The Dunedin singer/songwriter jets off to Glasgow and Edinburgh today for six days to perform at the prestigious Celtic Connections Music Festival and Neu Reekie Burns On Fire event.
The festival's first show, Dunedin tae Auld Reekie, is on Wednesday at the Glasgow Art Club and features Jake and another young Edinburgh performer in a programme of music, stories and poetry highlighting the interchange Dunedin has with Scotland.
Jake will also play a part in the major New Zealand showcase at the festival on Saturday alongside other New Zealand artists Trinity Roots, Maisey Rika, Wairoa, Louis Baker and Thomas Oliver.
Straight after that, he will travel across to Edinburgh for a prime-time slot at the Neu Reekie Burns On Fire event at the Thomas Morton Hall, before returning to Dunedin.
Jake was selected to represent Dunedin on the tour after winning the Play It Strange Commonwealth Games Baton Song Competition in 2013, with his song On Forever Ye Go.
It was written in three days and was inspired by traditional Scottish songs that captured the emotion of a proud nation of people.
The former King's High School pupil has just finished school and is taking a gap year this year, rather than begin tertiary study, in the hope he will be able to forge a career in the music industry.
''I've got no Scottish ancestry but it's not stopping me. I want a career in Scottish folk music.
''I love that the emotions it [Scottish music] brings up, really connect people - it unites them.
''Who knows what will come out of Glasgow and Edinburgh. A lot of success is about being in the right place at the right time,'' he said.
Dunedinmusic.com (DMC) strategic director Scott Muir said it was a great opportunity for Jake and Dunedin music to be showcased on a truly international stage, and co-organiser of the Dunedin show in Glasgow, Simon Vare, said it was another stepping stone in the path to a more regular musical exchange between Dunedin and Scotland.
