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Arhoolie in the news: “Corrido Heaven”

Here’s a bit from Lawrence Downes’ feature article, “In Los Angeles, Songs Without Borders,” from the Travel section of this Sunday’s New York Times (August 16, 2009):

“In clubs, bars, swap meets and concert halls, from car radios and ringing cellphones, you will hear corridos, old-time folk ballads in the banda and norteño styles. ‘Corridos are part of the literature of the common people,’ wrote Chris Strachwitz, who founded Arhoolie Records and has spent a lifetime collecting and studying traditional Mexican music.”

And this a little further down:

“For armchair travelers, Arhoolie Records (www.arhoolie.com) has a vast corrido catalog. You can also explore the Frontera Collection (frontera.library.ucla.edu) to which Chris Strachwitz, the head of Arhoolie, donated tens of thousands of 78 and 45 r.p.m. records. The collection is being digitized and made available to the public online, which can put you in corrido heaven for years and years to come.”

Find the whole article, some musical example and a slideshow here:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/travel/16corridos.html