Fresh from presenting the Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012, Mike Harding hardly has time to draw breath before his tour commences.

"The awards were great. It builds and builds year on year and we had in excess of one million listeners this time," says Mike.

The 2012 event was the first year members of the public were allowed to buy tickets to the ceremony.

"I am certain having all those people there who were not in the business did a great deal for the event. In fact, one of the performers said to me backstage, 'they are the people we are doing it for anyway'."

The awards celebrate folk highlights of the previous 12 months, and Mike has some of his own personal favourites.

"Lucy Ward, a girl from Derby, is amazing. And a young band called Pilgrims' Way – I love them.

"One of my albums of the year is Purpose and Grace from Martin Simpson. I was surprised he didn't win an award to be honest.

"There is an essential truth in folk. People are doing it not for the fame, not for profit, but because they love the music.

"Folk is the only rock music in town. The essence is story telling – great folk music tells a story. It relates to all kinds of people at all levels."

Mike is now heading back on the road following a try-out tour of arts centres and small theatres early in 2011. He's taking his unique mix of folk songs, monologues and funny stories with a show entitled Me, a guitar and some daft stuff, which includes several local gigs.

Mike says: "With 40 years of comic material to draw on, the songs and stories are changing continually in response to audience requests.

"People often ask me why I no longer toured – the answer was always that it wasn't a conscious thing.

"I just ended up climbing and trekking in the Himalayas and doing other stuff like writing books on church architecture and fly fishing and they sort of took over.

"Trekking in the Himalayas was the big thing. One of the main reasons I stopped touring was because I was spending so much time in the Himalayas. I was doing it while I was gigging and then a company got in contact about spending three months taking people out and leading groups there.

"I have been climbing and walking since I was a kid [Mike is a former president of the Rambler's Association]."

For years there were few live performances except for a number of nights on the pub scene "for the craic". Mike adds: "Then I did a couple of charity performances for friends and enjoyed them so much I thought why not give it another go?"

The response from audiences was overwhelming.

"When I walked onto the stage for that first night at the Georgian Theatre, Richmond, I was completely and utterly amazed at the warmth of the audience. It was like a physical force and from the first few seconds it felt as though in some way I'd come home."

In a career that's spanned almost 50 years, Mike's built up a back catalogue of more than 20 albums. Less well known is his career as a writer including more than 30 books and eight plays. Mike is also currently working on his autobiography.

Mike Harding will be appearing at the Palace Theatre in Newark on Saturday, February 25. And then the Stamford Corn Exchange on Saturday, March 17.