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.
About Chris Strachwitz
The ripple effect of Chris Strachwitz in the world is immeasurable in preserving this music. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to not...
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Chris Strachwitz Remembers The Hodges Brothers
Intrigued by a 78rpm recording on the Trumpet label, Chris Strachwitz, in 1960, took his first journey into the country music world of southern Mississippi when he visited the Hodges Brothers.
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Chris Strachwitz Interview: Collecting 78rpm Records
Chris Strachwitz started in the music business as a passionate 78 record collector. Hear him tell the story on how he started Arhoolie Records with the funds earned by wheeling and dealing in old 78rpm records.
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Los Pingüinos del Norte
I believe when I first heard Mexican music on the radio, there was a little station in Santa Paula, which is very close south of Santa Barbara. And in the afternoons, I would sneak back into my room sometimes.
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Chris Strachwitz Interview:
Rev. Louis Overstreet 1962/63
In the summer of 1960 Chris Strachwitz came across a gospel musician and his four sons preaching on the streets of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Listen as Mr. Strachwitz describes meeting and recording Rev. Louis Overstreet and then listen to the interview he recorded with Rev. Overstreet in 1962.
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Chris Strachwitz 1956 New Orleans
In 1956 Chris Strachwitz was discharged from the US Army at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Armed with a camera and the love of New Orleans jazz he took a bus to New Orleans for his first visit to his “city of dreams”. Here is an interview with Mr. Strachwitz talking about that trip and the photos he took.
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KEUN – Eunice, LA 1962 Gallery
In 1962 Chris Strachwitz journeyed on a road trip that took him from California to Texas and all through the South, the East Coast, Midwest, and then back down to the South before heading back to California. While driving from New Orleans back towards Texas, he heard a Cajun radio show on KEUN-AM and drove to Eunice to check it out. Here is an interview with Mr. Strachwitz talking about that visit to Eunice, Louisiana and the photos he took.
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Mike Seeger Interview
From approximately the late 1960s through the mid 90s, Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz was a radio host on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California. On March 30th, 1986 he had Mike Seeger on as his guest. This interview comes from a cassette of that show.
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Albert Chevalier Zydeco Roots Interview
Albert Chevalier was born March 20, 1909 in Lafayette, LA. His father played accordion often accompanied by someone beating on a piece of tin, someone scraping a broom handle on the wooden plank floor, and accompanied by fiddle and triangle.
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Frankie Lee Sims Interview
“I always could sing see. I always could sing but my hobby, what I really loved, was the guitar. You go somewhere where the guitar was at. I just didn’t pay no attention.”
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