The Wilders - widely considered one of the most energetic, young hillbilly bands touring the United States - arrived north this week for the 3rd Annual Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Music Camp. They'll stay through the weekend for the fifth annual Kluane fest, 100 miles west of Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway.

Then it's south to Haines, and on down to Juneau for a Tuesday, June 12, concert at Centennial Hall. Last year's show, also at the civic center, nearly sold out.

This time, the band will stick around for a few days. A few bonus pickup shows are planned Thursday and Friday, June 14-15, at the Rendezvous.

"We didn't have to think twice about asking this old-time country band back to the Yukon. The four brilliant musicians resurrect the drive and passion of acoustic honky-tonk music of Hank Williams, the old-time charm of Roy Acuff, Appalachian fiddle tunes, and the gospel soul of the '40's and '50s tent revivals."

The three-day Kluane festival at the St. Elias Convention Centre also includes: the Steep Canyon Rangers (IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2006); Alberta trio Down to the Wood; Canadian band Four Chords of Wood; the Kim Beggs Oldtyme Trio with Steve Dawson; Juneau's very own Bluegrass 101 (www.myspace.com/bluegrass101); the Haines duo Green Wood; Tagish cowboy Art Johns; The James King Band (an Alaska Folk Festival guest in June 2005); Yukon performer Anne Louise Genest; Whitehorse veterans Simple Messengers; and the Canyon Mountain Boys.

Weekend passes are sold out. Day and evening tickets are available at the door, and prices vary. For more information, visit www.kluanemountainbluegrassfest.com.

The Wilders - Ike Sheldon (lead vocals and guitar), Betse Ellis (fiddle, vocals), Phil Wade (banjo, mandolin, dobro, vocals) and Nate Gawron (string bass and vocals) - formed in Kansas City. It was a incongruous fit at first in a town known for its harder-edged scene.

"Kansas City will always be a metal town," guitarist Ike Sheldon told the Empire last year. "You know when (metal legends) Krokus gets together they're headed here, because they know they can get the people. It's a hard-rocking city, and if you're going to play country music or going to play bluegrass, you better play it hard."

Sheldon, Ellis and Wade started playing old-time and country music together in 1996. Before then, they were involved in various indie rock and world music projects.

Sheldon, from Phillipsburg, Mo., grew up on Faron Young and played in a lo-fi band, The Young Johnny Carson Story. Ellis, a classical violinist from Fayetteville, Ark., and Wade, a Hee Haw fan from rural Missouri, were in a sitar-hippie conglomeration called The Dhurries.

All three fell in together and began exploring the Appalachian music of the 1920s and 1930s. Gawron, lugging his great-uncle's upright bass, joined a few years later.

The band has released six CDs, including last year's "Throw Down," the first to include originals. Three of the albums, "Throw Down," "Spring A Leak" and "On the Wings of a Dove," were remastered and reissued this February by Free Dirt Records of Takoma Park, Md.

"Throw Down," produced by legendary musician Dirk Powell, had covers of the Carter Brothers & Son, John Hartford, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Jack Irby.

"We've all been songwriters for years, but we never thought it would quite fit in," Sheldon said last year. "We all have our own niche. Nate is honky-tonk songs. Phil writes the most sad country weepers in the George Jones way. Betse writes all these new fiddle tunes, and I kind of write everything. Some of my tunes are pretty poppy until they get thrown into the Wilders machine."

The Wilders just returned from a 27-day tour - May 2 through May 28 - of Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. That was after a two-month break that saw them get together for just four days with folk hero Martha Scanlan.