ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS:Audio Interviews
Audio interviews by Chris Strachwitz during his research into the music he was recording for his label Arhoolie Records as well as for his radio programs on KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA) in the 1960’s through 1980’s, and by Dr. Manuel Peña during his research for his several books on Mexican American music.
John Littlejohn Interview – Blues
“So when I got 14 years old, my father won a guitar in a crap game. He asked me – He really didn’t give it to me. I’d catch him going from the house and I’d grab it, you know. The first tune I learned how to play was – I heard Lightning Hopkins playing this tune – ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go.’”
Listen HereJohnie Lewis Interview
“I said well Lord, if you let me live to see tomorrow I’m going to get me a guitar. That’s how I had my start. Then I went to Mrs. Patterson Pawn Shop”… “and I bought me a guitar with the name was Value. That’s the name of the guitar with pearl and ivory all around it. About a week, I was playing pretty good.”
Listen HereSonny Simmons, Barbara Donald, Juma Sultan Interview
“Yeah, they was very musical peoples, in fact, on this island, it was a tribal-like thing on the weekends. All the peoples would get together and they would go into this spot, their favorite spot and they would have festivities of music and voodoo. They’d deal in voodoo and witchcraft and all that. It was all surrounded with music.”
Listen HereK.C. Douglas Interview – Blues
“This guy, when the high water was in 1927, the Mississippi River had all that, they had all kind of”…”The guy made a record called “Barbecue Bob” about Mississippi Heavy Water Blues.”…”That’s the biggest high water they ever had in the Mississippi River. That’s the time, oh man. Washing houses and everybody, people was going down there to sit on top of houses, just going on out.”
Listen HereLalo Guerrero Interview 1989
Lalo Guerrero was without a doubt the most prolific musician-composer that Mexican America has ever produced. In his long and illustrious career, which spanned from the 1930s to the 2000s, Guerrero visited almost every musical genre circulating in the Hispanic Southwest.
Listen HereLeo Soileau Interview – Cajun Music
Leo Soileau was a traditional Cajun music pioneer. Listen to his 1974 interview with Arhoolie Records’ Chris Strachwitz to learn more about Cajun music history.
Listen HereFlaco Jimenez Interview | Tejano Music
“Naturally now you can’t stick just with polka and redova and schottisches. You have to play what’s going on in the world. Starting with polka, and a little rock-and-roll, or a little cumbia, cha-cha-cha”…”Because it’s pretty hard just to play just polka, polka, polka, polka, or just cumbia, cumbia, cumbia. You have to mix it up.”
Listen HereLittle Joe Hernandez Interview 1991
Little Joe Hernández, from Temple, Texas, was born in 1940 and began his career as a musician in the late fifties, trying to break into the surging rock-and-roll market.
Listen HereLuis Acosta Interview – Tejano Music
Born on May 4th, 1906, Luis Acosta was one of three brothers who made the best bajo sextos in the world. Acosta bajo sextos were the preferred accompaniment to pioneering accordionists Don Santiago and Narciso Martinez and played by La Alondra De La Frontera herself Lydia Mendoza. Here is a rare interview of Luis Acosta conducted by Chris Strachwitz.
Listen HereFred and Rose Maddox Interview
“I had about 10 pounds in my sack and I sat down and just started thinking…’Fred, what are you doing back there?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking.’ ‘What are you thinking?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking let’s go into the music business.”
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