THERE'S another eclectic week ahead for local folk fans, guaranteed to baffle the cynics, bamboozle the purists and entertain the masses.

It's a week dominated by duos, it seems, with Trish McLean and Ian Wright starting us off with an appearance at Skelton's Duke William tonight, and BBC Folk Award-winning combo John Tams and Barry Coope making a rare local appearance at Washington's Davy Lamp on Saturday, the same night as top local pair Prelude will be at the 9 Kings Bistro in Barnard Castle for an evening of feasting and folking.

Teesside's Steve Dawes and Helen Pitt venture into the frozen North with a gig at Westoe Club in South Shields on Sunday, and we have some new visitors to the area, when American singer Debra Cowan and whiz guitarist Pete Smith appear at Stockton's Sun Inn on Monday and Cramlington's Hind on Tuesday.

Tuesday also sees a solo gig for me at the Causey Arch Inn near Stanley, a night with Stewart Hardy and Frank Laughlin at Croxdale's Daleside Arms, and the first of two consecutive nights with the legendary Julie Felix at St Nicholas Church in Durham.

We'll be having one of our occasional competitions in the near future, with a bunch of recent CDs up for grabs for a trio of lucky winners, so watch out for that. I'm here at Jezfolk@aol.com for all the juicy bits in the meantime, so why not drop me a line.