{"data":{"id":"378408e9-65b3-4019-ac78-c482c296f4aa","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Arrested Development, Cat Power top a terrific (and dry) Saturday at folk fest","summary":"Raised fists and cries of “Revolution!” capped a meaty and marvellously memorable (plus extra long) Saturday at Edmonton Folk Music Festival where – what do you know – away stayed the rain.\n\nEchoing Thursday night’s headliner Thee Sacred Love, Atlanta supergroup Arrested Development threw a politically charged yet warm and fuzzy hug-in, as lead rapper Speech decried ICE stormtroopers and fascism at the same time he reminded us why we’re all here together, literally the name of one of the 37-year-old group’s co-rappers: One Love.\n\nMashing in crowd-activating echoes of Bob Marley’s Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Kriss Kross’ Jump, House of Pain’s Jump Around and ultimately Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People, the dynamic Fareedah Aleem was constantly stealing the show with her big grin, giant whipping-around braids and powerhouse singing.\n\nThe whole concert was the most consistent energy we’d seen since two days before on the big stage, though the Irish charm of Amble, the sweet folk-pop of Buffalo Traffic Jam and especially the singalong hits like Dirty Paws and finale number Little Talks of Of Monsters and Men Friday night were nothing to sneeze at.\n\nThat afternoon’s Mariel Buckley concerts – first with Fantastic Cat and Sister Ray, then a solo show – showed off one of my favourite things about this gigantic fest, a little love for the local acts.\n\nAngel-voiced country iconoclast Buckley played one more sesh Saturday with Jake Xerxes Fussell and Ásgeir then took off for the woods to decompress and, as she noted is a less sanitized term naming a common Flintstones fashion accessory, make out.\n\nThe sessions, which we used to call workshops, are as usual where so much of Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s gold bubbles up from creative pocket dimensions worldwide – including Halifax!\n\nTo wit: the impossibly charming Joel Plaskett Emergency trio had a totally packed Stage 5 laughing hard as he noted they got asked last minute to play the volunteer afterparty at the Westin about 3:30 a.m. their time zone the previous night.\n\nHe gave a refreshingly-non-Oilers-jersey nod to Edmonton before his song Fill in the Blanks, a nod to local-born Marshall McLuhan, who surely formed many of his influential media theories here before moving away as a toddler.\n\n“Is this the steepest show we’ve ever done?” he joked, looking up the hill. “Ask AI, it’ll tell you! No wait, actually don’t!”\n\nFollowing the progressive political rivulets of the fest, he also begged developers, “if you tear something down, please don’t name it after the thing you destroyed.”\n\nPlaskett also pulled out CanCon classic Fashionable People, beeping like Beaker the Muppet for the chorus and asking for our high notes, indeed a high note.\n\nMore of these included Hooray for the Riff Raff over on Stage 3, who pulled out a Dr. Evil-sounding What If God Was One of Us?, while Sun Records but also INXS-riffing Jeremie Albino packed his own show, ending on the outrageously solid rocker, Trouble.\n\nThe Mbira Renaissance Band also had everyone up and dancing by the end, and folks were talking about The Milk Carton Kids talking about a “sexy Dobbie” costume.\n\nWhile they played I was over at Stage 6 for the Goin’ Up to the Country session, where the trad country The Brudi Brothers and beautiful bluegrass players Dailey & Vincent alone would have been amazing, but enter guitar picker Gwenifer Raymond, my personal festival MVP.\n\nThe whole crowd was hypnotized solid as she shook guitar maestro John Fahey’s dizzying bedrock and drove it into the dark side of the blues like some kind of folk mind virus – my favourite thing all weekend so far: lyricless, unfathomable skill and pure instinct.\n\nShe got a little spotlight on mainstage before Cat Power as things were starting to run late later on, but the best moment was Raymond playing as the sun crept down over in the pyramid-adjacent bowl that beautifully echoes Heritage Amphitheatre with a number called Gwaed Am Gwead, Welsh for “blood for blood”: retribution.\n\nWhich brings us back to the night, where feedback-hounded Annie & the Caldwells then Quebec influence-hugger Leif Vollebekk played a set in his tank top consisting of every chill folky-pop Lego piece available, including on worry ballad Long Blue Light, Ocie Elliott joining for some spicy harmonica.\n\n“This is absolutely phenomenally wonderful,” Vollebekk said happily, adding, “This is my favourite seat in the whole world,” looking up at the Gallagher Park humans, trees and streaks of clouds above it all.\n\nVollebekk finished it with a cover of Prince’s Purple Rain that had all the cellphone batteries draining and waving.\n\nThe schedule started creaking behind, but out came Cat Power (on International Cat Day, no less!) with an esoteric, slightly mystical and often delightful show, dressed as a rather amazing cross between Jann Arden and Avril Lavigne, complete with black leather Tie.\n\nHer tight, stone-faced four-piece backup band did a great job backing her up on songs like Willie, Where Is My Love and The Moon (no moon visible, sadly, but the screen cameraman found a nice spotlight up on the hill).\n\nShe shook it up a bit for the Elvis-y Islands and the soaring Love and Communication, but my ears really perked up for Manhattan, where she changed the lyrics into a snake in the grass Trump diss, excellent job.\n\nGood Woman was a slow-dance heart crusher, and she was happy with a set extenda-play, noting, “God called in and she said, ‘Look, they’re gonna need more time…”\n\nHer last two songs were innovative nods (we almost got Nothing Compares 2 U according to a potential set list, though maybe Purple Rain bucked it) in James Brown’s Try Me and a tribute to Kitty Wells, and off she went noting, “I want you to fight the power, I want you to be gentle to yourself. I love you!”\n\nSpeaking of Public Enemy, Speech of Arrested Development mentioned them and of course Malcolm X by name, talking about Spike Lee asking the band to write Revolution for the Denzel Washington-starring masterpiece biopic.\n\n“He was right there in the room,” Speech beamed of recording-session Lee, who’d also commissioned Fight the Power for his earlier Do the Right Thing.\n\nIt was such a great set: defiant, hopeful, accessible down to a row of white 10-year-old boys dancing along in the front row, singing “I! Love! Hip! Hop!” in one of the fest’s strangest scenes.\n\nWith swirling rhymes and beats, Give a Man a Fish was a highlight, the wonderfully-named Dawn of the Dreads and, to match Cat Power’s visceral Manhattan, Arrested’s powerful Tennessee – just don’t tell Skynyrd.\n\nThe Kriss Kross-House of Pain Jump medley got everyone up and moving, and Mr. Wendal was a total singalong, making the big bowl such a happy place to dance on that imported sand.\n\nSummoning and inverting Sly Stone’s classic in an ADHD constellation of candles and phone lights, People Everyday took us right to the past-fest-bedtime 12:30 a.m. deadline, but what a Saturday, revolution taking on its other meaning of the Earth spinning, and so rest assured we’ll be back here, over and over again.\n\nRelated Thee Sacred Souls, Corb Lund and the Womack Sisters shine at Edmonton folk fest\n\nArrested Development, Cat Power, Nathaniel Rateliff headline 2026 Edmonton folk fest\n\nfgriwkowsky@postmedia.com\n\n@fisheyefoto.bsky.social\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/arrested-development-cat-power-folk-fest","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/0809-you-efmf-arrested.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-08-09T20:20:46.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Festivals","Music"],"authorName":"Fish Griwkowsky","contentHtml":"\"Artists

