MY travels have taken me across to New England, where a lively folk scene still flourishes, some 50 years after the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Maria Muldaur were stirring a nation’s youth with their songs of protest and wild ways.

Their famous folk venue Club 47 is now a grocery store, but I saw a crowd of Italian tourists being given a guided tour of it last Saturday, while across the street a young girl warbled through a version of Dylan’s Boots of Spanish Leather. And Dylan, Baez and Muldaur are all due to give concerts here in Boston later this year, such is the resilience and longevity of us folkies.

Meanwhile, back home I’m missing a load of great stuff, starting tonight with Bill Adair’s presentation of All Along The Miner’s Row at Skelton’s Duke William, and two major concerts as part of the Tyneside Irish Festival, featuring Frances Black at Gateshead Old Town Hall tomorrow, and De Dannan and Eleanor Shanley at Newcastle Irish Centre on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Bob Fox is at Washington’s Davy Lamp, Steve Tilston and Flossie Malavialle are at Saltburn’s Spa, and that All Along The Miner’s Row presentation is at Kirby Fleetham Folk Club.

Hertfordshire singing duo Lyn Heraud and Pat Turner are at Guisborough Rugby Club on Sunday and at Newcastle’s Bridge Hotel on Monday. Finally, the region’s leading songwriter Ed Pickford is at Birtley Catholic Club on Wednesday, with a star-studded concert devoted to his work coming up at The Sage later in the year, so watch out for that. For me though, the next seven days see me zooming up to Maine, then back down to Pennsylvania, with stops in New Jersey and Long Island along the way. They’ll all be talking in Geordie accents before I’m through.