ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS:Chris Strachwitz Interviews
In 2015 The Arhoolie Foundation received a grant from the Grammy Foundation to digitize and put online the interviews that Chris Strachwitz recorded with musicians and friends over the past 50 years. He recorded these to capture the personal history of many of the musicians he recorded for his Arhoolie Records label and also for his long running radio show on on KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA) during the 1970’s and 1980’s. You can listen to the following interviews and many have transcripts as well.
Clifton Chenier Interviews
“Well, you see in 1955 I used to play nothing but rock music on accordion. Then I got so, I said “Well there’s too many rock groups.” I said, “I’m going to change this a little.” That’s why I got it down to put French in the rock music. See, how it goes.”
Read MoreDL Menard Interview
The late Cajun musician D.L. Menard’s biggest hit was “La Porte En Arrière” (“The Back Door”) which he wrote. He was often called “the Cajun Hank Williams”. In this interview from around 1988, Chris Strachwitz, Maureen Gosling, and Les Blank talk to D.L. about his first guitar, Cajun music, meeting Hank Williams, world travel, song writing, and making chairs.
Read MoreEarl Hooker Interview
“First I used to be a bad, bad, boy, run around with street gangs. After I got to playing music well all this here bad stuff got out of my mind and I got interested in playing music. My first guitar that I ever bought I bought from Sears and Roebuck. I paid a dollar down and fifty cent a week.”
Read MoreEddie Shuler – Goldband Records
“Of course I had a good band, The Hackberry Ramblers were backing me up on all that stuff. You know Luderin Darbone, he’s hard to beat when it comes to playing that Cajun fiddle that he’s got. Do you know they’re going to go play at the World’s Fair this year?…”
Read MoreHackberry Ramblers Interview
“The way we would play, when we started playing over here at Silver Star, we would play maybe about three numbers. Then we would play a waltz. The waltzes we would play, French waltzes. It has a certain beat that the people around here like.”
Read MoreFrank Louis Fouce Interview
In this fascinating interview Mr. Fouce gives a real insiders look at the Spanish language music business in Los Angeles, going back to the 1930’s, He talks about bringing entertainers to his theaters, and especially about Lydia Mendoza and her family.
Read MoreHarry Choates Interview – Cajun
Harry Choates was a complete musician and entertainer. All of his life he ate, drank, and slept music. It is sometimes difficult to unravel the facts and myths surrounding the life and times of the man who immortalized Jole Blon, a song many Cajuns claim as their national anthem.
Read MoreJ.E. Mainer Interview
Joseph Emmett Mainer talks about growing up, working in the cotton mills and playing with his brother Wade for the Crazy Water Crystal Company-sponsored radio shows, and recording for RCA Victor, King Records and Alan Lomax.
Read MoreJoe Patek Interview – Czech Polka
“We don’t do it for money, [or] trying to make a living out of it. We do it for hobby because we love music. I don’t go fishing. I don’t go hunting. I don’t own a gun and don’t own a fishing pole but I’ll go 150 and 200 miles to play a dance.”
Read MoreJoe Pullum Interview
Blues singer Joe Pullum talks with Chris Strachwitz about the music scene in Houston, TX in the 1930’s and later in Los Angeles.
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