Genre: blues

SPECIAL PROJECTS BY THE ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION

About the Arhoolie Foundation

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…”

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.

Joe Pullum Interview

Blues singer Joe Pullum talks with Chris Strachwitz about the music scene in Houston, TX in the 1930’s and later in Los Angeles.

Blues / Jazz / Gospel

Blues, Jazz & Gospel Whether collecting 78s and releasing them on the Blues Classics label or recording Lightning Hopkins, Big Mama Thornton, Reverend Overstreet, Billie and...

R.I.P. Paul oliver

R.I.P. Paul Oliver A note from Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records and the Arhoolie Foundation: “Paul was a remarkable person and devoted educator who taught...

Earl 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.”

Johnie 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.”

1960 Journey to the South – Down South 1960 – The beginning of a record label.

In 1960 Chris Strachwitz was running a small mail order record service and newsletter called the International Blues Record Club (IBRC). In the summer of 1960...