WITH summer bearing down upon us, the local folk scene is starting to wind down to its seasonal routine of festivals and special events, rather than a regular stream of weekly club nights and concerts.

There’s still a lot to watch out for though, with highlights this week including Nick Brooker at the Riverside in Bedale tonight, and tomorrow a choice between Richard Grainger at Reeth Memorial Hall, and Broadband at Guisborough Golf Club.

There’s a double bill of Tyneside stalwarts Johnny Handle and Benny Graham at Washington’s Davy Lamp on Saturday, which will surely be a night to remember. Also on Saturday, Gateshead’s Sage have the Warsaw Village band as special guests, with an entertaining night of remarkable music and song.

On Sunday, Wendy Arrowsmith is at Westoe Club in South Shields, and Northumbrian duo Jiva, are at Guisborough Rugby Club. Irish songwriter Kieran Halpin rounds off our week on Monday night at The North Briton in Aycliffe Village.

Meanwhile, I noticed that the Sky Arts TV had an evening of fine music last week featuring “folk poster boy” (their description) Seth Lakeman, part of which was filmed at last January’s Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. This channel isn’t available to everyone, I know, but I thought it worth mentioning that the word on the street is that there’ll be a lot more folk music coming our way, courtesy of Sky TV, in the future. A well-known independent music production company has been asked by Sky to make a series of TV shows featuring the cream of the current UK folk scene, for broadcast later this year, including exclusive footage from Cambridge Folk festival. This follows the BBC’s lamentable decision to cut back on coverage of our musical heritage in recent years. As usual, I’ll try and keep you posted on any further news or developments.