LEGENDARY folk singer Julie Felix will headline this weekend's String Jam Club in Selkirk.

Julie, whose colourful life, music and high profile career have made her an icon of the 1960s protest song, has an evergreen reputation that is as active and committed as ever.

Born in California in1938 to a Mexican father and an American mother of Welsh ancestry, she was encouraged to play music at a very early age.

Now, unbelievably at 77 years-old, she is still a regular gigging musician, with an enviable and matchless career spanning 17 LPs, 19 singles, four EPs, and 14 CDs/cassettes.

Allie Fox from the String Jam Club told us: "Julie is an inspiring artist live – as the club witnessed firsthand last year when she came to judge the successful ‘Voices For Change’ protest song competition for young people, organised by the local Amnesty International group.

"As part of the evening, she performed a remarkable cameo set, holding the audience – aged nine years old upwards – completely in the palm of her hand, proving that her artistry is as magic as ever and that those old songs still carry enormous relevance today."

Julie's worldwide recognition began in 1964 when she first left California for Britain and hitched through Europe with a duffel bag and the Mexican guitar given to her by her father.

Like many folk singers of that time, such as Paul Simon and Jackson C Frank, she was inspired by beat writer Jack Kerouac's book "On The Road," so travelling and playing music was the most obvious and free-spirited direction to go in.

Julie’s career was to take off in a big way in Britain.

She was the first solo folk artist to be signed to a major British record label, Decca, and in 1965 she was hailed as "Britain's First Lady of Folk" by The Times when she became the first folksinger to fill the Royal Albert Hall.

Becoming a household name as resident singer on British television's famous satirical programme 'The Frost Report' in the 1960s, presented by David Frost, she went on to host her own series of seventeen BBC TV shows called ‘Once More With Felix’, welcoming notable guests, including Leonard Cohen, Jimmy Page and Dusty Springfield.

Tickets, priced at £14, are still available for Saturday's concert in the County Hotel.

Doors open 7.30 pm.