MY involvement with last week’s Unconvention Songwriter’s Festival in Newcastle enabled me to renew acquaintance with two exceptional local talents who are both at the top of their game at this point.

Pete Scott has been a stalwart of the Tyneside music scene for almost four decades, and I’d forgotten how clever and funny a writer and performer he could be.

Brenda Heslop and her Ribbonband also gave a fine performance of original songs, and it would be nice if more people got the chance to hear them around the local club scene.

I myself have got a couple of local solo gigs this week, before venturing off to foreign parts, with a visit to Skelton’s Duke William tonight, and to Newcastle’s Bridge on Monday.

Elsewhere, you can catch Roy Bailey at Washington’s Davy Lamp on Saturday, and veteran songwriter John Connolly is in the area for several shows this week, at Westoe Club in South Shields on Sunday, Stockton’s Sun Inn on Monday and Darlington’s Britannia on Tuesday.

There’s so much more to Connolly’s repertoire than his classic composition Fiddler’s Green, and his set at the recent Doncaster Folk festival was an absolute joy.

Meanwhile, a composer of another classic, Don McLean, who’s early Seventies’ hit American Pie continues to resonate down the decades, is at Gateshead’s Sage on Monday. Two of our finest local singers are in action on Tuesday, with Bob Fox at Cramlington’s Hind and Marie Little at Croxdale’s Daleside Arms.

Finally, the Sunderland Folk festival I mentioned last week, scheduled for August 27-29, has announced a preliminary line-up that includes The Peatbog Faeries, Cara Dillon, Chris While and Julie Matthews, The Doonans and The Tom McConville Band. I’ll be there too, along with other locals acts to try and make it all go with a swing.

One to put in your diaries, I reckon.