George S. Morris
The Buchan Chiel
Available on Cassette - Catalogue Number - SLPYHT001T - £4.99
George
Smith Morris was born in Aberdeen on July 11th 1876.
He grew up with one brother James and two sisters, Helen and
Jessie. His
father owned a thriving blacksmiths and veterinary surgeons business in
the city at Langstane Place.
He also owned land at Keithall part of which was farmed and the
remainder used to breed and train stallions.
On
17th January 1912 George, by then a fully trained blacksmith, married
Agnes Kemp at Oldmeldrum having met her at the dancing in the village.
Agnes was the sister of Willie Kemp a well regarded north east
entertainer. When Agnes’ parents died she inherited the family ‘Kemps
Hotel’ at Oldmeldrum which duly
became known as ‘Morris’s Hotel’.
George started a dramatic society in Oldmeldrum and also a concert party, writing many songs for the latter. In fact all of the songs on this tape, other than ‘The Buchan Miller’, were written by him.
In
1930 a character photograph was published in a local paper.
This caught the attention of Beltona Records who contacted Morris
to arrange an audition.
Beltona
was owned by the Murdoch Trading Corporation in Glasgow and
specialised in recording Scottish entertainers.
The
audition was successful and Morris began making the fi
Many
of the original 78s are still about today.
The selection of tracks on this cassette has been taken directly
from old 78rpm shellac coated records loaned
to us by George’s son Willie, transferred to computer and
digitally improved.
Willie assures us that his father would have been absolutely
delighted.
The
most successful of the recordings was undoubtedly ‘The Muckin’ o’
Geordie’s Byre’ which had ‘Nicky Tams’ on the reverse.
Thereafter ‘The Buchan Bobby’ was the next most popular.
Perhaps surprisingly the records sold well in Europe - ‘Neeps Tae
Pluck’ being a huge success in Holland!
George
continued entertaining until just a few months before his death at
Morris’s Hotel in Oldmeldrum on 25th September 1958.
He derived much pleasure and amusement from his music and song, we are quite sure that you will also.
14 Tracks - Total Running Time of 49 min 44 sec.
