From foreign to home-grown folk

A FORMER foreign correspondent turned folk singer will perform at the Berwick and District Folk Club next week.
On 17 May, National Folk Festival Award Winner said Ange Takats will perform for members of the club and guests at the Old Cheese Factory in Berwick.
Ange left Sydney in 2000, joined a folk rock band in Thailand, interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, fell in love with a Romanian Canadian, published a travel memoir and has just released her second album, Arva, which has received high praise.
“I’ve had a rather unusual path into the world of music – via Bangkok.
“I went there to work as a foreign correspondent with Reuters and landed a second job as a singer in a Thai band,” she said.
“I happened to fall in love with a young man from Ontario whilst trekking in Laos and ended up moving to Canada to be with him.
“The title of the album was inspired by a very long walk I did down a highway to a town called Arva, and my ability to find happiness in the most unlikely of places.”
With three-part vocal harmonies, lush string arrangements and ragtime jazz instrumentation, the 11-track album is a departure from Ange’s folkie roots and was recorded in Gippsland by Australian music institution J. Walker (Machine Translations) who produced Paul Kelly’s latest album, Spring and Fall.
Walker recorded, produced, mixed and laid down most of the instrumental tracks on the album – playing double bass, piano accordion, violin, cello, piano, vibraphone, dulcimer, banjo and percussion.
Doors open at 7.30pm and music will start at 8pm.
Cost is $10 for guests and $7 for members.