The song "Yiannis, Your Handkerchief" is perhaps the most emblematic folk song of the diaspora. With a handkerchief symbolically wiping sweat, blood, and dirt from the hard work done to survive abroad, "Yiannis" says he washed it in five rivers, but it was so stained that it didn't get clean, only dyed them. In the "desolate foreign lands," each Yiannis is usually a frightened outcast, hidden from social life in ghettos and his humble room. In this rendition, the band PAGAN also incorporated an original melody, where the bagpipe weeps for the lost years of the diaspora that won't come back but can serve as a reminder to future generations that "where there is land, there is homeland," without humanity, solidarity, and understanding, does not exist.
The band:
Evelyn Assouad - Vocals
Vasilis Prodromou - Acoustic guitar
Markos Pavlou - Gaida
Dimitris Bizos - Electric guitar
Stavros Tsumanis - Electric bass
Sotiris Ntouvas - Drums
Stage director - Marlene Kaminsky
Sound engineering - Akis Gorakis
Live sound effects and recording mixing - Nikos Papadopoulos / Soundflakes Studios
Lighting Design - Marietta Pavlaki
Video director & editing - Aristotelis Papakonstantinou
Cameras - Aristotelis Papakonstantinou, Panagiotis Andrianos, Panos Iliopoulos, Alekos Bourelias
Hairdressing construction - Konstantinos Kolioussis
Makeup - Olga Falei
Media Manager - Ioannis Pitarakis
Special thanks to Chris "El Tio" Vogiatzis, Petros Vogiatsis, Tasos Nousias, Costas Vlaxogiannis, Christos Tasios and Giorgos Kosrtesas (gaidaros productions).