GREETINGS from Barbados, first port of call for me on the Celtic music cruise of the Caribbean. My fellow performers on this adventure include Donal Clancy, son of the great Irish ballad singer Liam Clancy, and Tom Sweeney, whose grandmother, Sarah Makem, was recorded by the BBC in the early1950s, singing almost 300 old folk songs, from memory, many of which have become part of the repertoires of folk singers everywhere.

Here in the West Indies, music has a reggae flavour, itself derived, via ska, from the tropical calypso songs of the 1950s, which were popular among singers in the early days of the UK folk scene.

A group who were a big influence on me as a lad, Fairport Convention, are playing at Gateshead’s Sage next Wednesday night, with a good friend of mine, Edwina Hayes, in support.

That same night, at Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Irish songwriter Kieran Halpin and his cohort, Jimmy Smith, are centre stage, with local band Copperhead Still opening.

Tomorrow night at Sedgefield Cricket Club, Flossie Malavialle and Paul Donnelly are the main attraction, with the usual array of great local acts on the bill too, including The John Wrightson Band and The Izzy Burns Band.

Friday also has one of my favourite American singer-songwriters, Beth Nielsen Chapman, at Gateshead’s Sage.

For me, it’s a few more days of music and song on the high seas. And it’s raining here, too. Occasionally.