{"data":{"id":"13fbc58f-113d-43b9-936a-a550f3edcb6d","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Thee Sacred Souls, Corb Lund and the Womack Sisters shine at Edmonton folk fest","summary":"On a day that first delivered war with overnight mud: songs of peace, love and resistance won the day in a beautiful musical Oreo of Daptone Records soul artists Thee Sacred Souls and the Womack Sisters, with Alberta folk hero Corb Lund twanging away in the middle.\n\nEspecially memorable was headlining Souls’ singer Josh Lane spending considerable time grooving his way over the plastic fence up the Gallagher Park slope into the nighttime crowd, the spotlight following him for a few songs sung in the midst of the tens of thousands waving arms, another eternally memorable mirror-suit Chris Isaak Edmonton Folk Music Festival moment for sure.\n\nWhile his tunes were singalong and indeed feverishly two-stepped to earlier, Lund’s biggest cheer came citing the ongoing fight against a complicit provincial government greasing the way for foreign industrial vampires to tear apart our land for coal, the singer smiling bittersweetly, “Thank you for all your support for you know what.”\n\nCrowd response: “ROAR!”\n\nAnd kicking this off, a general sense of love got us all going – impressively on time after an hour’s delay opening the gates as crews sturdied the site – as the Womack Sisters dressed in matching all-denim Canadian denim tuxedos pulled their family’s soul and R&B pedigree up from L.A., the sun bright and shining away any sense of impending weather dread.\n\nThe next soldier on the local front line of changed-climate outdoor festivals around here in Wetmonton, Thursday’s folk fest was squishy in advance, as two feet of rain from the record-wet summer had the hill a sort of soggy sponge before 200 tonnes of sand were trucked in to beachify the grass.\n\nWednesday’s overnight rain was an extra damp bird flip, but pallets from the ski hill’s construction site were cleverly deployed in what festival producer Terry Wickham called a “genius idea” and a “heroic effort,” starting around 3 p.m., creating a super sturdy boardwalk along the fest’s high-foot-traffic-muddy fault lines. Impressive work!\n\nWhile the controlled tarp run and hilltop tent setup was pushed back an hour, the Womacks started right on time at 6:30 p.m. after the opening greetings and land acknowledgement, yearned-for sun poking through an otherwise cloudy morning and afternoon.\n\nWhich left a wide-open evening to not fret about the weather at all (knock on wood moving forward – should lightning strike within 10 km of the site Saturday or Sunday, expect a half-hour pause to risk assess; and do bring that rain gear).\n\nAs already noted, the all-denim costumes of the Womack Sisters drew thousands of immediate smiles as, stage right to left, Sam Cooke’s granddaughters Zeimani (in Adidas sneakers), and BG and Kucha Womack (wearing Vans) opened the fest with harmonic, road-worn soul numbers like I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye) and You Went Away Too Long, BG usually in the lead.\n\nNotably on bass, Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth (a.k.a. Bosco Mann), whose roster includes Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, the late, great Charles Bradley, the Budos Band and Antibalas.\n\nThe very lovely I Am Your Season was followed by a nicely softened California Dreaming, then, as BG explained before Teardrops, “To honour our parents,” that’d be Womack & Womack a.k.a. Zekkariyas & Zeriiya (Cooke’s daughter), “we’re going to play this song for you.”\n\nNext up: “This song is about giving a f— but also not really giving a f—, if you know what I mean,” Zeimani explained before the magnificent heartbreaker Didn’t Mean Much where she took a passionate lead.\n\nOne of the day’s shining highlights after the horn-driven gem Chauffeur was the swaggering family hug My Sisters and Me leading into the swirly, organ-driven finale of If I Let You. Mwah!\n\nBonus: you could even buy their album a week before its release in the merch tent, Hank Sebzda from local band Big Evil Rat proudly waving his around on the hill.\n\nNext up was country wise man and friend to the land Lund, rodeo and rancher pedigree opening up with the funky quasi-Shakespearean Dig Gravedigger Dig, songwriter-origin-ditty Five Dollar Bill and the actually rockabilly-summoning, hilariously horny The Gothest Girl I Can.\n\nThree numbers with horsehair hides were up next, starting with the meta-musical Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle driven by powerhouse stand-up bass player Sean Burns, ever in his country ascot.