Yellowknife (Dec 17/04) - It was exactly a year ago that Aaron Hernandez released his first solo CD. He envisioned it as the first part of a trilogy.

But he scrapped all the tracks he had left over and started from scratch for his second effort. Hernandez, who performs under the name Godson, considers it another step in his maturing as an artist.

"It's a breath of fresh air," he said.

Trilogy Vol. 2, The Track Dealer, goes on sale today and Hernandez will be signing copies tomorrow in front of CD Plus.

Trilogy Vol. 1 featured a mixture of new music by Hernandez and leftover tunes from his days with the now defunct group Liquid Eyez. Vol. 2 is all Godson and goes in a new direction.

"It's different from anything I've done before," said Hernandez.

It's still got the same danceable beats, but he experiments with formats, incorporating a house track, some Mexican melodies and even some hard rock.

During the past year, Hernandez travelled the North, performing at Nattiq Frolics in Kugluktuk and Omingmak Frolics in Cambridge Bay. He was amazed at how enthusiastic the audiences were.

"It was pretty crazy," he said. "I was signing shirts, sneakers, jackets."

He also spent time with the guys in Sweatshop Union at Folk on the Rocks this summer.

"Their music is really positive," he said. "That opened my eyes to working harder on reaching out."

To cap off his year, he wrote a song for the NWT's Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) campaign.

"It's the best thing that's ever happened to me," he said.

"I started to realize that people really do listen to what you say. You can use music to promote positive things."

That doesn't mean his new songs are all about sunshine and roses. Hernandez raps about things like substance abuse on downtown streets.

And on Calling You, which will be the first single on the radio, he opens up about the struggle to make music in Yellowknife.

Hernandez performed the SADD single for students at both high schools and for RCMP officers and MLAs at the Legislative Assembly. That song is on the new album.

The CD may also be distributed nationally. Hernandez, who is a manager at the CD Plus store at Centre Square Mall, performed a few of his songs at a CD Plus conference this summer. The music store's management were so impressed, there was talk of carrying his CD in all 95 stores across Canada.

The recording and release of Vol. 3 remains up the air while Hernandez concentrates on getting his own record label going. Hernandez will put out two CDs for local musicians on the Ice Vibe Recordz label in the spring.

He's also putting together a compilation CD with singles from various Yellowknife artists.