk of the McDades' "Jonny's Flush/The Boiling Hen," the northern bluegrass of Maria Dunn's "Do You Know Slim Evans?," the Kubasonics boot-stomping Ukrainian throwdown "Polka from l'Viv," and the snowy country sounds of Tim Hus ("Alberta Crude") and the aforementioned Swiftys ("Sweet Rose").