GLASGOW’S Celtic Connections Festival is in full swing at the moment, and much of it is being broadcast by the BBC, either on Radio 2, on Radio 3, or via their various “listen again” internet outlets.

Some of the festival’s many shows are also venturing south, notably the multi-starred Transatlantic Sessions revue, which calls in at Gateshead’s Sage next Wednesday.

Tonight, if you care to venture as far west as the William Howard School in Brampton in Cumbria, you’ll find me reprising my part in the All Along the Wall show, along with Rory MacLeod, Boo Hewerdine, Julie Matthews, Ruth Notman, Kate Fox and Elvis MacGonigle, which we showcased at Celtic Connections earlier this week. For those of you who miss it, it’s also available as a CD, recently released by Fellside Records.

Elsewhere in the region, there’s plenty of good stuff on offer, including Ray Thom at Guisborough Golf Club tomorrow, and a double-bill of songwriter at Washington’s Davy Lamp on Saturday, featuring Mick Sheehan and Ed Pickford. Back at The Sage, Teddy Thompson offers his catchy brand of acoustic pop on Sunday night, following his father’s successful show there last week.

Up in Cramlington on Tuesday, The John Wrightson Band have star billing at one of the North-East’s longest-running and friendliest folk clubs at The Hind.

Meanwhile, this weekend, I’m off across the Atlantic for my first experience of cruise-ship entertaining, along with the likes of Canadian songwriter James Keelaghan and Scotland’s Archie Fisher, as part of the Annual Celtic Music Cruise. We sail from Florida for a week around the Caribbean, playing to a boat-full of holidaying Irish-American folk music fans. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. I’ll try not to gloat too much, when I report back on my adventures next week.