Given the Sadies' secret status as one of the world's wickedest bands - country, rock or otherwise - it was vaguely surprising to find them unscheduled on the mainstage at Folk Fest double-oh-eight.

But shucks - it's just as easy not to complain (right?), given their time among us has been subsequently partitioned throughout the weekend - including a gratifying whopper Canadiana session tonight at 7:30 p.m. on Stage 1, the eastern border of New Folkland.

The brothers (Travis and Dallas) Good call from between Canmore and Calgary, intending fully to have pulled up into town last night to sample our party culture once again. Their persistent friendliness has them in some spectacular collaborations coming up, but just read on ...

SUN MEDIA: "New Seasons was one of my favourites last year. Can you tell me a little about what Gary (Jayhawks) Louris brought into the studio? Dude's a pro playa, obviously."

TRAVIS GOOD: "He helped from the ground up. He helped with the writing, the arranging. Vocally, he really pushed us. He thinks of things I've never really thought of when I sing. And he was there, looking over our shoulder, reading what we were writing."

SUN MEDIA: "What would he suggest with your singing?"

TRAVIS: "Oh, to do another take. (Laughs hard.) In the earlier records, we would do a couple takes and I'd say, 'Well, that's what I sound like. If it's squawky, that's my voice.' But he'd get us to do it 10 times, a bit of a slave-driver, that man. For me the vocals are the hardest thing, so it's the first thing I want to abandon ... get right to the guitar as quick as I can."

SUN MEDIA: "Eat your vegetables so you can have dessert."

TRAVIS: "Yeah, exactly."

SUN MEDIA: "You guys are obsessive collaborators - is there anything you can let out of the bag coming up you're working on?"

TRAVIS: "Oh, for sure! We just did a thing with Garth Hudson and Mary Margaret O'Hara, a Band tribute record Garth's throwing together. All Canadians, he's producing and playing on it. We just finished a country record with John Doe. And we've been chipping away recording with Gord Downie. Like with Gary Louris, we've been talking about how, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we did something one day?' We've been in the studio and done some work since. We did a couple songs that'll be on a compilation for the Waterkeeper Foundation."

SUN MEDIA: "Part of making music together is friendship - you looking forward to hanging out with some musicians at the Folk Fest, onstage, backstage?"

TRAVIS: "Sexsmith should be pretty easy. We've talked about doing stuff with him, too. So you never know. (Laughs.) We met Robyn Hitchcock at one of those and it went really good, we ended up recording with him. Same with Jim White. It can go either way, really good or really bad."

SUN MEDIA: "As long as everyone's joining in, it's great."

TRAVIS: "Yeah, I don't like the circle, going around, staring at the sun while a person's doing a solo thing. Not my bag. Hey, you want to talk to Dallas a bit?

SUN MEDIA: "If I have to. Just kidding - yeah. (Extended phone rumbling.) Dallas, what's the new album looking like?"

DALLAS: "We've got a bunch of songs we've been working on with Gary, but I don't think we'll get a chance to revisit them until December. But considering the album that we're working on with Gord is going to be original and with an equal amount of input, we don't want to sell anything short there.

"Even though we have three records on the go right now, not including our own or the stuff we did with Neko (Case on her upcoming album), I still like to think of everything one project at a time. Last month in particular I was working on four separate projects simultaneously. I've felt a little overwhelmed lately, because I do all the mixing, too. But I'm a bully with that. But whatever. Don't cry for me, I'm already dead. I dug my own grave and someday I'll gladly get to lie in it."

The Sadies play tonight; tomorrow 1 p.m. on Stage 1 and 5 p.m. on Stage 2; finally, 11 a.m. Sunday on Stage 6.