Duncan McLean telling us about Shetland Country Legend Thomas Fraser

The National Theatre of Scotland are on the road with, Duncan McLeans “Long Gone Lonesome”, a musical celebration of Shetland country legend Thomas Fraser www.thomasfraser.com. Rob Ellen caught up with the Author, Musician turned playwrite Duncan McLean from Orkneys Lone Star Swing Band, to find out more about this remarkable story.

Part 1 Jimmy Rogers to Hank Williams

Part 2 The Recording and the Heritage

Long Gone LonesomeWritten by Duncan McLean
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
Featuring the Lone Star Swing band A celebration of the life of Thomas Fraser.

An evening of song and story-telling in the hands of Orcadian western swingers The Lone Star Swing Band, with novelist, playwright and musician Duncan McLean at the helm.

An evening designed to set your toes tapping, your heart racing and your emotions running high.

Thomas Fraser (1927 – 1978) was a fisherman and crofter from the remote island of Burra, Shetland – and one of Scotland’s least known but most fascinating musical heroes.

Obsessed with country and the blues, Thomas mastered the styles of his idols – like Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Big Bill Broonzy – and made their songs his own. A shy, retiring man, he avoided public performance. Instead, he gave away to family and friends tapes he lovingly recorded in the croft.

Thomas laughed at the idea that the wider world might appreciate his talent. But thirty years after his untimely death, those precious, fragile tapes have been reissued on several CDs, and his fame has spread to Nashville…

Thomas Fraser Memorial Festival on Wednesday 11 November at Hamnavoe Public Hall in Thomas’s native Burra Isle.

Celtic Connections in Glasgow Tron Theare on 21st and 22nd January 2010.

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