IT’S time to grow a beard, pull on your torn grungy cardy, buckle up your adidas Jerusalems and stick your finger in your ear.

Yep, there’s hey-nonny-no getting away from the absolute avalanche of folk music heading this way like a runaway horse and cart with no brakes.

First up tonight, Friday April 24, it’s The Roving Crows, who are set to take the roof of Evershot village hall with their fiery fiddles and tumultuous trumpets.

Possibly the hardest-working band on the folk circuit, the Crows have picked up more awards than I’ve had hot salads and are firm favourites of Radio 2’s Mike Harding and Paul O’Grady to boot.

They performed with such folk icons as Bellowhead, Kate Rusby, Steeleye Span and The Levellers so if that’s your bowl of Wheetie Bangs, Evershot’s the place for you tonight.

The Crows are festival favourites, without fail getting audiences dancing with abandon and clamouring for more. (Calm down, Daphne) with jaw-dropping perfromances at Cambridge, Nibley, Trowbridge and Treefest festivals.

Tickets, if there are any left, are £10 from the shop in the village, Dorchester, Bridport and Sherborne TICs or on the door tonight but check with promoters underonesun.org.uk first OK?

And staying in a folk vein, it’s a bumper weekend coming up at Dorchester Arts Centre, with dynamic duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman appearing on Saturday, May 2, and folkie legend Andy Irvine doing his thing on Sunday, May 3.

Kathryn and Sean won the best duo prize at the BBC Folk Awards in 2013 and will be performing their new album Tomorrow Will Follow Today plus a wheelbarrow full of traditional classics. Support on the night comes from rising star Hattie Briggs, nominated for the best newcomer award at last year’s BBC Folk Awards.

Tickets are £14 from the box office on 01305 266926.

And Andy Irvine needs no introduction. So I won’t bother…

Some forty years of pioneering world music, he’s regarded as very much The Man when it comes to all that diddly-dee shizzle.

A founder member of bands such as Sweeney’s Men, Planxty, Patrick Street, and Mozaik, he has been hailed as “a tradition in himself”. Tickets are £12 from the box office.

Adding a touch of slide guitar to your folk cocktail is no bad thing, and that’s what you’ll be getting when LA-based Aussie singer-songwriter Kara Grainger comes to the Electric Palace in Bridport on Saturday, May 2.

As a vocalist Kara is strongly influenced by Bonnie Raitt.

Sharing a bill at the Timbre Rock and Roots Festival in Singapore last March with Bonnie and Susan Tedeschi, Kara remarked: “It was a pleasure to be one of three female lead guitarists on the bill.”

Tickets are £10 from the box office on 01308 428354.

And finally, those of you who caught my Hijacked show on Air FM 107.2 last Wednesday will be:

a) delighted

b) mildly concerned

c) frankly disappointed

d) scared witless or

e) all of the above

to know that I’ll be doing it all again with some more great old soul and funk choooones next Wednesday, April 29, from 8pm to 10pm.

Right, that’s it for this week. I’m off to do a jigsaw of U2. Think I’ll start with The Edge.

Till next time…

TONIGHT (24)

Roving Crows (Evershot village hall)

Speedway Snails (Finns, Weymouth)

Under The Carousel (Lazy Lizard, Weymouth)

Bianca (Weymouth Working Men’s Club, Mitchell St, Weymouth)

Groovemeister (Spice Ship, Preston, Weymouth)

Left Right and Centre (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth)

Peacock Suit (Royal Oak, Quayside, Weymouth)

Jam Night (The Lounge, Colwell Centre, Weymouth)

Billy Solo (Wellington, Weymouth) Karen (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

Skinful (Royal Exchange, Portland)

Steve Page and The Hook (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)

The Riffs (Little Ship, Portland)

KopyKatz (Lugger, Chickerell, Weymouth)

Keeley McRae (Beach and Barnicott, Bridport)

Shooter (Punchbowl, Portland)

Logan Carter (Tom Browns, Dorchester)

Danny Adams (Turk’s Head, Chickerell, Weymouth)

SATURDAY (25)

Ugly Duckling, Cuba Libre (The Factory, Weymouth)

The Remedy (Finns, Weymouth)

Left Right and Centre (Sailor’s Return, Weymouth)

Steve Francis (Conservative Club, Weymouth)

Stacey Lou (Weymouth Working Men’s Club, Mitchell St, Weymouth)

Slipstream (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth)

Skatmandu (Park Hotel, Weymouth)

Magic (Wyke Regis Working Mens Club, Weymouth)

Paul Gibson (Lugger, Chickerell, Weymouth)

Jonathan Cotton (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

Average Wyke Band (The Ship, Wool)

The Katz (Nag’s Head, Lyme Regis)

Mother Ukers (Admiral Hardy, Weymouth)

Leggomen, Sea Bass and the Fellas (Rendezvous, Weymouth)

Under The Carousel (RBL Club, Portland)

Something Else (Centenary Club, Weymouth)

Skinful (Golden Lion, Weymouth)

Pond Life’s George (Bridge Inn, Preston, Weymouth)

Nobody’s Heroes (Tom Browns, Dorchester)

Dakota (Moby Dick’s, Weymouth)

The Daisy Ukeladies (Ropemakers, Bridport)

Doc and Danny (Mrs Darling’s Spring Fair, Brewers Quay, Weymouth) From mid-day.

Danny Adams (Belvedere, Weymouth)

SUNDAY (26)

Replay (Wyke Smugglers, Weymouth) 2-5pm.

Andy Matthews (Park Hotel, Weymouth) 3pm.

Ed Bleach (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth) 3pm.

Finn (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

Bitter and Twisted (Durnovaria, Dorchester) 3pm.

Ronnie and Johnny (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)

Ricky Solo (Sailor’s Return, St Nicholas St, Weymouth) From 3pm.

Jam Night (Sailor’s Return, St Nicholas Street, Weymouth)

Sunday Session (Sydney Arms, Dorchester)

MONDAY (27)

Dave P, Tripod (Rendezvous, Weymouth)

TUESDAY (28)

Martin Freed (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

WEDNESDAY (29)

Danx’s Open Mic (Edinburgh House of Sounds, Weymouth)

Paul Gibson (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

Dave P’s Open Mic Night (Rendezvous, Weymouth) From 8pm.

Wessex Folk Night (Sailor’s Return, St Nicholas Street, Weymouth)

THURSDAY (30)

Chloe and Tom (The Stables, Weymouth)

Leggomen (George, Weymouth)

Open Mic Surgery (Tom Brown’s, High East St, Dorchester)

Steve’s Singalong (Duke of Cornwall, Weymouth)

Traditional Tune Session (Cove House Inn, Portland)

Ukulele Sessions (Sailor’s Return, Weymouth)

FRIDAY (1)

Finn (Lugger, Chickerell, Weymouth)

Steve Wilson Band (Royal Portland Arms, Portland)

Lewis (Royal Standard, Upwey)

Vanilla Radio (Royal Exchange, Portland)

Leggomen (Royal Oak, Quayside, Weymouth)

Jam Night (The Lounge, Weymouth)

Billy Solo (Wellington, Weymouth)

Shelby’s Elbows (Ropemakers, Bridport)

Acoustic Session (Victoria Inn, Knights in the Bottom, Chickerell)