Yellowknife (Jun 19/06) - There's always time for second chances.

Tonight, the CBC True North concert will take a second stab at its 25th anniversary at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre in Yellowknife, after last year's labour dispute and subsequent lockout postponed the celebration.

Tanya Tagaq Gillis will perform at the True North concert in Yellowknife, June 19, following up on successful performances during Global Divas 2006 in Toronto and at Carnegie Hall with Kronos Quartet. - photo courtesy of Tanya Tagaq Gillis

Artists are coming from around the North to participate, from Whitehorse to Pangnirtung and from Tulita to Chisasibi, Que. according to CBC North senior producer Peter Skinner.

"This year's concert is almost exclusively performers who have been at the True North Concert before," he said.

The single exception is John Iserhoff, a fiddler from Chisasibi, who was a late addition.

Veteran performers like Cambridge Bay's Tanya Tagaq Gillis, Pangnirtung's Simeonie Keenainak and Rankin Inlet's Charlie Panigoniak, are back. Joining them are Yellowknife's Pat Braden, Leela Gilday and Aaron "Godson" Hernandez.

Panigoniak performed at the first True North concert in Iqaluit in 1980, and has returned more times than any other artist, Skinner said.

"This is Charlie's seventh," he said. "He was a natural choice."

Panigoniak, who will be performing with his wife, Lorna Tasseor, said he had a pair of new songs to perform. One is about hockey, inspired by Rankin Inlet's "Hockeyville" campaign, while the other is about his brother.

"He knows how to go hunting better than me, but he's not smarter than me. I'm smarter because I'm older," he said with a laugh.

Panigoniak said he was most looking forward to reconnecting with old friends, so going to Yellowknife was an easy choice.

"(Skinner) asked me, 'do you want to go to True North.' I said 'yeah, I have to before my voice is gone.'"

Skinner said the show will be taped for broadcast coast-to-coast during the fall season of "World in Performance."

The concert will also launch "Trulysomething 2" a compilation of the best performances of the last 25 years.