A well-known and respected tenor, folklorist and media personality, Tom (Thomas Alvin) Kines was a driving force in the collection and dissemination of folk music in Canada and abroad. He spent a lifetime building a repertoire of folk songs, and encouraged people to engage with culture through song. Kines released three full albums on major labels, hosted multiple radio and television programs on CBC, and performed on many prominent stages sharing his well-researched versions of folk songs. He also served for twenty-one years as the Director of CARE Canada, a position in which he continued researching and collecting songs from cultures around the world.
This website includes many selections from the Tom Kines Collection, which is housed in the Archives & Research Collections in the MacOdrum Library at Carleton University. The Kines family gave the Collection to the School for Studies in Art and Culture: Music at Carleton with the intention of sharing it, and we intend to include as much of the Collection as possible for all to regard.
The full collection documents the career, research, and interests of Thomas Kines and includes audio recordings, video recordings, song books, sheet music, scripts, notes, set lists, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, biographical notes, programs and posters, musical instruments, correspondence, and research notes. The majority of Kines’ musical instruments are currently on display in the Jacob Siskind Music Resource Centre in the MacOdrum Library.
