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 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 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 MoreBig Mama Thornton Interview
“…I would like very much to do spirituals. Because I feel that I got the voice. I feel like I got the power. I just feel like I could just do them. You would be surprised, mostly my occupation every morning is turn on my radio and listen to spirituals. I love those spirituals. I love good singing.”
Read MoreFred and Rose Maddox Interview
“I had about 10 pounds in my sack and I sat down and just started thinking…’Fred, what are you doing back there?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking.’ ‘What are you thinking?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking let’s go into the music business.”
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 MoreK.C. Douglas Interview – Blues
“This guy, when the high water was in 1927, the Mississippi River had all that, they had all kind of”…”The guy made a record called “Barbecue Bob” about Mississippi Heavy Water Blues.”…”That’s the biggest high water they ever had in the Mississippi River. That’s the time, oh man. Washing houses and everybody, people was going down there to sit on top of houses, just going on out.”
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 MoreBlues Musician Big Joe Williams Interview 1960
Born in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi in 1903, Joe Lee “Big Joe” Williams is a renowned blues musician known for his use of a nine-string guitar. He talks to Chris about making his living traveling with medicine shows, playing with a young Muddy Waters, and making records.
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