ONLY TWO days to go before the sound of blues fills a remote corner of Brontë Country.

Scartop Blues Festival will offer 11 hours of blues music from noon at the Moorlodge Country Retreat near Stanbury.

Amongst the 11 acts performing is Lil' Ian Goodsman who is regarded as a major force in the world of acoustic music.

He has played New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, the UK and the USA.

He has played festivals alongside Jools Holland, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, Muddy Waters’ son Mud Morganfield, The Blues Band, The Nimmo Brothers, Larry Garner and Dave Kelly.

Also performing will be blues and ragtime masters Gerry Cooper and Phil Snell, pictured on the cover of this week’s Ticket.

Veterans of the live scene as soloists, they recently came together and have generated excitement among audiences.

Gerry and Phil’s set features ragtime, jug band and country blues styles on guitars, mandolin, harmonica and fiddle.

At the Scartop Festival they will present songs and tunes old and new, accompanied by amiable banter underpinned by many years’ experience in a wide range of musical genres.

Julian Socha, another performer, played pop, jazz and solo guitar professionally on cruise ships.

He decided to develop his career as a solo artist, and in 2005 made a trip to the Dobro Festival in Slovakia.

The nation’s music had a huge impact on him, influencing his writing and playing, and three years later he moved to Slovakia and played alongside leading blues musician Peter 'Bonzo' Radványi.

Ged Wilson has played festivals and venues across the UK supporting top acts like Zoe Schwarz, The Idle Hands, Aynsley Lister, Michael Roach and Ryan McGarvey.

Raised along the Irwell Delta in Manchester, he is a veteran of the British blues boom of the 60s.

Ged cuts his original tunes from the world around him, viewed through a northern-biased kaleidoscope, and offers upbeat guitar styles and laconic humour.

He has made many radio appearances and his albums have been appreciated by a global audience. One of Jed’s songs featured on Japanese TV.

The Scartop Blues Festival begins on Saturday at noon, and admission is free.