l Imminent visitors to Celtic Connections, The Dardanelles have just learned they have been nominated in two categories in Canada's prestigious East Coast Music Awards.

The quintet from Newfoundland's latest album, The Eastern Light, features in the Group Recording of the Year and Roots/Traditional Album of the Year sections of the awards. They play their own show at Glasgow Art Club on January 27 and join Scottish folk-jazz-bluegrass adventurers The Halton Quartet in a Tron Theatre double bill the previous evening.

www.thedardanelles.com

l There's a Bringing It All Back Home touch to Donegal fiddle trio Fidil's visit to Celtic Connections. Highlands, a tune style derived from the strathspey, are an integral part of the Donegal tradition and the dance these tunes accompanied has been enjoying a revival. Fidil's Aidan O'Donnell is providing the music for Highlands workshops at Glasgow Art Club (12 noon) on Saturday and there will be room for dancing at the group's Piping Centre concert on January 22. A film crew is also making a documentary about the resurgence of interest in Highlands for BBC Alba and some of the workshops will be filmed at Celtic Connections for inclusion in the film.

www.celticconnections.com

l Following his Celtic Connections gig tomorrow at St Andrew's in the Square, Sam Lee returns to Scotland in March as part of a wider UK tour. Nominated last year for the Mercury Prize for his album Ground Of Its Own, the English folk singer – seen by many as carrying the torch for the traveller community's oral tradition – will play Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, on March 16 and Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, on March 19.

www.samleesong.co.uk

l After a year that saw him play to millions across the world as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, Frank Turner has pencilled in April 22 as the date to release his fifth studio album, Tape Deck Heart. A few days before that, on April 18, the politicised folk/punk singer will play the O2 Academy in Glasgow during a short run of headline shows across the UK.

www.frank-turner.com

Drummer Ken Mathieson's Classic Jazz Orchestra is renewing its partnership with singer Angela King, pictured, for a programme built around the Great American Songbook at Fife Jazz Festival on February 1. The concert in the Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, will feature new Mathieson-penned arrangements of tunes by the Gershwins, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers and Hart, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington, and also features a support set from American singer and pianist Champian Fulton. www.fifejazzfestival.com