SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Renowned Canadian children's entertainer Raffi Cavoukian, best known simply as Raffi, has inspired generations of children with catchy, gentle tunes about friendship and caring. Yellowknife recording artist Dana Sipos, 26, is singing words of thanks to the beloved troubadour with a new music video to accompany her original song, Ode To Raffi.

Liam Wong, age nine, unicycles around songwriter Dana Sipos in a dream sequence shot for a video to accompany her 2008 song Ode To Raffi. The video will screen in Yellowknife during the launch of the artist's next album, which is due for release this fall. - photo courtesy of Jean-Yves Drouin

The tune is a track from Sipos' 2008 debut album, The Moonshine Brigade. Sipos plans to premiere the video next fall to accompany the release of her second album. She is recording the new disc with Juno-winning Yukon producer Bob Hamilton of Old Crow Records, who also worked with Sipos on The Moonshine Brigade.

The upcoming CD will feature Sipos alongside Yukon roots musician Ryan McNally. The pan-territorial pair will perform together on tour as Mountain Avens this August.

"I grew up listening to Raffi records," said Sipos. "They were the soundtrack of my childhood."

In Ode To Raffi, Sipos champions the cause of hopeless dreamers, star-gazers, and those who meditate in meadows.

"It's a love and peace sort of song," she said. The lyrics demand that wars, greed and battleships make way for children holding hands

"Dana always had a vivid imagination," recalled Elizabeth Gelb, Sipos' mom. "She was always singing and making plays with her sisters They would transform the living room into a circus tent and the backyard into an obstacle course. I remember when we got a new refrigerator Dana played with the box for a week. It was a playhouse, a puppet theatre and a portal to another universe."

In addition to Raffi records, Gelb said her daughter used to enjoy falling asleep to nontraditional lullabies by iconoclastic artists Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

New video

Filmmaker Alex Beaudin of Karma Productions is directing Sipos' new video, which began shooting on a stretch of ice near the northeast arm of Joliffe Bay on May 1. Beaudin collaborated with Sipos on her first music video last year for her song Eyeball Blues.

Beaudin is bringing Ode To Raffi to life on screen by composing a dreamy, fanciful cinematic adventure through Sipos' subconscious.

In the video, a sleeping Sipos is visited by a coterie of curious characters portrayed by actors Miranda Currie, Brian Bill, Ryan McCord and nine-year-old unicyclist Liam Wong. Painter Diane Boudreau created wooden waves as props to help illustrate the songwriter's somnambulistic journey.

Other prominent props include a rickshaw, bicycles, a wooden fish and a banjo made from a cookie tin.

"Dana has a very creative imagination," Beaudin said. "She has beautiful and powerful imagery coming out of her mind. I really like working with Dana.

"She really pulls off strong symbolism for her videos."

The rest of the film crew is made up of Rachelle Francoeur, Wade Carpenter, Pablo Saravanja, Jay Bulckaert, Sebastien Alarcon and Jasmine Netsena.

Later this spring, the filmmakers will reconvene to complete the video with a forest sequence.