Thomas Fraser

[scotty]

It my first post in this section and its not my strong point but i do hope you enjoy this.Not everyone cup of tea but a interesting life of a man who is quite remarkable.
It has been almost 30 years since Burra Isle fisherman Thomas Fraser passed away aged only 50. Yet his memory lives on and interest in Thomas's fascinating legacy has never been greater. November 2002 saw the release of the first ever Thomas Fraser CD 'Long Gone Lonesome Blues' while a tribute to Thomas Fraser concert was held in Burra with musicians far and wide performing to a packed-out audience. The CD was the first Thomas Fraser release since 1984 and features 25 tracks, most of which had not been heard publicly before. This biography describes the process of restoring Thomas's work to CD while attempting to tell the story of his brief but eventful life and great passion for music.

Thomas Fraser died in 1978; a crofter, a fisherman - a hard worker. Not at all unusual in his native Burra Isle. But Thomas had a talent, an extraordinary talent and a passion for music which drove him to painstakingly record thousands of his unique takes of favourite blues, country, jazz and traditional tunes of the era.

Discography: http://www.thomasfraser.com/discography.htm

Guitars : Guitars

Levin Goliath

Described by Guitarist magazine as ' the best kept secret of the guitar world ' the Levin Goliath was purchased by Thomas in 1961 and used exclusively up until his death in 1978.

The Levin Guitar Company was a Swedish firm who were founded by HC Levin in the early 1900s. HC Levin came from Goteburg and was a trainee luthier with Martin in the States before setting up Levin back in Sweden. The company was bought over by Martin in the early 1970s not because of their large stock of wood, but because their guitars were becoming a little too good. The Levin Guitar company used the brand name 'Goya' in the United States.

The 'Goliath' (model no. N26 in the states) was a Dreadnought shape with a spruce top and maple back and sides. It had a shorter scale lenght at 629mm and 43.8mm at the nut. The thin necks compliment an action akin to an electric guitar. A rich and deep bass tone made the Goliath a guitar to rival and indeed beat any other including the best Gibsons and Martins.Heres a interesting read about Moon guitars which are infamous in Scotland! http://www.shetland-music.com/news%2c_r ... ure_model/

Thomas' nephew Bobby was asked to look after the huge collection of reel-to-reel tapes that had been left behind by Thomas in the house at Setter. As the years passed, Bobby found that requests for Thomas Fraser compilations became very frequent. Despite the release of two Thomas Fraser cassettes in the early 1980s (' Memories of Yesterday' , Volumes 1 & 2), requests became so numerous that Bobby simply found that he could not continue. Being immersed in the normal routines of work and my own musical 'twiddlings', I never really found the time to really appreciate my Grandfather's music let alone find time to do anything constructive with it. The tapes remained at Bobby's until one night in the late 1990s when Mam and I went to Bobby's to visit. Bobby produced his tape recorder and put on a reel. Having acquired a more 'mature' musical outlook, I listened with amazement at what my Grandfather had done all those years ago.
A truly remarkable story and i hope a certain few on the forum take the time to read through what this guy did many years ago.All information you can find here on Thomas Fraser a man now gone but his music is still heard in the heather.http://www.thomasfraser.com/
Enjoy.....

[winston]

Wow! A very cool story and great music.

Thanks again Scotty. You have unearthed some real gems for us.

[scotty]

a wee bit different but im glad you enjoyed it Brian! thanks for reading it.