John Lilly

By Steve Fesenmaier, Charleston, WV

One of our state’s best musicians, John Lilly, editor of Goldenseal,  and contributor to two major WV films, “Correct Change” and “#30- Cal Price and the Pocahontas Times”, traveled through Scotland, northern England, and Shetland November 2-13 on his first solo tour. ( He had previously toured with a group.)  He performed eight times, opening one show for well-known West Virginian Tim O’Brien in Newcastle . He also  appeared in Edinburgh , Inverness , Kirkcaldy, and Huntley. The highlight of the trip was performing as a featured guest at the fifth annual Thomas Fraser Memorial Festival in Shetland, located 100 miles north of Scotland , in the North Sea .

Thomas Fraser was a shy, self-employed fisherman in Shetland whose hobby was playing guitar and singing Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams songs. He brought the first tape recorder to Shetland when electricity was introduced there in 1953 and began making a series of home recordings, until his death from a fishing accident in 1978. Twenty years later, Fraser’s grandson discovered the collection of 500 tapes and began issuing them on CD, to wide acclaim. There are now three CDs available and a fourth in the works. The grandson also organizes an annual festival in honor of his grandfather. He invited Lilly to perform, since he is interested in similar music. John said, “ It was a wonderful experience!”

Visit John Lilly’s website

You can watch a video made of Lilly’s award-winning Hank Williams style song, “ Blue Highway ”