Im fond of this little song, It has an old fashioned romantic feel to it. I wrote this during Lock down at the beginning of 2021 and my friend Flo put down the drum tracks, whereby we both had to work remotely just sharing files, thank goodness for the age of internet.

Ruby's little song

This tune was my first garage band experiment at the start of lockdown in 2020. This project really served to keep me sane, as like most people i soon came to terms with having no social contact with the outside world 
Whilst our lives became one big Zoom call. 
I was fortunate to collaborate with Florian on drums who remotely added some nice reggae sounding drums

lock down 2020

Zoom Zoom zoom

This is the first time Ive written a song which expresses the subject of environment and the ever greater need to look after the natural world.
i think somehow the song holds together and is complimented with a Johnny cash railway train rhythm keeping the tempo up beat with some electric guitar and mouth organ thrown in for good measure.

World needs to breathe

This wee song was written for my dear old Dad, He was brought up in a tiny wee village called Bonar bridge in Sutherland a very remote part of the north of Scotland. The song tells the story of him first seing traffic lights on arriving in Aberdeen where he studied and met my mum.

Traffic Lights

I wrote this tune at home one night back in 2004. At this time I had a good mate of mine Andy Macay who played old time banjo  and he and I wrote some songs together. We had some great wild adventures allot which took place in feilds full of hippie's or in pubs particuarly the Royal oak in Edinburgh.This track was recorded in Prestonpans just outside Edinburgh by another friend Athur Wilson who recorded my Debut Album Traveller's Way where this song appears

Sing Out Loud

A song written and inspired by dreams and the desire to break free from the day to day grind, imagining theres more to life and seeking the freedom offered from nature and its beauty.

Little Square

This Song was inspired by my amazing Mum who was born in Tanzania in 1950 and grew up playing and travelling in the back of railway carriages, Learning and speaking Swahili. Seeing some of the most amazing sights nature has to offer.

Railway Girl

A song about the desire to escape financial pressures to get out of Glasgow, Scotland and escape the cold and fly off to Nicaragua for a change of seen.

They Came Knocking

This Compilation of songs is a mixture of old and new, I released my first album ‘Travellers way’ in 2004 which was produced by Arthur Wilson in MacArthur studios in Preston Pans.Two of the songs from that album i have selected here are ‘Traffic lights’ written about my dear old Dad who grew up in Sutherland in a remote part of Scotland in the 1950’s and also ‘Sing out loud’, a wee Bluegrass tune which was inspired by my friend Andy McKay better known as ‘Banjo Andy. 

In 2016 I began work on my second album after Ross Macfadyen from Celtic radio told me I needed a big kick up the arse to produce a new recording. So ‘Black and White dog followed’ which was produced by Samir Aroud. Some of the recordings took place in Gorgie parish church where I used to run ‘ All singing all dancing’ (a community music group for adults with special needs)
I have much appreciation and gratitude for my fantastic friends, musicians from the ‘Cosmic Ceilidh band who performed on this album including Ian Stoddart on drums (Stoddy)
Ian Mackenzie(accordion), Peter Ballentyne(bass) and Maureen Hunter(backing vocals). I’ve selected three songs from that Album ‘Railway girl’ ‘They came knocking’ and ‘ Little square’.

Then in 2020 the world went bonkers ! due to the Corona virus and lockdown, so in order to keep myself sane I started writing songs again. Because I couldn’t meet anyone outside of my immediate family  I began focusing on home recordings using my garage band. I enlisted the help of my good friend Florian schmidinger(drums. We started working together on the songs remotely and Flo recorded his drums in his home in ‘Penicuik’ and then sent the files to me, (thank God for the internet). 
The first song we completed was ‘Zoom Zoom Zoom’ which expresses some of the frustration and isolation of being in lock down. The song was written with a rhythmic reggae feel.  
Following this a more country sound appeared in Ruby’s little song and most recently I wrote ‘World needs to breath’. This is the first time I’ve written a song with an environmental message, it’s my hope that COP 26 which is to be held in Glasgow later this year will be great success for Scotland and the wider ‘global climate change movement’. 

all three songs which I call the ‘Lock down EP are included in this mix. 
Despite the challenge of working in this way in lock down and the crash course I took on home audio production I’m still very proud of the results. it’s definitely been a lifeline working with Flo and still being able to enjoy the love of creating music.

Kenny Vass

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