Raised fists and cries of “Revolution!” capped a meaty and marvellously memorable (plus extra long) Saturday at Edmonton Folk Music Festival where – what do you know – away stayed the rain.

Echoing Thursday night’s headliner Thee Sacred Love, Atlanta supergroup Arrested Development threw a politically charged yet warm and fuzzy hug-in, as lead rapper Speech decried ICE stormtroopers and fascism at the same time he reminded us why we’re all here together, literally the name of one of the 37-year-old group’s co-rappers: One Love.

Mashing in crowd-activating echoes of Bob Marley’s Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Kriss Kross’ Jump, House of Pain’s Jump Around and ultimately Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People, the dynamic Fareedah Aleem was constantly stealing the show with her big grin, giant whipping-around braids and powerhouse singing.

The whole concert was the most consistent energy we’d seen since two days before on the big stage, though the Irish charm of Amble, the sweet folk-pop of Buffalo Traffic Jam and especially the singalong hits like Dirty Paws and finale number Little Talks of Of Monsters and Men Friday night were nothing to sneeze at.

\"

That afternoon’s Mariel Buckley concerts – first with Fantastic Cat and Sister Ray, then a solo show – showed off one of my favourite things about this gigantic fest, a little love for the local acts.

Angel-voiced country iconoclast Buckley played one more sesh Saturday with Jake Xerxes Fussell and Ásgeir then took off for the woods to decompress and, as she noted is a less sanitized term naming a common Flintstones fashion accessory, make out.

The sessions, which we used to call workshops, are as usual where so much of Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s gold bubbles up from creative pocket dimensions worldwide – including Halifax!

To wit: the impossibly charming Joel Plaskett Emergency trio had a totally packed Stage 5 laughing hard as he noted they got asked last minute to play the volunteer afterparty at the Westin about 3:30 a.m. their time zone the previous night.

