Willie Kemp
Encyclopedia
Willie Kemp, King of the Cornkisters, was born in Oldmeldrum
in 1888 and died in 1965. He is best known as a singer and writer of Doric
comic songs. His family owned a hotel in Oldmeldrum, formerly Kemp's hotel, now Morris's and at an early age Kemp started performing at the hotel.
During the early 1920s, Kemp went to Art school in Aberdeen and while there, he joined a concert party. By 1923 he was invited to broadcast for the BBC in Aberdeen. An employee of the Beltona
record label heard his broadcasts and he was invited to Beltona's London studios to make recordings. He continued to record with them throughout the 1930s.
The material that he recorded for Beltona was a mixture of bothy ballad
s, and cornkister
s, some written by others, some written by himself. His musical composition skills were good, his lyric composition less so, and as a result his best work was done in collaboration with others, particularly the lyricist G Bruce Thomson with whom he wrote McFarlane o the Sprotts o Burnieboosie, The Weddin o McGinnis tae his Cross-eyed Pet and McGinty’s Meal and Ale.
Oldmeldrum
Oldmeldrum is a village and parish in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, not far from Inverurie in North East Scotland. With a growing population of over 2000, Oldmeldrum falls within Scotland's top 300 centres of population. The A947 road from Aberdeen to Banff runs through the centre of the...
in 1888 and died in 1965. He is best known as a singer and writer of Doric
Doric dialect (Scotland)
Doric, the popular name for Mid Northern Scots or Northeast Scots, refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in the northeast of Scotland.-Nomenclature:...
comic songs. His family owned a hotel in Oldmeldrum, formerly Kemp's hotel, now Morris's and at an early age Kemp started performing at the hotel.
During the early 1920s, Kemp went to Art school in Aberdeen and while there, he joined a concert party. By 1923 he was invited to broadcast for the BBC in Aberdeen. An employee of the Beltona
Beltona Records
Beltona Records is a British record label founded in 1923, producing recordings 'of a mainly Scottish interest'. The company's early history began with 78rpm gramophone records of traditional Scottish music. They produced music common of the time, i.e. dance and barn music. Typical instrumentation...
record label heard his broadcasts and he was invited to Beltona's London studios to make recordings. He continued to record with them throughout the 1930s.
The material that he recorded for Beltona was a mixture of bothy ballad
Bothy ballad
Bothy Ballads are songs sung by farm labourers, specifically in the northeast region of Scotland.Bothies are outbuildings on a big farm, where unmarried farm labourers used to sleep often in harsh conditions. In the evening, to entertain themselves they sang old songs and often composed their own...
s, and cornkister
Cornkister
A Cornkister is a Doric song, generally a comic song, written during the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, in the tradition of the Bothy ballads. The name refers to the cornkist, , used to measure oats sufficient to feed a plough horse on the farms of North-east Scotland at that time...
s, some written by others, some written by himself. His musical composition skills were good, his lyric composition less so, and as a result his best work was done in collaboration with others, particularly the lyricist G Bruce Thomson with whom he wrote McFarlane o the Sprotts o Burnieboosie, The Weddin o McGinnis tae his Cross-eyed Pet and McGinty’s Meal and Ale.