ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS:Chris Strachwitz Collection
Frank 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 MoreChris Strachwitz Collection: Vintage Concert Posters
Vintage Concert Posters During his years collecting and recording music Arhoolie Records and Arhoolie Foundation founder Chris Strachwitz acquired many posters for shows of vernacular music....
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 MoreBill Neely Interview
Bill Neely has been singing and picking guitar since 1929 when Jimmie Rodgers showed him a few basics. In the late 1940s he started writing his own songs and has been doing it ever since. The songs on this, Bill’s first album, are almost all his own compositions.
Read MoreJohnie 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.”
Read MoreLeo 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.
Read MoreMarcellus Thomas Interview – Blues
“I recorded Marcellus Thomas during my first session with Big Joe Williams in Los Gatos, CA – and I think it may have been Marcellus who drove Big Joe and his wife and child from Oakland down to my shack in the hills of Holy City where I was living that first year as a school teacher in Los Gatos…”
Read MoreJohn 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.’”
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