SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife restaurateur is back in the city after what he described as a trip of a lifetime, a meet and greet with Canadian rock legend Neil Young.

Restaurateur Luke Wood shares a laugh with Canadian music icon Neil Young at a dinner near San Francisco last week. Wood paid $5,000 to a fundraising website for the opportunity to meet Young and contribute to his Pono music player business venture. - photo courtesy of Luke Wood

Luke Wood, owner of Thornton's Wine and Tapas Room, paid $5,000 for a chance to talk to and have dinner with Young last week at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Half Moon Bay, California, just outside of San Francisco.

The money ostensibly was not just for the rare opportunity to meet Young, said Wood.

"The five thousand dollars will be added to Young's Kickstarter fundraising website and will be used to help fund his Pono music player business venture," said Wood.

"Not only did I get a chance to talk to Neil for about 10 minutes, I also received one of the first Pono players offered to the public," he said. "There were only 30 of us at this dinner, so I'm one of only 30 people who has one of these first editions of the music player.

The Pono player is not available to the public just yet, said Wood.

"I've been following the development of this Pono music system for a couple of years now," said Wood.

"It's better than an MP3 player. It sounds like the original master version of the recording. It has better sound quality. It's more like what the artist wanted it to sound like. It's more like listening to an album on vinyl."

Wood said he is a huge fan of Neil Young, his music, and his causes. He said this was one of the most thrilling things he's ever done.

"We spoke about music. We talked about fracking and the environment. It was pretty nice to sit down and have dinner in the same room as Neil," said Wood.

"He's a very down to earth guy, very humble, very bright, very committed to his causes, mainly the environment," said Wood.

He did not ask Young to come to Yellowknife to play.

"Lots of people were asking me whether I prodded Neil to come to Yellowknife," said Wood.

"I did not. I was just happy to have a conversation with him. He is a busy guy. He's out there trying to save the planet."

Wood said he was happy to contribute to Young's business venture despite the fact he'll get nothing in return.

"Neil's original goal through the Kickstarter crowd funding website was $800,000," said Wood.

"But he's raised more than $6 million. More than 18,000 people have contributed. So obviously there's lots of interest and support for Neil and the Pono."

The Pono is a prism-shaped device.

The Kickstarter Pono music website states that the music system is the third most funded project in Kickstarter history.

The music player is expected to go on sale to the public sometime in 2015.

If you want to hear what the Pono sounds like, you'll have to talk to Luke Wood.

He said as far as he knows he's the only person in the NWT with one.