\n\nLyle Molzan’s snares got a workout as punchy I Wanna Be in the Cavalry was next up, after which Lund asked us, “Anybody else watch the History Channel late at night? Nerds!” before launching into the universal cavalry flyover Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier.\n\nSome gambling songs were followed by the mournful Alberta Says Hello, the classic rocker Hurtin Albertan and the authority-bucking Bible on the Dash before career highlight The Truth Comes Out.\n\n“That’s my mom’s favourite song,” a varsity-sweater, bespectacled Lund noted before correcting she actually likes a Neil Diamond song more, laughing, “But that’s her favourite song of mine.”\n\nThe Water Not Coal thank-you (and a crowd chant of that with a few expletives thrown premier-way) was followed by its unofficial theme song, This Is My Prairie, Grant Demon Siemens pulling the mandolin out for the tingling solo.\n\nThen it was a nod to Lund’s now-gone friend Ian Tyson, Someday Soon, the singer noting his mentor once told him, “‘This song’s paid a lot of god damned alimony.'”\n\n“I built my career in Edmonton and it’s an honour to play here,” Lund said near set’s end. “Think I’m gonna drink some beer after this!”\n\nCue his first single, Shine Up My Boots (“hot sister” playing the romantic lead in the vid), finishing up with “spiritual song” Time to Switch to Whiskey, which got the whole crowd up and dancing for the first and not last time of the weekend.\n\nWhich led us to Lane and the amazing soul set of Thee Sacred Souls, with drummer Alex Garcia and bassist Sal Smano at its originally instrumental oldies core, now sprawling stage-wide with a horn section and head-turning backup singers Viane Escobar and Astyn Turrentine.\n\nBetween satin-vocal singing songs like Lucid Girl and Will I See You Again?, Lane said he wasn’t going to force the comfortable to get up on their feet, but asked that we at least move along on our butts, which quickly led him off the stage to the edge of the audience at first, getting everyone who could up and dancing on the lower level.\n\nLet Me Feel Your Charm begat Easier Said Than Done, after which he noted, “I love my country from the inside, but I don’t love my country from the outside,” noting the war machine Ozzy railed against back in the ’60s, noting the still-going imperialism and genocide currently funded in large part by the U.S. in Palestine, currently shifting Democrat primary results.\n\n“Love is the most powerful thing,” dreadlocked Lane declared before breaking into the horn-driven, Al Green-vibing Love Is the Way.\n\nIn another sweet moment, he came and sang We Don’t Have to Be Alone on the little thrust stage to folks with disabilities, then loosed the bedroom neck-chewer Weak for Your Love, holding his mic and up getting “LOOOOOVE!” from each side of the arms-swaying crowd.\n\nIn a delightful sermon of felt togetherness, Lane noted, “We are more than blessed to be on this side of the earth to experience both the good and the bad.”\n\nThursday night, though, it was the good, and it’s here he ran up into the crowd for the gorgeous On My Mind and Future Love (and surely some future lovers first made contact here amid the candles and electric butterfly dancer and phone lights).\n\n“I also struggle with loving myself,” Lane admitted near the end, “but the more you love yourself, the more you see your neighbour,” he said within this temporary community, together here for the sake of joy, Live for You leading to the finale, singalong Can I Call you Rose?\n\nTick off another smooth and superb night at the folk fest, thanks to the hard work of crews that made the ground solid, a couple dozen incredible musicians diving deep and tens of thousands of people finding the in-person antidote to the ever-invasive unreal.\n\nfgriwkowsky@postmedia.com\n\n@fisheyefoto.bsky.social\n\nRelated Summer's coming — here's your guide to Edmonton's festival season\n\nArrested Development, Cat Power, Nathaniel Rateliff headline 2026 Edmonton folk fest\n\nBookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.\n\nYou can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/festivals/thee-sacred-souls-corb-lund-womack-sisters-edmonton-folk-music-festival","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/0807-you-efmfthu5.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-08-07T17:12:39.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Festivals","Music"],"authorName":"Fish Griwkowsky","contentHtml":"\"Thee

