A MUSSELBURGH-BORN singer/songwriter has released a new album after fulfilling his musical ambition during the trip of a lifetime to the USA.

Tom Fairnie, 69, travelled Stateside last October to record an album with Grammy award-winning producer Merel Bregante, formerly of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, at Cribworks Digital Audio studios near Austin, Texas.

He was helped on his journey by a successful crowdfunding campaign to cover recording costs, which was backed by musicians from all over Scotland.

Mr Bregante, who played with Chris Hillman from The Byrds, Jackson Browne and Loggins & Messina, had heard Mr Fairnie’s songs and was so impressed that he offered to record an album while he stayed for two weeks on his ranch.

The collaboration between the pair has led to the release of the new album Lightning In The Dark, the title of which came from a thunderstorm on Mr Fairnie’s first night in the town of Liberty Hill.

Musselburgh artist Ronnie Elliot was commissioned to design the artwork for the album, including the CD cover and liner notes.

Mr Fairnie, who lived in the Pinkie area of Musselburgh but now resides in Newcraighall, began writing songs aged 13 but only started performing when he was 50. He has kept strong links with his home town, and his wife Jane is a former chair of the Vibrant Musselburgh group, which seeks to promote creativity in Musselburgh.

When he retired from his job as an audio visual manager at the University of Edinburgh, Mr Fairnie concentrated on his music career, which included touring, recording and songwriting with his friend Bob Shields, a poet from Musselburgh.

Both are “extremely proud” of the way Lightning In The Dark has been received, with many reviewers noting the “poetic quality” of the words.

Mr Fairnie has performed as a solo artist and in groups, most recently as Tomfoolery, an Americana/Celtic/folk band.

Mr Fairnie recorded 12 songs for the album with Mr Bregante, whom he linked up with through Madelaine Cave, who was born and raised in Gifford but now lives in Colorado.

She worked with Mr Fairnie when she sang with Tomfoolery before moving to the States.

Mr and Mrs Fairnie funded all the travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for the trip.

The crowdfunding campaign for the recording costs was supported by five fundraising concerts featuring East Lothian musicians, including Musselburgh’s Yard Of Ale, Ronnie Elliot and Nicola Graham, Richard Buchanan, Paul Brown and Arthur Wilson.

Having been to Austin, Mr Fairnie recorded his parts in the songs and it was left to Mr Bregante to electronically complete the recordings made in Austin, Edinburgh, The Netherlands and at Crum Hall’s studio in Dunbar, where backing vocals for two tracks were provided by Dunbar residents Karen Dietz and Gracie Brill.

The CD has already received airplay on shows online, Celtic Music Radio and The Iain Anderson Show on BBC Radio Scotland.

Mr Fairnie said he was “immensely proud” of this piece of work, his fifth solo CD, adding: “Despite its heart being immersed in the Americana sound that provides the backdrop to the songs, there was a soul in every song that has a distant echo of the fishing community, the pits, the mills and the people of Musselburgh. The lightning illuminated a Texan ranch and back in Scotland we can hear the thunder of a great CD.”

To find out more about Mr Fairnie, listen to, buy or download the tracks, go to www.tomfairnie.com or find him on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, Reverbnation, YouTube or Birnam CD.