Yellowknife (Feb 28/05) - If there's one thing Jesse James has learned in the process of making his current album, it's to rely on his friends. "Working with people really helps," he said with a laugh.

Jesse James of the band Diga holds his second CD, Earth is Crying. He said the songs on the album deal with loss, grief and letting go. - Jennifer Geens/NNSL photo

James and bandmates Pat Braden and Jon Powell work so well together that they can each do their own thing on bass and drums respectively, James can concentrate on writing songs and everything comes together in the end.

Formerly known as Jesse James and the Wolves, last fall the band changed its name to Diga, which means wolf in the Dogrib language.

"It seemed appropriate," said James.

The new CD, Earth is Crying, is a follow-up to James' first album Father, which was nominated for a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award in 2003.

Jesse James and the Wolves travelled to Toronto to perform during the awards weekend but Father lost out to David Maracle's CD Natural Resources for Best Instrumental Album. James said certain songs on Earth is Crying are about loss, grief and letting go. To some extent, the whole album deals with those issues, he added.

"This album is more or less about that journey in life, where a lot of things are unclear and uncertain," said James. "It's searching. Sometimes along the journey things happen and in that spirit of the moment you write a song. That's what I do."

Though James often sings more through his electric guitar than with his voice, this album is heavy on lyrics and has the occasional acoustic track.

"I don't think it's rock," he said. "It's definitely not country. It's not jazz or blues or any other pop genre. The only word I can think of for it is alternative. I'm not sure you could even call it aboriginal, though a Dogrib man is singing it."

James is originally from Rae, where his family still lives. His older brother David Gon taught him to play the guitar.

James' lyrics reflect love for family, respect for elders and images of the land.

They also deal with "uncertainties in who you are, what you are," he said.

Some songs have lyrics dedicated to unnamed people, but James prefers to remain mum on who he's actually singing to.

But even though there's mystery to some of the songs, the CD carries some emotional weight.

"I've been told that it's scary," he said. "But that's just one person."

A few of the tracks will be familiar to fans who have heard him play live in the past few years. Dreamer, he said, is quite old, and so is Buried Alive.

But as with all other artforms, there's a gap between what inspiration envisioned and the final product.

"Instrumentally, the songs always change," he said.

"You have an idea in your head and the arrangements along with it. But when you actually record it, it doesn't always come out the way you want it. So you mix it around and work with what you have in the studio."

Next up: all instrumental

Together with the Western Arctic Moving Pictures film co-op, James made a music video for the song Water, off the Father album, which is being played on APTN. He's working on a second video for the song Into the Soul from the new CD.

If all goes according to plan, his next CD will explore the direction taken by the last track on Earth is Crying, called The Horizon.

The song is like a Jesse James dance mix, with James experimenting with his trademark searing guitar licks set to the backing of a drum machine.

James said the sound he's aiming for is along the lines of the European group Enigma.

"It's going to be an ambient sort of thing, a mix of instrumental sounds," he said.

Though the band will have an official CD launch March 11 at the Polar Bowl in Yellowknife, the CD is already on sale in stores in the capital.