IT’S mid-March already, and highlights for folk music fans in the week ahead begin tonight at The Copper Beech in Darlington, where local lads Bob Surgeoner and Bruce Rollo will be the main attraction. The Witham in Barnard Castle continues to flourish as a major music venue, and on Saturday, Welsh folk-rockers Jamie Smith’s Mabon will be in town with their energetic instrumentals and lively on-stage antics. On Sunday, Gateshead’s Sage presents an evening of world music with a middle-eastern flavour, courtesy of Moishe’s Bagel, while down the road at The Customs House in South Shields, I have a solo gig at the regular weekly folk club, starting as usual at 7.30pm.

Also on Sunday, The Shea Family are special guests at The Rugby Club in Guisborough. On Monday, The Iron Horse in Newton Aycliffe plays host to Eddie Walker and Frank Porter, who are rapidly becoming one of the local scene’s top attractions with their good-time music and sensitive songs. Tuesday sees rare local appearances by two stars from out of the west, one long-established, the other just blossoming. From Gloucestershire, Johnny Coppin brings his slick style and finely-honed songs to the Clef and cask in Cramlington, while down at Redcar Bowling Club, The Cutty Wren features West Midlands-based blues guitarist Sunjay Brayne, a young man who is certainly making a name for himself around the country.

Meanwhile, I hear tell that one of my own favourite local singers, the inimitable Jim Sharp, has finally got around to making a solo album, and has chosen the songs of another of my heroes, Ed Pickford, as the focus of the collection. The album is available on-line as a CD and also as a download.