MY American tour ended with a concert at Stony Brook University on Long Island New York earlier this week, just in time for Hurricane Sandy to make an appearance right there off the coast.

I joined the exodus of people making their way north, heading upstate to Albany, which is where I am still, waiting for my rescheduled flight home.

All being well, I’ll be back in time to be at Guisborough Rugby Club for my gig on Sunday. Elsewhere this week, you can catch Alistair Anderson and one of my favourite new performers, Dan Walsh at Reeth Memorial Hall tomorrow night. Also on Friday, Vin Garbutt has a gig on the HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool, which sounds like it could be a very special night. There’ll be more details of that on Vin’s snazzy new website at www.vingarbutt.com. On Saturday, Durham Gala Theatre hosts another special show, The Lindisfarne Story, a night of songs by this region’s most celebrated folk rock band, led by band members Billy Mitchell and Ray Laidlaw, while Washington’s Davy Lamp hosts a night devoted to the students of the Newcastle University Folk Degree Course.

I heard many of these young performers earlier this year at The Sage, and this should be a varied and entertaining night.

Finally, after a long hiatus, it’s competition time again. There are copies of my new compilation CD Head’s Up available to the first three readers who can tell me which famous local singer, and a personal hero of mine, makes a guest appearance on one of the new tracks on this CD. Answers to jez@jezlowe.com by next Monday.