Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 21/99) - The word has long been out among southern music acts that Folk on the Rocks is something to be seen and be a part of -- the midnight sun, the gathering of different cultures, loving music far away from the clubs and venues common in the bigger centres.

Thus, it is hardly surprising that so many find the experience not just something to check off on a resume, but a trip that is personally gratifying as well.

"It was hard not to have fun," said Bob Cussen, mandolin player for Quebec's Nobody You Know. "They pay your way up here, they feed you and, fortunately, you get to play music. There would have to be something wrong with you if you didn't like that."

Even the mosquitos and other creepy critters weren't enough to put a damper on the weekend for Andrew Aldridge of the Wild Strawberries, who otherwise would have been horrified by the North's abundant insect populations.

"There's definitely more bugs than there are in cottage country, but when we got off the plane it was like, ŚWow, check out the clean air,'" Aldridge said. "It's great up here. We had an excellent time."

The same goes for Oh Susannah, who also found the Northern cuisine dangerously close to converting her into a full-time carnivore.

"I've got a third eye thanks to the horseflies," said the songstress. "I ate caribou and it was delicious, but I feel guilty because caribou are so cute, but I guess that didn't do much to stop me, anyway."

Brock Skywalker from Captain Tractor couldn't believe our luck with the weather, considering recent developments south.

"It was sure hotter than it was in southern Alberta before we left," Skywalker said. "You could see your breath it was so cold. Up here, I was just trying to keep the sand out of my nose."

Njacko Backo, who referred to the infectious grooves his ensemble orchestrated as an "African social beat," summed up his feelings regarding Yellowknife and the festival in his mother tongue, Bagangte' from Western Cameroon: "Yellowknife ba lak nkoni -- Yellowknife is the city of love."

No doubt, as far as those who attended the festival are concerned, the feeling is mutual when it came to this year's crop of musicians who were as happy to be here as we were to have them.