Friends, this one Northern Tlicho musician has proven his musical mastery once again, and this time with a new CD, imaginatively titled "Distant Morning Star."

Our First Nations people say that this is the holiest part of the day, around about four in the morning, and the best time to pray, when all of life takes a deep spiritual breath and a new day dawns.

And it always amazes me just how creative and lyrically exploratory this young man's music has always been.

There is also this great melodic and instrumental sense, along with Jesse Gon's somewhat world-weary, lived-in voice, that belies his relatively young years, as with an elder here before, forever born again.

This could also be from a sense of having grown up a little too fast, with none of our usual laid-back smaller community style.

But there is also a rare ability of this budding genius to blend a hard-edged look at life as we seldom really know it with an innocence in our basic human godliness.

As for the new CD itself, the superb fender and some acoustic work reminds one a little of Mark Knopfler's of Dire Straits with a healthy Denedelic dollop of Jimi Hendrix!

Indeed, on one particular cut that really shines, "Never Come Back," Gon manages somehow to make the flat-top sound like a ringing bell, summoning forth spirits of the life of a trapper's past glories.

There is something for every taste here, which speaks of a well-rounded sense of Diga's musical Family Gon, and even a kindly note thanking his older brother David for teaching him his first chord.

With a talent like his all this musician really needed was the timely support of both his Tlicho Government and the NWT's Arts Council.

No doubt we can all breathe a sigh of relief that this kind of help can bring forth a masterpiece like this one, already a proud addition to my leisure treasury!

Mahsi cho.