Before rebetiko fed its influence into the popular urban music of Crete, largely through Stelios Foustalieris, one of the musicians who helped popularize Cretan music in the early 20th century, was making his mark on rebetiko.
Harilaos Piperakis, was born in 1894 or 1895 in Xerosterni near Chania in Crete and by age 14 was an outstanding performer on the Cretan lyra, a three-stringed bowed instrument held vertically on the knee. (The nickname Kritikos comes from the Greek word for man from Crete.) He travelled to America and began recording and performing there in the early 1920s. While his discography is largely Cretan, in the late 1920s he recorded five rebetiko songs, including The Gambler.
The use of the lyra, and what sounds like a laouto as accompaniment, is central to Cretan music but was a rare addition to the rebetiko of the day. The story told in The Gambler, a lament about losing at cards and at dice, is pure urban rebetiko misery.
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