Arhoolie Records Down Home Music

FINALIST: ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

“Best Historical Research on Record Labels or General Recording Topics”

5-Star Rating

“What makes Strachwitz’s image so compelling is his sense of context. Impatient with conventional shots of musicians on-stage, he shows us the response to them: people dancing, eating, flirting, learning (Flaco Jimenéz teaching accordion to Ry Cooder) or simply being there, in the music’s community of pleasure.”

–Mojo Magazine

“An absolute treasure.”

–Booklist.

“You hold in your hands a monumental treasure! Without the aid of Chris’s humanity, foresight, dedication, and love in recording these artists on wax, films, and photographs, this whole genre might have suffered and sustained massive dis-inclusion, lost forever, slipping away without a trace of existing. Go forth and enjoy it with great respect for a Man who made sure you didn’t miss the music and images of the unheard and unseen. Thank you, Chris.” –Taj Mahal

“Chris Strachwitz is a heroic figure if ever there was. This book gets to the root of roots music and tells the story of Arhoolie most brilliantly. Arhoolie all right!” –Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top

“No one has meant more to the preservation and appreciation of Americana roots music than Chris Strachwitz. He turned me on to Mississippi Fred McDowell and so many other greats. With his passion for the artists as people as well as their culture, and the creation of Arhoolie Records and Down Home Music, he’s given us some of the most thrilling and unique music we’ll ever know. How great that Chris and Joel have collaborated on telling his fascinating story in this wonderful book.” –Bonnie Raitt

“I traveled through South Texas with Chris for a few days once. He had his tape machine, a change of clothes, and a twenty-five-pound sack of oranges. Texas is big, you know. Five hundred miles a day–he stopped to eat only to be polite. He wore me out, but I learned a lot. The border Mexicans called him “El Fanático.” Chris is a really nice man–he liked the musicians, they liked him back. Even Mario Montes, the accordion player of Los Donneños, who had no use for white people, put up with him. Then, it was drink your orange juice, get in the car, and drive. Viva El Fanático!” –Ry Cooder

“Hey Chris: I wanna buy you a Mercury and cruise you up and down the road. Chris Strachwitz’s life-journey led him to become one of the world’s greatest musicologists. Were Lightnin’ Hopkins, K. C. Douglas, and a host of other cultural giants alive today, they would all say, Thank you, Chris Strachwitz. Thank you for your passion, tireless work, and generosity. Me too.” –Steve Miller

“Strachwitz was a talented photographer, as the…photos in the book affirm. Unusually informal, intimate and relaxed, they seem to reveal a mutual trust and appreciation between Strachwitz and his subjects.”

–The Advocate

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“Strachwitz collected stories and took photographs, yielding this glorious volume that connects the two, with an emphasis on players like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Santiago and Flaco Jimenez and Lydia Mendoza from Texas. The book is a lovingly assembled companion to the crucial music Strachwitz recorded and made available.”

–The Houston Chronicle

“A treasure trove of stories and pictures.”

–The Aquarian

“It’s a gracefully done, monumental moment in time captured for generations to enjoy.”

–Metronome Magazine

“It’s a vivid celebration of the creativity happening off the cultural radar screen–and of a niche business that made this music more widely available.”

– Reason magazine

“This larger-than-life coffee table book begs you to listen to the music of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clifton Chenier, Sonny Boy Williamson, Flaco Jimenez, Big Mama Thornton and scores of others who pour out their rich and disparate cultures. Down Home Music is first-rate proof that America’s musical heritage is our gift to world culture with a capital C.”

–American Blues Scene

”[W]ith Chronicle Books’ posthumous release of ‘Arhoolie Records Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz, ’ …his work as a photographer gets the star billing it’s so long deserved. The crisp black-and-white photos, taken on his trusty Leica, offer candid and in-their-element glimpses of the artists he recorded. Shot as something of a personal diary tracking where he’d been and who he’d heard, the photos often ended up serving as cover art for Arhoolie albums…a treasure trove.”

–The San Francisco Chronicle

“A revelatory road trip with the founder of the legendary roots and blues imprint Arhoolie Records through his photos of the legends that he recorded.”

–David Fricke

“Opening this book is akin to opening a treasure chest for the fan of roots…err, down home music. And each page reveals a new gem.”

–Houston Press

ARHOOLIE RECORDS

Founded in 1960 by Chris Strachwitz, the one-man operation eventually produced more than 400 albums during more than forty years in operation, exploring the far corners of American vernacular music-–blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, hillbilly, Texas-Mexican norteno music and more. The label’s first release by Mance Lipscomb came at the peak of the folk movement and instantly introduced the Arhoolie imprint as home of authentic down home music. “Maybe every six months someone’ll come through with an album, an Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell,” Keith Richards told Rolling Stone in 1971. “And you’d say: There’s another cat!” Arhoolie released landmark albums with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Clifton Chenier, Big Joe Williams and many others. The label recorded extensively in rural Louisiana and his recordings with Clifton Chenier and Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil not only helped modernize Creole and Cajun music, but actually sold a few records for the label. Strachwitz pioneered the study of Mexican-American music since recording Los Pingunos del Norte for Arhoolie in 1970. He won a 1986 Grammy award for his recording with Texan accordionist Flaco Jimenez. With filmmaker Les Blank, he produced the classic documentary in the field, “Chulas Fronteras, in 1976. On subsidiary labels such as Blues Classics and Old Timey, Arhoolie also reissued important historic recordings by long-forgotten masters of American music; from western swing out of Texas in the ‘30s to deep Southern blues from the 40s and 50s. Since the first album, Arhoolie has existed to throw spotlights on the true American music. The Smithsonian Institution acquired the Arhoolie label in 2016 and the Arhoolie Foundation has been making digital versions of Strachwitz’s immense collection of Texas-Mexican records (said to be the largest in existence) available on the Internet, extending his mission of preserving and promoting the often-hidden but rich musical heritage of this country.

CHRIS STRACHWITZ

With his ceaseless enthusiasm and diligent efforts to dig out the genuine folk music he loved, Chris Strachwitz produced an incomparable body of work over a half-century of running Arhoolie Records. While inevitably reflecting his own unique perspective and following his particular passions, he nevertheless mapped out the subtext of modern American music with his vast recordings of vernacular music. With an immigrant’s acute eye for American culture, Strachwitz has mined the dusty shelves of this country’s musical life for some of the most vibrant and robust music to be found on records anywhere. His genial but irascible character and tireless appetite for the real deal were captured in the 2014 documentary, This Ain’t No Mouse Music, by filmmaker Maureen Gosling. He celebrated his 90th birthday in 2021.

JOEL SELVIN

The longtime San Francisco Chronicle pop music columnist first wrote about Arhoolie Records in 1970; his 2008 profile of Strachwitz won a journalism award. He has written more than 20 books about pop music.