Again leaning young, woke, and in YouTube’s hundreds of millions of clicks, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s top-billed early announcement is Hozier — best-known for his viral song Take Me to the Church, its video a response to violence against gay people in Russia and worldwide.

Raised a Protestant Quaker, the handsome Irish-born singer will headline Thursday night, his gospel-ish, singalong folk pop a perfect fit for the reverent, candle-lit atmosphere on former mayor and meat merchant Cornelius Gallagher’s famous hill.

The fest runs Aug. 8-11, and this is EFMF’s year 40 — its first edition changing Edmonton’s musical ecosystem forever in 1980.

The excellent video for Hozier’s single Dinner & Diatribes starring Anya Taylor Joy and — with creepy black teeth and slick hair — the singer himself is yet another of Hozier’s explorations of misused power and abuse.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Second down the list amid the six early-trickle announcements are — you may have guessed — the lovely and reliable Blue Rodeo, who last closed out EFMF in 2014. (For the record, Jim Cuddy Band played in 2012.) They’re a fitting return act for the big anniversary.

The Toronto country rock band formed by high school mates Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor is just five years younger than the fest itself, and we’ll all be singing along to Try when they headline Saturday, Aug. 10.

Fingers crossed they play Diamond Mine to get us up and dancing, too.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Also performing Saturday, the tough and whip-smart Ani DiFranco returns with her guitar-strumming, socially conscious folk. With a career going back to the late ’80s always immersed in activism, she’s been a living answer to the question, “What ever happened to all the protest song musicians?” Her 1995 update on Woodie Guthrie’s call-it-out vibe includes the sadly-still-relevant Not a Pretty Girl.

Photo by supplied

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

With a one-of-a-kind voice, Texas picker and violin player Amanda Shires directly connects Bob Wills to the fest, having played in his still-going Texas Playboys as a kid, since then backing up and recording with everybody from Jason Isbell to Justin Townes Earle and — best Folk Fest concert ever — Chris Isaak.

Check out her Austin City Limits concert online to get pumped.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Finally, two bands with long and strange names are heading our way in August: The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, and Hurray for the Riff Raff.

Riff Raff’s lead singer Alynda Segarra grew up in the Bronx on a diet of Motown and doo-wop, passing through NYC punk on her way to making softer music in the singer-songwriter Americana realm inspired in part by cult phenomenon Rodriguez.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Joined by blues singer Dawn Pemberton, meanwhile, the stab-and-hack-titled Vancouver blues duo met at a jingle recording session in 2006, having played everywhere from Winnipeg Blues Festival to sxsw.

Also playing Saturday, they’ll bring a number of headbanging blues songs along with a very good reputation for kicking ass on stage. As it says in their bio, “These days it feels like our world is on the verge of collapse. But it’s with near-end times in the breeze that we plunge deeper into the pleasures of sex, revelry and entertainment.” Fiddle while Rome burns? Sounds good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=57cBxg9xgXA

The entire lineup of more than 60 artists will be revealed Wednesday, May 29, with tickets going on sale Saturday, June 1.