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.
Herbert Sam Interview – Zydeco
Herbert Sam was born near Opelousas, LA., in 1924 into a musical Creole family. His father played accordion and so did his mother and two brothers, including Ambrose Sam who in the 1950s went to Los Angeles, Ca, and played for the Creole community in that area.
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Blind James Campbell Interview
Born in Nashville in 1906, Blind James Campbell was a blues singer and guitarist who was blinded in a work accident. He and his Nashville street band were active from the ‘30s to the ‘60s, and they recorded and released a record on Arhoolie in 1963 (Blind James Campbell and His Nashville Street Band).
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Stanley Willis Interview
Stanley Willis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 15, 1922. His mother played piano, and Stanley remembered musicians coming to the house to rehearse when he was just a small child. He recalled being passed around “like a loaf of bread” by a group of old women and placed in front of the church piano at the age of four.
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Martín Echeverría Interview – Los Hermanos Chavarría
Along with Rocha & Martinez, Martin and Alphonso Echeverría, Los Hermanos Chavarría, as their name was always spelled on the record labels, were one of the pioneer duetos to record in San Antonio and their fierce rural, defiant, and unrestrained vocal style made them remarkably popular for over a decade.
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Chris Strachwitz on Fred McDowell
In 1964 Chris Strachwitz went to Como, Mississippi to record Fred McDowell for his record label Arhoolie Records. In this interview, Chris talks about his memories of going to Mississippi, meeting and recording Fred, going to a house party, the Rolling Stones, and how things were back then.
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Octa Clark Interview – Cajun
And you take Joe Falcon, was very good too. And Amédé Breaux was very good too. Amédé Breaux was good too. He was first a singer and he was good, too. A lot of people were good, but some like Aldus Roger, you going to hear him. He’s a good playing, but an old musician told me. He said, “Clark, nobody can beat you for dance.” I said, “You believe so?” He said, “Yes.”
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The Blues Come To Texas — Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book
The book signing party and discussion with Alan Governar, Chris Strachwitz, and Joel Selvin. Held at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, California July 16, 2019....
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Piano Red Interview
“I started wandering about then, from town to town, after I found out I could make a buck playing. We would go from towns like… through South Carolina, North Carolina, and the lower parts of Georgia, all around. We would play, and the guys would be glad for musicians to come in town. They would give us what they could take in the door just for us to stop over and play…”
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Don Santiago Jiménez Interview
Santiago Jiménez, Sr. learned to play accordion watching his father, Patricio Jiménez, who was the only accordion player Santiago recalls playing at dances around town in San Antonio, where he grew up. He talks to Chris Strachwitz about learning to play at age 10, and buying his first two-row accordion from a pawn shop in 1935. He would later become known for his consistent use of the two-row button accordion.
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Nathan Beauregard Interview
Singer-guitarist Nathan Beauregard is one of the most interesting of the newly discovered veteran performers of blues and Negro folksong. The vigor and charm of his playing belie his advanced age (though he does not know his birthdate, he claims to be more than 100 years old!) and provide occasional glimpses of some of the oldest styles of music from the Deep South.
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