International folk artist Emily Barker to return home for Bridgetown show

International folk artist Emily Barker will return home for the first Tender is the Night show in Bridgetown, accompanied by a local artist and string quartet.

Tender is the Night is a Perth-based seasonal show produced and curated by artist Leigh Gardiner which partners WA songwriters and composers with a string quartet.

In collaboration with Willow Whispers Bridgetown, Barker will perform alongside local blues artist Dan Howls under the night sky at the Bridgetown Pottery Restaurant on Saturday.

Barker told the Times performing with The Tender Strings was a different kind of show to her usual performances.

“Each of our songs is performed by a string quartet — there are two violinists, a viola player and a cellist, and each song is arranged by a different Australian, mostly WA, composer,” she said.

“I did my first Tender is the Night show last year at Goolugatup Heathcote (Perth), and we’re bringing the show to Bridgetown this weekend.

“I’ll perform about eight songs, and each one we’ll have the strings arranged by a different composer and I’ll be accompanied by the string quartet.”

After living internationally for more than two decades to pursue her music career, Barker said she loved returning to her hometown and is now back living in WA.

“I grew up in Bridgetown, left when I was 17, moved up to Perth for a year, but then took off with a backpack and my guitar and did a lot of traveling, and then ended up staying in the UK for 22 years doing music,” she told the Times.

“Now I’m living in Fremantle but I regularly come home, and I’m loving being home. I just love being close to family and the beautiful surrounds, like the landscape of home, it’s so special.

“It’s great to be part of the community. You can’t help but feel like the kid that you were when you were there somehow, which is fun.”

Barker is excited about bringing Tender Is The Night to Bridgetown and said the show provided opportunities for musicians to play in settings other than the usual country pub.

She said her set would include music from her latest record called Fragile as Humans, and some from her previous record.

She said the difference with the live show would be the “unique presentation” of the sound with a “string quartet”.