Down In Yetholm: New song for Yetholm will send its share of album profits back to Scottish Borders good causes

Finn Moray - Down In Yetholm

Aberdeen / Yetholm, November 2025

A Scottish songwriter has created a new song for Yetholm and has pledged to use it in a practical way to support local people.

The track, Down in Yetholm, is part of AON, the debut album from Finn Moray, the creative song writing name of David Sheret. Through the Finn Moray Social Compact, fifty per cent of all net profits from the album will be directed to community, culture and wellbeing groups linked to the places in the songs, including Yetholm and across the Scottish Borders.

AON came out of a very hard six weeks in spring 2025 for David. Within a few weeks he lost his dad, respected Scottish horseman Willie Sheret MBE, a close friend and the family’s wee dog. That loss forced a simple choice about how he spent his time and what his life was actually for.

The project begins with a free-to-download song, The Tree on the Sun. It began life as a poem David wrote more than ten years ago, which he later read at the funeral of his father in May this year. Turning that poem into a song was his way of honouring his dad and others he had lost, and it made him realise that his writing could do more than tell his own story. The Tree on the Sun became the starting point for a wider body of work that honours people and places across Scotland and looks to give something back to the communities behind them. 

“Losing my dad, my friend Paul and Jax so close together changed everything,” says David. “Life is short. My dad lived happy and present, and he loved giving back. AON is my way of trying to live more like that, turning my writing into something that genuinely helps other people.”

Down In Yetholm: a quiet borderland song of welcome and memory

Down In Yetholm is Finn’s song for Yetholm and the Scottish Borders, written from a boyhood memory that stayed with him for decades.

“There is a place tucked into the borderland, a quiet fold of land where Scotland and England lean gently into one another,” he says. “That place is Yetholm.”

Finn first visited the village as a boy with his dad. They were loading a horse that day, and he remembers them washing their hands side by side at a cold tap outside the stables. For a moment everything seemed simple and complete, his dad’s face lit with quiet joy at something ordinary and shared. At the time it felt like nothing special. Only later did he realise how deeply that moment had settled in his memory.

Yetholm, for Finn, carries a kind of peaceful magic. Not the loud kind, but the kind you feel more than see. It is a place for locals and for travellers, people walking the great routes between Scotland and England, people passing through or staying just long enough to breathe a little slower.

The village also has deep roots in Gypsy history and hospitality, a culture that knew, and still knows, how to welcome strangers without fuss.

“Places like Yetholm remind us of who we are,” Finn says. “They show us how we might treat one another if we let go of some of the noise. Down In Yetholm is not just a memory; it is a feeling. A moment in time made permanent by father and son love, rural land and something I cannot quite name. I wrote it for the people who have passed through, my dad included, and for the ones who still carry the road in their bones.”

AON: The Call and The Gathering

AON is a body of work in two parts. AON: THE CALL is part one. It is Finn’s interpretation of the songs he heard in his head. He wrote them, shaped and arranged the chords, structured the sequencing and then used digital audio workstations and AI tools to help organise, refine and support the creative process. These tools allowed him to build the foundation of the sound he imagined. The final sonic identity was shaped with the expertise of Argentinian Latin Grammy Award-winning producer Mariano Beyoglonian, who helped Finn mix and master the songs into the form he always intended.

AON: THE GATHERING is part two. It is the echo that follows AON: THE CALL. It is what happens when other artists bring their own experience to these songs, see what Finn saw in their own way and reinterpret and enhance the work. After the launch of AON THE CALL, Finn will be running a competition in every region to find undiscovered talent who can take on the song for their area, reinterpret it in their own style and use THE GATHERING as a platform to shine, further baking the work into each region and community.

For the income that comes from the core catalogue, including AON: THE CALL, the Social Compact is simple. After costs, fifty per cent of net profit is committed to good causes in the regions connected to Finn Moray. These causes will be chosen and kept under review by a small external advisory committee with representation from across Scotland, set up to guide all Finn Moray community profits so that funds are directed where they can make the greatest difference. The other fifty per cent is retained to keep Finn, his collaborators and the project sustainable.

When AON: THE GATHERING begins, communities continue to receive fifty per cent of net profits. Finn voluntarily reduces his own share to twenty-five per cent and assigns the other twenty-five per cent to the artists who perform on AON: THE GATHERING. This artist pot is shared equally among the singers selected to record the songs so that each participant receives a clear and fair percentage that reflects the number of artists involved. It is what Finn Moray stands for at heart.

“This is about fairness,” Finn says. “If someone from Yetholm or the Borders takes Down In Yetholm, pours their own story into it and carries it to their own audience, they should feel the project respects that.”

Call for Yetholm and Scottish Borders groups and artists

Finn and his team are now looking to connect with organisations in Yetholm and across the Scottish Borders that already give back and need support, from local culture and music groups to wellbeing projects, support spaces and small initiatives that hold folk who might otherwise fall through the gaps.

Fans can visit the Finn Moray website and sign up as FINNATICS, telling the team who they are and what they do. In return, FINNATICS will be the first to hear about new releases, special editions and live shows, and will receive access to discounted tickets and merch that are not available to the general public.

Those who have talent and would like to shine can also sign up for the chance to become a FINNATIC SINGER and find out more about how to audition for AON’s live album, THE GATHERING.

A musical map of Scotland

AON is built as a “living musical map of Scotland”, with original songs written for places that matter to him and his family, including Yetholm, Bridge of Don, Inverness, Aberchirder (Foggie), Ayr, Dunfermline, St Andrews, Cumbernauld, Anderston, Lerwick, Darvel, Dunbeath, Aberdeen, Bridgeton and Holyrood. The plan is to keep adding more songs over time and to share the benefits with each community.

“None of this belongs to me alone,” says Finn. “I am the person who started it. The rest is up to anyone who chooses to take part, including folk in Yetholm and across the Borders.”

How to listen and get involved

The Tree on the Sun, the free-to-download song that began the project, and the songs from AON: THE CALL, including Down In Yetholm, will be available on the Finn Moray website. Listeners are invited to spend time with the tracks, share the ones that make them feel good and get in touch to nominate local groups that quietly give back and could use support. Listen to AON: THE CALL excerpts here.

Notes to editors

About Finn Moray

Finn Moray is the creative song writing persona of Scottish artist and entrepreneur David Sheret. Alongside his work in the energy sector, he is building a values-led music project that aims to give back to the communities that inspire his songs.

About AON and the Social Compact

AON is a two-part musical and social project. THE CALL is a collection of original songs written from Finn’s own experience. THE GATHERING will curate reinterpretations of those songs by artists in the regions they are written about. Under the Finn Moray Social Compact, fifty per cent of net profit from the core catalogue is allocated to institutions that already give back. For reinterpretations, net profit is shared fifty per cent to the region, twenty-five per cent to the covering artist and twenty-five per cent to Finn.

Media contact

Artist: Finn Moray (David Sheret)

Email: finn@finnmoray.com

Phone: +44 7718 312121

Website: www.finnmoray.com

Photography Of David Sheret: Rory Raitt