St. Andrews Anglican Church on BC’s Sunshine Coast is celebrating with parishioner, Penny Lang for taking two top awards at the 2006 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Lang is the winner of the prize for Best Solo Artist, while her new CD, “Stone+Sand+ Sea+Sky” won the award for best album – contemporary.

Sometimes called the “grande dame of folk-blues,” Lang’s career spans 50 years of the folk music scene but these are her first awards.

Penny Lang (photo courtesy of & copyright by Mary Cain)

The new album’s release is something of a second come-back for Lang, who, in the 60s and 70s, was a significant figure on the folk scene in Quebec, Ontario and the Eastern U.S. She returned to music in the late 80s and her career has been picking up pace ever since.

 

Recently Lang moved to Madeira Park on the BC Coast and has participated in the small (but dedicated) congregation at St. Andrews, Pender Harbour.

“I love spending time at this beautiful little white church sharing friendship and conversation,” she said.

Beginning last month, Lang has been host of a new program at the church called “Soup and Song” a social evening for the community sharing food and song in the Caleigh tradition - just one of the ways she so generously shares her talents with the community.

The Revs. Celia Howard and Bob Korth, priests-in-charge at the church, say they are delighted to have such talented folks at St. Andrew’s and look forward to sharing those talents with the larger community at Madeira Park.

The Canadian Folk Music Awards were established two years ago to celebrate and promote Canadian Folk Music in all its forms. For more information on Penny Lang and her music see her website at www.pennylang.com or for more information on St. Andrews go to www.standrewsanglican.com

Lang, a small person with short-cropped grey hair, told Canadian Press that the folk genre has definitely changed and reinvented itself since she began singing. Young artists are playing songs with that have different rhythms and sounds, she said.

“You’ve got 18-year-olds playing on a stage next to old [people] like me, 64. It’s really fun. It’s a good way to communicate with each other,” she said after receiving her awards in Edmonton in December.