Yellowknife artist hosts float-in concert for launch of new album

Launching a new album normally means a concert tour but these days, live music is anything but ordinary.

That hasn't stopped Yellowknife fiddler and vocalist Andrea Bettger, who found a novelway to launch her latest album, Bush Chords.

The musician performed a live concert Friday in Yellowknife's Old Town, to an audience of mariners afloat on the waters of Great Slave Lake.

Bettger recorded the album, her second, in January of this year. Not long after recording finished, the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to any gatherings of her musical family.

When they reunited to rehearse for the live concert, Bettger said, the experience was incredibly moving.

"There were a couple moments when I was kind of choking back tears, even, just to be back in it and to hear it all happen again," she said.

The songs of the album are inspired by her northern life and the nature she's encountered along the way, she said.

The album is available on all major streaming platforms.