On a day that first delivered war with overnight mud: songs of peace, love and resistance won the day in a beautiful musical Oreo of Daptone Records soul artists Thee Sacred Souls and the Womack Sisters, with Alberta folk hero Corb Lund twanging away in the middle.

Especially memorable was headlining Souls’ singer Josh Lane spending considerable time grooving his way over the plastic fence up the Gallagher Park slope into the nighttime crowd, the spotlight following him for a few songs sung in the midst of the tens of thousands waving arms, another eternally memorable mirror-suit Chris Isaak Edmonton Folk Music Festival moment for sure.

While his tunes were singalong and indeed feverishly two-stepped to earlier, Lund’s biggest cheer came citing the ongoing fight against a complicit provincial government greasing the way for foreign industrial vampires to tear apart our land for coal, the singer smiling bittersweetly, “Thank you for all your support for you know what.”

Crowd response: “ROAR!”

And kicking this off, a general sense of love got us all going – impressively on time after an hour’s delay opening the gates as crews sturdied the site – as the Womack Sisters dressed in matching all-denim Canadian denim tuxedos pulled their family’s soul and R&B pedigree up from L.A., the sun bright and shining away any sense of impending weather dread.

The next soldier on the local front line of changed-climate outdoor festivals around here in Wetmonton, Thursday’s folk fest was squishy in advance, as two feet of rain from the record-wet summer had the hill a sort of soggy sponge before 200 tonnes of sand were trucked in to beachify the grass.

\"

Wednesday’s overnight rain was an extra damp bird flip, but pallets from the ski hill’s construction site were cleverly deployed in what festival producer Terry Wickham called a “genius idea” and a “heroic effort,” starting around 3 p.m., creating a super sturdy boardwalk along the fest’s high-foot-traffic-muddy fault lines. Impressive work!

While the controlled tarp run and hilltop tent setup was pushed back an hour, the Womacks started right on time at 6:30 p.m. after the opening greetings and land acknowledgement, yearned-for sun poking through an otherwise cloudy morning and afternoon.

Which left a wide-open evening to not fret about the weather at all (knock on wood moving forward – should lightning strike within 10 km of the site Saturday or Sunday, expect a half-hour pause to risk assess; and do bring that rain gear).

As already noted, the all-denim costumes of the Womack Sisters drew thousands of immediate smiles as, stage right to left, Sam Cooke’s granddaughters Zeimani (in Adidas sneakers), and BG and Kucha Womack (wearing Vans) opened the fest with harmonic, road-worn soul numbers like I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye) and You Went Away Too Long, BG usually in the lead.

Notably on bass, Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth (a.k.a. Bosco Mann), whose roster includes Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, the late, great Charles Bradley, the Budos Band and Antibalas.

\"

The very lovely I Am Your Season was followed by a nicely softened California Dreaming, then, as BG explained before Teardrops, “To honour our parents,” that’d be Womack & Womack a.k.a. Zekkariyas & Zeriiya (Cooke’s daughter), “we’re going to play this song for you.”

Next up: “This song is about giving a f— but also not really giving a f—, if you know what I mean,” Zeimani explained before the magnificent heartbreaker Didn’t Mean Much where she took a passionate lead.

One of the day’s shining highlights after the horn-driven gem Chauffeur was the swaggering family hug My Sisters and Me leading into the swirly, organ-driven finale of If I Let You. Mwah!

