According to Xylouris, and reiterated by his brother Giannis, Antonis displayed great valor during one of the many instances of the Greek Revolution of 1821 and was said to "consume the Turks as if they were fish.
Another account states that Antonis kept company with a group of Cretans who used guerrilla warfare tactics against the Turks, dispersing and reuniting at predetermined locations after brief engagements.
Additionally, under Captain William Stanley Moss, Cretans ambushed a detachment German soldiers who had received orders to attack Anogeia.
[8] Captain Patrick Leigh Fermor, an SOE operative, had also been in Anogeia during the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe in May 1944 but escaped with his band of Cretan partisans when the German forces approached.
In the aftermath, the Xylouris family, along with the other inhabitants of Anogeia, were forced to flee to other villages of the Mylopotamos region, and some found refuge in major cities of the island until the Liberation of Crete, which came after the Allied Advance and the German Surrender.
Nearly a year after the razing, the damage inflicted upon Anogeia was documented by a scientific committee officially appointed by the newly restored Greek government, including writer Nikos Kazantzakis and Professor Ioannis Kakridis, both remembered for their joint translation of the works of Homer, among other literary endeavors.
[9] Upon returning to Anogeia, citizens had to rebuild their homes and town, imbuing them with a sense of purpose, dedication, self-reliance, solidarity, and pride.
Due to the destruction of village archives, some ambiguity remains as to the exact birth dates of all persons lacking additional official documentation, including Xylouris.
This is why certain sources may offer conflicting birth dates, although the one mentioned herein is considered the most probable and accurate by consensus, based on village elder and relative testimony.
Giorgis initially opposed his son becoming a musician, which he considered a menial and disreputable occupation, preferring that he attain higher education to improve his life and escape poverty.
After an apprenticeship under lyra player Leonidas Klados, Xylouris started performing at social functions and local festivities, usually accompanied by his younger brother Giannis on the lute.
Having earned a reputation as a skilled musician and aspiring to financial independence, at seventeen Xylouris moved from Anogeia to Heraklion, the largest city in Crete, where he performed nightly at the venue "Kastron" (Greek: Κάστρον).
[13] Over time, Xylouris found acceptance as a musician in Heraklion and caused his urban audience to rediscover, appreciate, and preserve Cretan folk music.
[15] Xylouris' first studio recording was in 1958 with a 7-inch 45rpm vinyl single featuring "Mia mavrofora otan perna" (When a woman clad in all black passes by | Greek: Μια μαυροφόρα όταν περνά) and "Den klaine oi dynates kardies" (Strong hearts don't cry | Greek: Δεν κλαίνε οι δυνατές καρδιές).
[16] Although Odeon Records granted them an audition, executives were worried that Cretan music lacked commercial potential and initially rejected the release.
This version is supported by reports in the Athenian Press that Lambropoulos had found "a major new vocal talent" in Crete, as well as the bond formed between him and Xylouris.
The theater company of Tzeni Karezi and Kostas Kazakos commissioned playwright Iakovos Kambanellis, a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp and later member of the Academy of Athens, to write a retrospective of modern Greek history, scored by Xarchakos, who offered Xylouris the part of the main singer.
The result was the play "To Megalo Mas Tsirko" (Our Great Circus | Greek: Το Μεγάλο μας Τσίρκο), staged at the Athinaion Theater, which enjoyed success.
In the days after the fall of the Junta, he participated in the liberation concert immortalized as Tragoudia tis Fotias (Songs of Fire | Greek: Τραγούδια της Φωτιάς) by director Nikos Koundouros, before the Athenian audience.
In 1971, he was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the Académie Charles-Cros in France for his performance of the Cretan Rizitika album with Yannis Markopoulos.
In the following months, Xylouris would serenade Ourania regularly[25] a custom shared by many medievally Italian-occupied areas of Greece and which many male youths of Crete would often perform to woo the young ladies they admired.