"AV & The Inner City" has once again proven why they are one of the most exciting acts to emerge from Canada’s vibrant Soul and Roots scene." -- The Sound Café

 

AV & the Inner City is an award-winning soul/roots vocal group which formed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Edmonton’s inner city.  Led by multi-award winning soul/blues artist AV (Ann Vriend) the group is a vibrant reflection of Canada’s musical diversity, with its’ all-female cast hailing from a very wide range of backgrounds.  In addition to AV their current line up includes Edmonton singers Jenn Dahlen, Alenka Lundell, Crystal Eyo, Mira Angela Laurelle K, and Stéphanie Odayen.  Their coveted stage performances are marked by emotional depth and vocal power, and though lyrically they often tackle tough social topics their concerts are also full of entertaining personal stories and self-deprecating Canadian humour— which, combined, puts smiles on the faces of listeners for all the right reasons. 

 

Strangely, the group was formed during the COVID19 pandemic, when bandleader AV’s tour schedule for her own material was abruptly cut short.  One Sunday in April 2020 AV decided to perform some music for free to her neighbourhood from her front porch, and the next week some singers joined her— socially distanced— and it grew from there, sometimes resulting in hundreds in attendance on the street and boulevard, coming from far and wide across the city, as well as from the immediate McCauley neighbourhood, which is Alberta’s poorest, and notoriously known for its struggles with the opioid crisis, homelessness, and crime.  In total, between 2020 and 2021 AV and other musicians performed over 60 free “porch concerts,” offering live music and connection in a time when that was extremely challenging, and bringing attention to the social issues facing the inner city. 

 

By summer 2021 the core set of vocalists who had been performing each week had become a polished ensemble, and in the 5 years since then AV & the Inner City have performed numerous concerts around Canada, including major festivals such as the Vancouver Island Music Festival, the Calgary Folk Festival, twice at the Bear Creek Music Festival, the Calgary Blues Festival, Toronto Blues Summit, and twice at the Edmonton Folk Festival; the latter at which they received an Emerging Artist Award. At the Calgary Festival former Nickelodeon promoter Vic Bell praised their set by saying: “This was an act that could have closed the Main Stage any night of the festival.  They earned a full house standing ovation,” and promoter Stuart Muir wrote: “Edmonton’s own supergroup AV & the Inner City is taking the Calgary Folk Music Festival by storm.” 

 

To date AV & the Inner City have released a self-titled 6 song EP in October, 2025.  From it their first released single, “Low & Lowly” has already garnered over 30,000 Spotify streams; while the EP went to #7 on the esteemed CKUA Radio charts.  The group has been featured in articles in Edify and Porter Airlines In-flight Magazine, and they even garnered radio play as far away as on commercial radio in Germany, as we as on campus radio  throughout the USA.  In February, 2026 the group was selected as one of 4 finalists in the Sing Toronto International Vocal Arts Festival, and in May, 2026 the group released their 7th single— a tribute to mothers saying goodbye, and the very Canadian story of immigration— an epic tear-jerking song entitled “A Dollar & a Suitcase.” It’s accompanying video now has over 74,000 streams on Youtube.  The song was sadly made even more poignant with the sudden passing this past July of AV's own mother, who is featured in the music video and whose community choir is added to the voices of people singing at the end of the song.

 

That is to say: it’s been quite the journey for this group of women who have done all of this while juggling other careers and music projects, and all as a kind of a surprise at how far this impromptu sing-along group has taken them.  They will showcase this fall at Pacific Contact in Nanaimo, and at Folk Canada Conference as their gear up for their first full album release in the New Year.