There’s a ring of mystery to the name – “the Kalokerinos Tapes” – and the story behind it will continue to unfold at a series of performances later this month, from Stornoway down to Castlebay.
The Kalokerinos in question, James, was a physician whose parents had emigrated from the Greek island of Kythira to New South Wales. All four sons went on to have distinguished medical careers in Australia and the family became well-known for that reason.
However, James Kalokerinos was a man of many parts. According to his biography, he was “raised in the Scottish enclave of Glen Innes” and became “enthralled with Scottish culture and Highland gatherings. He became a world authority on tartans and learned to speak Gaelic”.
He was also an amateur folklorist and when his specialist medical training took him to Scotland, he soon found his way to Edinburgh’s traditional music circles where the young Flora MacNeil from Barra had, in the 1950s, quickly become a star in the firmament.
James Kalokerinos became captivated by her singing and asked if he could make recordings from her vast repertoire of songs. Flora’s daughter, Maggie Macinnes, says: “He recorded mum over a six year period from about 1955 on reel-to-reel tape. Mostly it was at our home and they are not like concert recordings. Quite often you can hear them chatting with dad in between songs which is quite poignant to listen to now.
“He recorded about 180 songs and when he went back to Australia he sent cassettes. That box of cassettes sat in our lounge for years. When I started listening to them about 20 years ago, there were a lot of songs I hadn’t heard. It wasn’t all of mum’s repertoire but a big selection which was to give him a flavour of all types of songs”.
It was recognised as a very precious archive of Gaelic songs that would otherwise have been lost and Maggie secured a grant from Creative Scotland to have it all digitised. Now, the whole archive has been put onto a web-site.
The idea of live performances had also been developing and the resultant show got its first outing at Celtic Connections in January when it was received with acclaim.
Maggie says: “These were songs which she had learned orally, mostly from her mother, grandmother, aunt, uncle and others on the island. They include many rare gems alongside songs which Flora helped make popular today. The archive is just a part of her vast repertoire but it has been wonderful to discover beautiful songs I had never heard her or anyone else sing before.
“I have been working to digitise the archive and to develop modern arrangements of some of the songs for inclusion in the show. When it was first performed at Celtic Connections, I recorded songs from the show for inclusion in a new album which was released last month”.
Accompanying Maggie on the touring show will be some top Scottish Instrumentalists including Wendy Weatherby (cello), Maggie’s son Calum Park (guitar and fiddle), Dan Brown (piano), Alex Palmer (percussion) and Conal McDonagh (pipes, flute, and whistle).
Maggie says: “I am very excited to have had the chance to work with these amazing musicians and I think we have created fresh, exciting arrangements, which I hope will help shed light on these wonderful songs and keep them being sung for future generations
“It’s a concert primarily but it is also about paying tribute to the people mum got the songs from – and also those collectors like James Kalokerinos who had enough respect for what he heard to recognise the danger of it being lost”.
The new album is called Uiseagan Bharraigh (Barra Skylarks) “after my mother and all of the other tradition bearers of Barra who passed the songs on to her”. It is available via www.maggiemacinnes.co.uk in physical and digital formats and other streaming channels.
The tour opens next Saturday 18th July as part of HebCelt at An Lanntair, Stornoway, and tickets are available to book. (https://lanntair.com/events/event/maggie-macinnes-the-kalakelios-tapes/).
This is followed on Monday 20th July at Cnoc Soillier, Daliburgh, South Uist then, the following evening, the show will be taken right back to its Barra roots at Castlebay Hall.
