THE weather has taken its toll on the local folk scene over the past week, it seems.

South West duo Ember cancelled all the clubs they were due to visit, a particular shame, as they are splitting up very soon and won’t be able to set up a return trip. Washington’s Davy Lamp lost its Doonan’s night, which they hope to reschedule later in the year, but the club will be back in action this Saturday with Pete Morton as the main attraction. This Friday’s concert at Reeth Memorial Hall, with John Tams and Barry Coope, has also been postponed, but, hopefully, all other venues should be going ahead as normal, starting tonight with local lass Judith Haswell at Skelton’s Duke William, and continuing on Saturday at Gateshead’s Sage with a visit from The Imagined Village. This multicultural take on folk music has a line-up that includes Chris Wood and Martin and Eliza Carthy. I saw them perform at the BBC Folk Awards a couple of years ago, and would imagine that it’s going to be quite a treat for the lucky Sage audience.

Saturday also sees an allstar billing at Sedgefield Cricket Club, featuring Stony, The John Wrightson band, Anna Shannon and These Sonic Fruits. Up in Northumberland, New Hartley Community Hall hosts the annual Pit Disaster memorial concert, with Johnny Handle and Christine Hendry, poet Keith Armstrong and local harmony group Beeswing. I have a solo gig at Westoe Club in South Shields on Sunday night, a fine folk club that has been kind enough to offer me my first local gig of the year, regularly for the last decade or so. Come along and say hello, and in fact give all these venues some support, both this week and in the months ahead. They all have some fine music in store for us.