THERE seems to be a swarm of folk radio currently hitting the local airwaves, mostly on small community radio stations, but also available via the internet.

They are certainly filling the vacuum left by the lack of coverage on local BBC and commercial radio channels, where we’ve seen specialist music such as ours being unceremoniously dropped and mothballed in recent years. If anyone out there can supply me with a list of these folk programmes, either locally or nationally, I’d like to use this column to make listeners aware of what is out there, and where we can all find it. Contact me at jez@jezlowe.com if you can help with this, and I’ll see what I can do. Meanwhile, real live folk music across the region is as active as ever this week. Starting tonight, at Darlington’s Copper Beech, with the highly-entertaining Irish balladeer and raconteur Colum Sands. Tomorrow, Northumbrian duo Landermason are at Reeth Memorial Hall.On Saturday, the audience at Washington’s Davy lamp are in for a treat with the debut appearance of singer and guitarist Sunjay Brayne, who made such a powerful impression on me when he opened for The Bad Pennies and myself in Derbyshire last month.

On Monday, the fine singer Roy Clinging journeys over from Cheshire to appear at Stockton’s Sun Inn, and, on Tuesday, another leading Irish singer, Anthony John Clark is at Cramlington’s Concordia Centre. Then, on Wednesday, the amazing New Rope String band is at Bishop Auckland Town Hall, with the popular local duo John Wrightson and Joan Edmundson in support. Finally, local hero Jack Burness has alerted me to plans to organise what he calls Folk Flash Mob get-togethers in the region during this summer, at pre-arranged pubs and venues that wouldn’t normally host acoustic music events. It sounds like a great idea, and I’ll keep you posted when I hear more.