The first time Richard Barnes carried his guitar into a local rest home he was unsure if anyone would remember the classic Bermuda calypso songs he had learnt.

They did.

Within minutes, the room was singing along to old Talbot Brothers songs, trading stories about dances, bands and long-closed hotels.

“I like that connection that makes people remember their youth, growing up and their history,” Mr Barnes said.

What concerns him is that songs like Yellow Bird and Bermuda Buggy Ride may be fading from the collective memory.

Mr Barnes is not Bermudian. He lives in a small town outside Philadelphia but is a frequent visitor to the island. He and his wife, Beth, have been on holiday to Bermuda every year for the past 26 years with the exception of 2020, due to the pandemic.

When he was able to return to the island after 2021 he was disappointed there were no steel pans or calypso singers to greet arrivals at the new LF Wade International Airport terminal.

It was hard for him to find evidence of the golden age of Bermuda music, anywhere.

“There are no calypso bands,” he said. “There are no guitar-based groups like the Talbot Brothers and Hubert Smith. You don't see any of that.”

He knows a thing or two about keeping traditional music alive. Back at home he runs the Blackbird Society Orchestra, an 11-piece jazz band that plays note-for-note reproductions of Twenties music.

In Bermuda, he started searching for live music but it was all American rock or contemporary jazz.

“There is nothing wrong with that but it is not Bermudian,” he said.

For most visitors, that might have been the end of it. But for Mr Barnes, it became a mission.

Searching online, he came across local music lover and writer Dale Butler. They struck up a friendship and Mr Butler sent Mr Barnes a copy of his book about local music history, Music on the Rock.

Mr Butler holds regular intimate house concerts from his home in Pembroke.

“We went by there to check out the shows and it was great,” Mr Barnes said. “It just started motivating me to look more into that time period.”

Last year after a lot of talking with Mr Butler, Mr Barnes started to record.

“I spent 11 months in the studio just recording all these songs, mostly Talbot Brothers, Sidney Bean, Hubert Smith and Stan Seymour.”

He ended up with 22 tracks such as Bermuda Farewell, Green Ticket and the slyly comic Tattooed Lady.

Mr Barnes said some of the appeal of the old music was in the humour and storytelling in the song. Through his research he was also able to debunk some myths such as the origins of the Talbot Brothers standard Bermuda Buggy Ride.

“The story was that the Talbot Brothers were in a carriage with a student from Yale on their way to Tom Moore’s,” Mr Barnes said. “They wrote the song along the way with the student helping them to write the lyrics. When they got to their destination they rehearsed and played it.”

The song was actually written by Americans Mack David and Sanford Green. Al Donahue’s Orchestra recorded it on October 14, 1936. The Talbot Brothers released their version in the Fifties.

Mr Barnes sought permission from family members of the late artists In order to make the collection.

Now some of the proceeds will go to the Talbot Foundation, a Bermuda charity that aims to support music instruction and the performing arts in local schools.

However, Mr Barnes’s album The Bermudian Blues will not actually be for sale.

“I’m just trying to put it on YouTube to give us some exposure,” Mr Barnes said. “Many people have shown an interest in it. I put a little website together with links to the Talbot Foundation and to various Bermuda websites, so people can just learn more about Bermuda and its music.”

He would love to see more people putting calypso bands together or playing the music for their children.

He and Beth would move to Bermuda in a heartbeat if they could afford it.

“If we lived here, there would be a Talbot Brothers Day or something like that,” he said. “You could have calypso and steel bands in Victoria Park. It puzzles me that there is no official celebration of your music culture.”

Mr Barnes will perform at Mr Butler’s home at Rosalie Gardens, 35 Angle Street in Pembroke on Friday and Saturday at 6pm in an event called Velvet Keys & Dusty Strings. This promises to be an evening of soul, calypso and storytelling organised as a tribute to the late local music promoter Choy Aming Sr and American singer Nina Simone.

“It’s centred around Nina Simone’s almost trip to Bermuda,” Mr Barnes explained. “Dale will be weaving the music and storytelling together.”

Samone Outerbridge will also be taking part in the show.

He will also appear in another performance on Sunday at the Leopards Club at 6pm. The Saturday and Sunday shows will be $65 per person and include dinner, while the Leopards Club event will be $35 per person and include light refreshments.

• For tickets and information call 595-9841 or e-mail Daledbutler@gmail.com