Rankin Inlet (Feb 09/04) - Ted Schinbein fully intended to record a music album dedicated to his time in Rankin Inlet when he left the Kivalliq with a head full of memories and a bad whiskey habit.

What he didn't plan was the more than three decades it took to finish the project.

Christmas of 2003 marked the 30-year anniversary of Schinbein's departure from Rankin.

He was hired in 1970 by the fledgling Kissarvik Co-op's board of directors to come to Rankin and establish a store for its members.

The board members had met the wandering minstrel a few months earlier when he was in Rankin with his band, The Fellowship.

"There was no budget for wages, so I was only being paid $100 a week, but I was given groceries and an empty house for my wife and I," says Schinbein.

"I learned to hunt with Alikashuak, Noolook, Samgushak and Tikayayak to supply us with caribou and char."

Schinbein was a fixture playing at weekend dances during his four years in Rankin.

He has many fond memories of the numerous Rankin musicians he played with, and learned from, during marathon nights of keeping the dance floor hopping.

"In those days you played until you couldn't play any more, and then somebody else would pick up your instrument and carry on," Schinbein recalls.

Today, a long-sober Schinbein and his wife, Yvette, are still together and run a recording studio in Mitchell, Ont. For the past few years, Schinbein has been seriously working on a group of songs that tell the stories of friends and events in Rankin during the early '70s -- the same recording he began writing in 1973.

The CD, Remembering Rankin (30 Years and Thensome), is almost finished and Schinbein would love to return to Rankin for its release.

"My old partner of 30 years ago, Brian Howe, is actually coming down next week from Fort McMurray, (Alta.), to help me do the final wrap on a few songs.

"Brian was my guitar player when we first went to Baker Lake on a concert tour in 1970.

"It would be profound to have him play on the CD and then come across to Rankin from Alberta to help me launch the CD.

"I'm overwhelmed by the thought of performing in Rankin once again," Schinbein says.