A COUNTRY musician has seen his album reach number two in the charts thanks to college expertise - only to be beaten to number one by Taylor Swift.

Scott Ashworth recorded his album Ghosts and Broken Men with the support of Forth Valley College students and sound production lecturer Barry Frame over a three-year period.

The work reached second spot on the iTunes Country Chart, only beaten to the number one spot by Taylor Swift.

Scott, who is already looking forward to starting work on a second album, said: “Although the process was really long, I am absolutely thrilled how the album has turned out.

“Barry has done an excellent job and well exceeded my expectations.

“The album has had excellent reviews from a number of well-known music critics and online magazines, as well as very high praise from the public.”

Students learning from lecturer Barry also had the opportunity to see the process and got to know how it was mastered for different formats, from vinyl to digital.

Barry said: “Ghosts and Broken Men has been a massive production with all types of instruments being recorded such as drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitar, piano, trumpet, saxophone, pedal steel etc.

“Scott wrote the songs and came to me to record and produce them all, so I feature a lot on the album with me writing multiple guitar parts, piano parts, bass parts and making creative decisions with Scott to help him realise his vision.

“Although this was a personal project, I was able to share some of the creative process of this album with the FVC Sound Production Department, for the last three years.”

Students also got to remix some tracks with Scott giving them feedback on the sound like a real client.

Barry added: “Overall, students were really intrigued and inspired and were really pleased for us when they heard that the album got to Number two in the iTunes country chart.

“Taylor Swift was number one, but we were still chuffed that we got to number two.”