AN AMATEUR songwriter has ensured his home village of Whitecraig hits the high notes with its own piece of music.

Ian Cavanagh, 67, who now lives at Stoneybank Gardens North in Musselburgh, has penned a song called Deantown, the former name of Whitecraig.

Mr Cavanagh, who lived on Deantown Avenue in the early 1970s, said: “It is really a bit of fun as I use a sense of humour when writing and performing the songs.”

He is planning to record the song and hopes to leave copies at the Riverside Bar in Musselburgh for local residents.

Back in 1971, at the age of 18, he bought an electric Audition guitar from Woolworths.

He first used the instrument to learn and play the Status Quo single In My Chair.

Along with his brother Donald, a bass guitarist, and a friend who was a drummer, he played lead guitar and sang vocals with a rock band called The Freeze, who enjoyed one gig at Musselburgh Labour Club before they disbanded.

He recalled how in 1974 he and his brother were then part of a four-piece band called Exodus, which gave a concert for pupils at Musselburgh Grammar School.

Exodus split up a year later and the band members went their separate ways.

East Lothian Courier:

In the late 1970s, Mr Cavanagh was attending the Pentecostal Church in Musselburgh and began writing Christian songs, two of which he recorded, along with a musician friend at a recording studio in Edinburgh.

His song Jesus is the Way was in the Carberry Festival Film in 1987.

He worked with the former Lothian Regional Council teaching music and led a guitar club at the unemployed workers’ centre based at the Brunton Hall.

The amateur songwriter set up Carberry Road Music, an unofficial charity, raising money for the Christian charity Tearfund – which works to alleviate poverty – with his seven-inch vinyl disc record Jesus Aid, which reached the radio airwaves in 1988.

Another song, I Can Do Anything, is based on a chance meeting with two Queen Margaret University drama students, from the USA and Canada, at a local pub.

Mr Cavanagh at one time busked at London Tube stations and the Edinburgh Festival.

As part of a band called The Third Fret, he took part in a concert, organised by the Lighthouse Central Church at St Peter’s Church in Musselburgh, which raised about £500 for relief initiatives in Africa.

The band members performed their jointly written song You Saved My Life, which was also broadcast on the radio.

One of his latest recordings is I Give It All, which, like most of his songs, has been uploaded to BBC Music Introducing.

Listen to Ian’s music at iancavanaghband.bandcamp.com