Beth, Seth — and Stacey too — promise a week like no other when they hit the nightspots of Ulster. It’s a win-win situation

Beth and Seth lead the musical charge on the live concert front this week with Beth Nielsen Chapman at the Grand Opera House on Sunday and Seth Lakeman appearing at the Spring & Airbrake this evening.

Texan singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman has written hits for such artists as Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Neil Diamond, Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bette Midler and Faith Hill (of Grammy-nominated This Kiss fame) with musical styles spanning country, pop, folk, blues and jazz.

However, despite her renown as a writer, she is also a quality performer, boasting a pure, powerful and clear voice and, with great songs, has become one of the most distinctive portrayers of resilience and human vulnerability.

Chapman’s special guest at Sunday’s Grand Opera House concert is top local singer-songwriter, Brian Houston.

ZZ Having started out performing with his siblings in The Lakeman Brothers (including Cara Dillon’s husband, Sam) and later alongside Kate Rusby in Equation, Seth Lakeman eventually developed his own style of contemporary folk, which appealed to a wider and, sometimes, new younger audience.

His current single, Solomon Browne — a retelling of the 1981 Penlee disaster with profits going to an RNLI charity — is lifted from his hit album, Poor Man’s Heaven, and was recorded live at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

The West Country singer-songwriter and former Mercury prize nominee is performing this and more at the Spring & Airbrake tonight as part of his biggest ever UK and Irish tour.

ZZ Another big attraction is Monday’s Waterfront Hall gig by fast-rising international ballad group, The High Kings, who are taking America by storm.

Four top-class performers with great pedigrees — Finbarr Clancy (son of Bobby), Brian Dunphy (son of Sean), Martin Furey (son of Finbar) and Darren Holden (ex-Riverdance and Broadway) — are all respected singers who sing new songs and re-energise the great Irish ballads.

Hailed as the most exciting Irish ballad group since The Clancy Brothers, The High Kings carry on the tradition of great Irish music, creating exciting modern songs in the folk idiom and incorporating some of the classic ballad repertoire from the past.

Opening artist at Monday’s concert — Dundalk’s up-and-coming songstress, Cathy Maguire — is worth catching in her own right.

Although no overnight success (having made her national TV debut at the age of 12 and with three albums under her belt when she was just 17), Maguire is back with self-penned original material and also co-authors with noted writers such as Pat Alger and Liam Reilly.

ZZ Amazing Montreal-based acoustic guitarist, Erik Mongrain, brings his unique tapping style playing to the Spring & Airbrake on Wednesday.

With his famous ‘Air Tap’ video having been seen by over 3.5 million views on YouTube, Mongrain has become a guitar-playing phenomenon.

Growing up to the sounds of Metallica, Jimi Hendrix and mostly Nirvana, he had a keen interest in guitar and was soon composing his own music.

Specialising in a ‘lap tapping’ technique, he busked in the streets before being discovered in Spain.

Gig round-up: Steve Earle’s sister, Stacey Earle and her husband, singer-songwriter, Mark Stuart, are at Rathfriland’s Bronte Music Club this evening; following her success on a recent Later With Jools Holland show, Dublin-based singer, Camille O’Sullivan, is at the Empire Music Hall on Sunday; folkie favourites, Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott, are at Londonderry’s Millennium Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday; on Thursday, the Real Music Club @ the Errigle Inn presents Martyn Joseph; and easy-listening performer, Charlie Landsborough, is at the Waterfront Hall on Thursday and at Ballymena’s Braid Arts Centre next Saturday (November 22).