Singer/guitarist Nils Edenloff - the sole born-and-bred Albertan in The Rural Alberta Advantage - still sounds a bit incredulous when he recounts the explosive year that was 2009 for his band.

You can't blame him. The Toronto-based trio went from hawking CD-R copies of its independent debut album, Hometowns, at club shows in the GTA to having said album reissued by Saddle Creek (the influential U.S. indie label co-founded by Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst) and gracing the pages of Spin as a breakout band.

"It's definitely been a whirlwind," says Edenloff, 31, over the phone from his home in Toronto. "I'm still trying to grasp everything that's happening. You really could say things have blown up - and I never would have expected it."

The band may not have expected the Saddle Creek deal or the resulting spike in popularity south of the border, but The RAA - which also includes Woodhands' Paul Banwatt (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole - certainly deserves to be heard by more people. The sparkling Hometowns, which was re-released in July of last year, is a nostalgic collection of lo-fi, heart-on-sleeve alt-folk songs largely inspired by Edenloff's formative years in Wild Rose Country.

In fact, the band's name was also drawn from the frontman's past.

"(The Rural Alberta Advantage) is part of a slogan the provincial government used to use," Edenloff explains. "I grew up with it. It was trumpeting the oil and gas industry. After I had moved to Toronto, I was exchanging emails with my brother and I asked him what he was up to and he shot back, 'just hanging with friends and exploring the rural Alberta advantage.' Hearing it like that, it was like, 'Oh my God,' and all my beautiful memories came back."

When Edenloff graduated from the University of Alberta in the early 2000s, however, he opted not to explore the rural Alberta advantage, deciding instead to try out big-city living in Toronto. The adjustment wasn't easy - "The first hour I was in Toronto I was robbed," he says - and, for a prospective musician, life in the Big Smoke was even more daunting.

"I was overwhelmed by the amount of the bands," Edenloff recalls. "It was like, 'Wow, what can I do that's different?'''

Fueled by homesickness and heartache, he found the answer by reconnecting with his roots.

"It's not like I went, 'Oooh, a niche!'" he says with a laugh, "but a lot of the songs I was writing were about embracing my memories of growing up in Alberta. I didn't really realize the impact Alberta had on me and the person I am now."

Still, you don't need to be from Alberta to get something out of Hometowns and the themes it explores.

"That's the thing I appreciated a lot more from touring and meeting so many people," Edenloff says. "People will say, 'I don't know the first thing about Alberta, but I get this. I can relate to this.' Because, really, it's about growing up, moving on and getting old."

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE
Feb. 9, 8 p.m., West End Cultural Centre
w/ The Wooden Sky