TomFairnie
(Tom Fairnie)

Bio:

I was born in Musselburgh but I now live in Edinburgh. Jane and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary this year. We have three grown up children, Rebecca, Matthew and Rachel. Matthew is married to Jane (my mother's name was Jane, I married a Jane and so did our son - something about the name maybe??) and they live in Dunfermline; they have three wonderful children called Joshua Thomas, Sophie Jane and Jessica Rose.
Rachel and her fiance Stephen stay in Glasgow. They are both about to embark on a Ph.D. Rachel's is in Philosophy at Edinburgh and Stephen's is in the poetry of WW1 at Glasgow. Rebecca stays in Edinburgh and is into drama. She has acted in several plays and I've enjoyed them all without feeling the nerves that any parent gets. She's confident and can project, which are good attributes for an actress...and for working in a vomitarium!
In terms of the music...I attempt to write lyrical, melodic and intelligent songs and try to make the best use of my guitar skills to provide sensitive uncluttered arrangements. I often gig as a part of The Travelling Waverlies, who perform a mixture of poetry and song and who released their first cd Speaking In Tongues to really good reviews. The Waverlies compromise four poets…Bob Shields, Billy Cornwall, Mike Dillon and myself although the group has grown to be more inclusive and performers such as Mark Barnett, Martin Boland, Nancy Somerville, Jane Fairnie and Kenny Vass have all contributed. We have toured the Netherlands and performed at various festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe. I often collaborate with Bob and we are steadily building up a catalogue of songs. Our joint efforts feature on birthmarked, Speaking In Tongues, The Harbour At Symi, Companions, War On War, The Journeyman and As Eden Lay In Darkness. My style cuts across folk, country and blues but I simply try to write the best songs that I can. The most recent CD is The Journeyman where I was lucky to have the support and help of singers and players like Kathy Stewart, Arthur Wilson, Kenny Vass, Martin Boland, Ken Kennedy, Killian Playthell-Steele, Gill Reid, Pamela Halpin, Peter Kavanagh, Mark Barnett, Jane Fairnie and others. I'm currently working on the initial stages of producing another Waverlies CD and another solo effort, As Eden Lay In Darkness, both of which I'm really looking forward to. The latest CD features vocals from Jane Fairnie and Karen Dietz, guitar instrumentals from Mark Barnett and Bernard Brogue, percussion from Robin Brill, fiddle from Mhairi Mackinnon and double bass and harmonica from Ken Kennedy. I'm lucky to have the support of such great and talented people!