I’VE now returned, briefly, from my overseas gallivanting, in time to play a solo show at the splendid venue, The Beamish Mary in No Place, near Stanley.

Tonight, in Darlington, instrumentalist and singer Steve Turner is at The Copper Beech. Tomorrow Vin Garbutt appears at Hartlepool Marina on board HMS Trincomalee. On Saturday we can choose from Flossie Malavialle at The Witham in Barnard Castle, Steve Tilston at Washington’s Davy Lamp, Vin Garbutt at Helmsley Arts Centre, and The Young Uns at Old Elvett Church in Durham, where they are launching a new album.

On Monday, one of my all-time musical heroes, Jim Sharp, is at The Iron Horse in Newton Aycliffe, and popular duo, Winter Wilson, are at Stockton’s Sun Inn, after which they head north on Tuesday to play at Cramlington’s Concordia.

Meanwhile, the annual BBC Folk Awards took place last night at London’s Royal Albert Hall. I’ll be giving you my reaction to the winners and losers next week, but meanwhile you can check them out yourself on the BBC website, where there’ll no doubt also be some “listen again” feature to hear some of the music that was played.

Next week, I’m off to New Zealand for a three-week tour. It’s one of my favourite parts of the world, and the folk music scene there is very vibrant and wellsupported.

While I’m away, I can be contacted at jez@jezlowe.com with any folk-related news that you want me to convey to the network of musicians, enthusiasts and audiences in this global folk village we all love so much.