DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN - "Close your eyes," Anthony Menacho crooned to the crowd.

He'd already won over the audience - and the judges - with his youthful rendition of Steve Earle's "Someday," but this song was original, completely his own. By the time he strummed his final chord, they were already clapping, cheering, screaming like groupies.

He had written the song for his girlfriend in Tulita, with whom he passed hours upon hours of calling-card time. But nearly everyone watching the exuberant 19-year-old from Deline perform at the talent show in Fort Simpson will carry that song with them for a long time.

"It was just lovely," said Peter Menacho, Anthony's father. "Kids were running to me, every one of them, saying 'Where's this song from? How can I download it? Where can I pick it up?' His brother told them, 'That's his song. He made his own song.'"

It was Anthony's last performance before he died.

He went out celebrating with friends that night, March 27, and a search party found him, frozen, three days later.

Now, Anthony's friends and family across the territory are remembering him with messages on his YouTube performance videos - more than 20 of them are online, each showcasing his acoustic and vocal abilities ranging from AC/DC to Bob Dylan to Hedley to the Jonas Brothers.

"Me and my brother's dream was to make it in the music business," said his 17-year-old brother, Malcolm, his best friend. "He was my teacher. He taught me everything I know and me and him, we knew we had something special. We knew we had something going - he said he had dreams all the time, deja vus, and one of them was me and him, we made it in the music business."

Peter bought Anthony his first guitar when he was 13, taught him to play, and spent the next six years listening to that guitar and watching his son grow as a musician, thinking he had the same spirit as his namesake uncle Tony, a gifted musician who died young in a plane crash 25 years ago.

"I was so thankful that not only had he started learning the guitar, but at the same time he was learning his culture, his language, and he started to be more involved. Every drum dance, every hand game, he was there," Peter said. "It's sad for me that we lost a leader."

Anthony taught free guitar lessons to younger kids in Deline and they all looked up to him, but none more than Malcolm. The brothers were invited to play at jamborees and music festivals all over the Sahtu, going as far as the Midway Lake Music Festival in Fort McPherson last summer. Malcolm said his brother loved being on tour and visiting places - he has friends all over the North. He was looking into upgrading courses and planned to study music in Winnipeg, a plan that Malcolm aims to put into action.

"I remember last summer - for the whole summer, every day - I'd grab my guitar and Anthony would come find me and we'd jam outside every day for hours and hours," Malcolm said.

"Out of everyone, he always likes to play with me because we're brothers - we play the same. The way we play, we amaze people. People we don't even know. They're amazed at how talented me and my brother are."

Anthony's aunt, Freda Neyelle, said his tragic death is a reminder that communities must continue to come together and support young people.

"Anthony's an example for a lot of young people - tragedy can happen to anybody," she said from home in Deline. "Teenagers go through a lot of stuff - mixed emotional feelings. This is when the community needs to reach out and say 'we've got to be there for our young people.' And I think this community is like that."

Peter said Anthony told him he hated drugs and peer pressure and that he often felt left out when most of his friends were abusing drugs and alcohol. Now, Peter wants to carry on the drug-free message his son tried so hard to live up to.

"He set the road for Malcolm," Peter said. "Malcolm will continue and finish off their dreams, what they wanted to achieve. My job is to do the prevention. Anthony, the number one thing he hated was drugs," he added.

"If you want to be talented at something, leave the drugs."