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.
Staple Singers Interview
“…he wanted us to sing blues. He said, Mavis can make a lot of money if we sang blues. I didn’t want to sing blues.” – Roebuck Staples
Read MoreMercy Dee Walton Interview
“The blues to me was a way of getting rid of your trouble through your music. During those times when I started playing things kinda rugged, you know what I mean. A dollar or two was a great thing back then. I just started playing the blues.”
Read MoreMoise Robin Interview – Cajun
“[My daddy] had an accordion and I would go to school and when I would come back from school instead of make my lesson. I was more interested in accordion … and I learned when I was nine years of age.”
Read MoreMoses Asch – Folkways Records
Moses Asch was the founder of Asch Records, Folkways Records, and Disc Records. Listen to his 1981 interview with Arhoolie Foundation’s Chris Strachwitz.
Read MoreT-Bone Walker Interview – Blues
“To be the best, I’d have to stick with my style. I can’t get away from it. That’s the reason why I don’t do rock-n-roll, which they’ve been trying to get me to do it, but I’ll get away from my style.”
Read MoreNathan 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.
Read MorePaul Oliver Interview
In this hour long interview, British blues historian and author Paul Oliver and Chris Strachwitz discuss the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, blues, American music, culture, and much more.
Read MorePiano 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…”
Read MoreDon 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.
Read MoreAdolph Hofner Interview
“There wasn’t very many such things as guitars back in community I lived with, it was all brass and drums and tubas and vice-versa; but what got me interested in that was the steel guitars, I like the way they whine, you know? Also, see them in the Sears Roebuck catalogue and I figured it could be easy to play.”
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