He gave a refreshingly-non-Oilers-jersey nod to Edmonton before his song Fill in the Blanks, a nod to local-born Marshall McLuhan, who surely formed many of his influential media theories here before moving away as a toddler.

“Is this the steepest show we’ve ever done?” he joked, looking up the hill. “Ask AI, it’ll tell you! No wait, actually don’t!”

Following the progressive political rivulets of the fest, he also begged developers, “if you tear something down, please don’t name it after the thing you destroyed.”

\"

Plaskett also pulled out CanCon classic Fashionable People, beeping like Beaker the Muppet for the chorus and asking for our high notes, indeed a high note.

More of these included Hooray for the Riff Raff over on Stage 3, who pulled out a Dr. Evil-sounding What If God Was One of Us?, while Sun Records but also INXS-riffing Jeremie Albino packed his own show, ending on the outrageously solid rocker, Trouble.

The Mbira Renaissance Band also had everyone up and dancing by the end, and folks were talking about The Milk Carton Kids talking about a “sexy Dobbie” costume.

While they played I was over at Stage 6 for the Goin’ Up to the Country session, where the trad country The Brudi Brothers and beautiful bluegrass players Dailey & Vincent alone would have been amazing, but enter guitar picker Gwenifer Raymond, my personal festival MVP.

The whole crowd was hypnotized solid as she shook guitar maestro John Fahey’s dizzying bedrock and drove it into the dark side of the blues like some kind of folk mind virus – my favourite thing all weekend so far: lyricless, unfathomable skill and pure instinct.

She got a little spotlight on mainstage before Cat Power as things were starting to run late later on, but the best moment was Raymond playing as the sun crept down over in the pyramid-adjacent bowl that beautifully echoes Heritage Amphitheatre with a number called Gwaed Am Gwead, Welsh for “blood for blood”: retribution.

\"

Which brings us back to the night, where feedback-hounded Annie & the Caldwells then Quebec influence-hugger Leif Vollebekk played a set in his tank top consisting of every chill folky-pop Lego piece available, including on worry ballad Long Blue Light, Ocie Elliott joining for some spicy harmonica.

“This is absolutely phenomenally wonderful,” Vollebekk said happily, adding, “This is my favourite seat in the whole world,” looking up at the Gallagher Park humans, trees and streaks of clouds above it all.

Vollebekk finished it with a cover of Prince’s Purple Rain that had all the cellphone batteries draining and waving.

The schedule started creaking behind, but out came Cat Power (on International Cat Day, no less!) with an esoteric, slightly mystical and often delightful show, dressed as a rather amazing cross between Jann Arden and Avril Lavigne, complete with black leather Tie.

Her tight, stone-faced four-piece backup band did a great job backing her up on songs like Willie, Where Is My Love and The Moon (no moon visible, sadly, but the screen cameraman found a nice spotlight up on the hill).

She shook it up a bit for the Elvis-y Islands and the soaring Love and Communication, but my ears really perked up for Manhattan, where she changed the lyrics into a snake in the grass Trump diss, excellent job.

Good Woman was a slow-dance heart crusher, and she was happy with a set extenda-play, noting, “God called in and she said, ‘Look, they’re gonna need more time…”

Her last two songs were innovative nods (we almost got Nothing Compares 2 U according to a potential set list, though maybe Purple Rain bucked it) in James Brown’s Try Me and a tribute to Kitty Wells, and off she went noting, “I want you to fight the power, I want you to be gentle to yourself. I love you!”

Speaking of Public Enemy, Speech of Arrested Development mentioned them and of course Malcolm X by name, talking about Spike Lee asking the band to write Revolution for the Denzel Washington-starring masterpiece biopic.

“He was right there in the room,” Speech beamed of recording-session Lee, who’d also commissioned Fight the Power for his earlier Do the Right Thing.

It was such a great set: defiant, hopeful, accessible down to a row of white 10-year-old boys dancing along in the front row, singing “I! Love! Hip! Hop!” in one of the fest’s strangest scenes.

With swirling rhymes and beats, Give a Man a Fish was a highlight, the wonderfully-named Dawn of the Dreads and, to match Cat Power’s visceral Manhattan, Arrested’s powerful Tennessee – just don’t tell Skynyrd.

\"

The Kriss Kross-House of Pain Jump medley got everyone up and moving, and Mr. Wendal was a total singalong, making the big bowl such a happy place to dance on that imported sand.

Summoning and inverting Sly Stone’s classic in an ADHD constellation of candles and phone lights, People Everyday took us right to the past-fest-bedtime 12:30 a.m. deadline, but what a Saturday, revolution taking on its other meaning of the Earth spinning, and so rest assured we’ll be back here, over and over again.

Related

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto.bsky.social

Bookmark 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.

You 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.

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