Danny Kyle's death at the age of 58 on Saturday has robbed the Scottish folk music scene of one of its great characters. A Paisley buddy small in stature but big in humour, Danny was always ready with a quip both on and off microphone.

There can hardly be a folk club or festival in the land which doesn't have its own Danny Kyle story - the most recent one occurred just two weeks ago at Killin, one of several successful festivals, including Bute, that he had helped to establish.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair after having been in hospital for many weeks, Danny insisted on being at Killin. At around three o'clock on the Saturday morning, when the session in the Killin Hotel showed signs of flagging, he appeared and, although ailing, insisted on giving a song.

Like his pal Billy Connolly, Danny began his working life in the Clydeside shipyards, gravitating to the folk clubs of the 1960s, where he became established as a singer/guitarist/entertainer. He later teamed up with Tich

Frier, Mike Whelans, Malky McCormick, and Bill Nolan in the group The Vindscreen Vipers.

On one occasion recalled by another friend, Hamish Imlach, in his memoirs Cod Liver Oil and The Orange Juice, Danny decided to run a midnight storytelling session on the shores of Loch Ness. He arranged for divers wearing underwater lights to swim to shore. Unfortunately, the divers never showed up. A search party found them the worse for drink, at which Danny charged them with drunk diving.

Puns were Danny's stock in trade and his quick wit helped him add ''broadcaster'' to his CV when he was hired to work alongside Archie Fisher on BBC Radio Scotland's long-running folk music programme, Travelling Folk. Over the years his Kyle File segment of Travelling Folk became so popular that when a reorganisation of the show saw Danny dropped, there was uproar among listeners calling for him to be reinstated.

As organiser of the ''open stage'' sessions at folk festivals such as Edinburgh and, latterly, Glasgow's Celtic Connections, he was an inimitable MC and encouraged up-and- coming talents to perform in public.

He was proud of his Paisley upbringing and of his fellow buddies on the music scene, including guitarist Tony McManus and singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, whom Danny introduced to Billy Connolly, thus forming the Humblebums.

Even when he was taken seriously ill, shortly after his stint at Celtic Connections in January, his commitment to folk music remained strong. He was artistic director of the Continental Ceilidh, a major outdoor festival at Lanark Race Course which takes place on the weekend of July 17-20 and will go ahead as a tribute.

When his fellow organisers told Danny that Tunnock's had offered to sponsor the event, thinking of the rock music festival T in the Park, Danny said, ''We can call it Teacake in the Park.'' He'll be sorely missed.