THAT FAR AWAY LAND

Thomas Fraser was born in Burra Isle, an island off Shetland, in 1927. Like many Shetlanders, Thomas became interested in music from an early age and with encouragement from relatives, he taught himself to play the fiddle and later, the guitar. This is the first new album of Thomas Fraser material since 2005 and once again features 25 glorious tracks, lovingly compiled and produced by his grandson Karl Simpson. "Since the release of the last Thomas Fraser CD in 2005, there has been a major advancement in sound restoration technology and we have taken advantage of this for the new release. Certain songs have been transformed from very murky recordings to startlingly clear and bright sounds. Other tracks deemed virtually unusable in the past can now be heard and appreciated properly. This has enabled us to use more songs from the existing family archive". The new release also features a number of recordings, which have come to light in the past three years. "One of the most significant finds was a reel to reel tape which was found on an old tape recorder which turned up in a local history exhibition. It had belonged to an old friend of Thomas s and had simply been forgotten about. I was astonished to discover to find it was a full tape of Thomas Fraser material with a number of songs of which we had no prior record. These tracks are being heard for the first time in five decades."