Bonus: you could even buy their album a week before its release in the merch tent, Hank Sebzda from local band Big Evil Rat proudly waving his around on the hill.

Next up was country wise man and friend to the land Lund, rodeo and rancher pedigree opening up with the funky quasi-Shakespearean Dig Gravedigger Dig, songwriter-origin-ditty Five Dollar Bill and the actually rockabilly-summoning, hilariously horny The Gothest Girl I Can.

Three numbers with horsehair hides were up next, starting with the meta-musical Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle driven by powerhouse stand-up bass player Sean Burns, ever in his country ascot.

Lyle Molzan’s snares got a workout as punchy I Wanna Be in the Cavalry was next up, after which Lund asked us, “Anybody else watch the History Channel late at night? Nerds!” before launching into the universal cavalry flyover Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier.

Some gambling songs were followed by the mournful Alberta Says Hello, the classic rocker Hurtin Albertan and the authority-bucking Bible on the Dash before career highlight The Truth Comes Out.

“That’s my mom’s favourite song,” a varsity-sweater, bespectacled Lund noted before correcting she actually likes a Neil Diamond song more, laughing, “But that’s her favourite song of mine.”

\"

The Water Not Coal thank-you (and a crowd chant of that with a few expletives thrown premier-way) was followed by its unofficial theme song, This Is My Prairie, Grant Demon Siemens pulling the mandolin out for the tingling solo.

Then it was a nod to Lund’s now-gone friend Ian Tyson, Someday Soon, the singer noting his mentor once told him, “‘This song’s paid a lot of god damned alimony.'”

“I built my career in Edmonton and it’s an honour to play here,” Lund said near set’s end. “Think I’m gonna drink some beer after this!”

Cue his first single, Shine Up My Boots (“hot sister” playing the romantic lead in the vid), finishing up with “spiritual song” Time to Switch to Whiskey, which got the whole crowd up and dancing for the first and not last time of the weekend.

Which led us to Lane and the amazing soul set of Thee Sacred Souls, with drummer Alex Garcia and bassist Sal Smano at its originally instrumental oldies core, now sprawling stage-wide with a horn section and head-turning backup singers Viane Escobar and Astyn Turrentine.

Between satin-vocal singing songs like Lucid Girl and Will I See You Again?, Lane said he wasn’t going to force the comfortable to get up on their feet, but asked that we at least move along on our butts, which quickly led him off the stage to the edge of the audience at first, getting everyone who could up and dancing on the lower level.

\"

Let Me Feel Your Charm begat Easier Said Than Done, after which he noted, “I love my country from the inside, but I don’t love my country from the outside,” noting the war machine Ozzy railed against back in the ’60s, noting the still-going imperialism and genocide currently funded in large part by the U.S. in Palestine, currently shifting Democrat primary results.

“Love is the most powerful thing,” dreadlocked Lane declared before breaking into the horn-driven, Al Green-vibing Love Is the Way.

In another sweet moment, he came and sang We Don’t Have to Be Alone on the little thrust stage to folks with disabilities, then loosed the bedroom neck-chewer Weak for Your Love, holding his mic and up getting “LOOOOOVE!” from each side of the arms-swaying crowd.

In a delightful sermon of felt togetherness, Lane noted, “We are more than blessed to be on this side of the earth to experience both the good and the bad.”

Thursday night, though, it was the good, and it’s here he ran up into the crowd for the gorgeous On My Mind and Future Love (and surely some future lovers first made contact here amid the candles and electric butterfly dancer and phone lights).

“I also struggle with loving myself,” Lane admitted near the end, “but the more you love yourself, the more you see your neighbour,” he said within this temporary community, together here for the sake of joy, Live for You leading to the finale, singalong Can I Call you Rose?

Tick off another smooth and superb night at the folk fest, thanks to the hard work of crews that made the ground solid, a couple dozen incredible musicians diving deep and tens of thousands of people finding the in-person antidote to the ever-invasive unreal.

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto.bsky.social

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