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The Arhoolie Foundation celebrates American Roots Music

For over 25 years, the Arhoolie Foundation has been building on the work of founder Chris Strachwitz and his seminal independent record label Arhoolie Records. We are dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and celebration of regional roots music and its makers. Through films, digital audio preservation, exhibitions, and our extensive archival website, we work to broaden public awareness of our diverse music history and support for living music and cultural traditions.

For over 60 years, Arhoolie has recorded great music in Louisiana, Texas, California, and beyond. Visit the rest of our website for archival interviews, photographs, videos, posters, rare catalogs, and more. Here are a few examples of what you will find:

Zydeco & Creole music

Clifton Chenier Interviews
Chris Strachwitz not only recorded classic albums with Clifton, but he also interviewed him about his life and music. Listen to Clifton talk in 1971 and 1978. The interview section also includes a rich gallery of photos.
Check it out

Canray Fontenot
Come inside the home of legendary Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot and watch him play with Michael Doucet in 1993. An intimate look at two legends of the fiddle.
Check it out

CAJUN MUSIC

Ann Savoy Interview Collection
The collection consists of dozens of recorded interviews that musician and documentarian Ann Savoy has conducted with Louisiana musicians over the past 45 years. Among the interviewees are some of the most significant figures in the history of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco music.
Check it out

KEUN – EUNICE, LOUISANA
In 1962, Chris Strachwitz journeyed from California to Texas and all through the South. 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. Listen to an interview with Strachwitz talking about that early visit to Eunice and see the photos he took there.
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DEEP DIVE — Cajun Culture
Check out our recent Deep Dive on Cajun culture, produced in collaboration with Valcour Records and The Coop, a digital storytelling project about Louisiana music and food. With rare photographs, audio inverviews, and videos from the Chris Strachwitz Collection, the Cajun culture Deep Dive showcases Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie’s long history of documenting and sharing the Cajun music of Southwest Louisiana. Other recent Deep Dives have focused on Sacred Steel gospel, Los Pinguinos del Norte, and other aspects of Arhoolie history.
Check it out

Dances/Concerts/Record Labels

Vintage Posters
The Chris Strachwitz Collection is full of unique concert posters from Louisiana and beyond. The walls at the Arhoolie Foundation are covered with these rare posters, and we have digitized and shared many of them on our website. These posters feature some of the great names of American roots music.
Check it out

Arhoolie Occasional

 

The short-lived Arhoolie Occassional was both an insider’s guide to the record business and a travelogue into the lives and music of Arhoolie’s signature artists. From colorful profiles of Mance Lipscomb and John Jackson to a guide entitled “How to Hire Blues Artists,” the Occasional packed enough information in its pages to keep even the most diehard Arhoolie fan busy. 
Check it out

Dear friends,

On Giving Tuesday, we announced the capital campaign to purchase our building at 10341 San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito — home to the Arhoolie Foundation (and before that Arhoolie Records), Les Blank Films, and Down Home Music Store since 1976. We’ve been heartened by the community’s response to our fundraising announcement. To all who have donated so far: thank you. We couldn’t do this without you.

Now, while there is a contract in place to buy the building in partnership with Les Blank Films, we need to raise $1.2 million — our half of the purchase price — by April 15. Donations to the campaign can be made via the link below, by check, or by bank transfer. (To make a bank transfer, please email us at info@arhoolie.org).

In the new year, we look forward to collaborating with Les Blank Films and Down Home Music to bring more public programming to our community. We plan to revive Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz’s tradition of in-store film screenings and will host more informal, free performances and gatherings in the store as part of our outreach work. We believe this collaboration will result in a vibrant community gathering place dedicated to music, film, and deep roots culture.

If you’re interested in donating and would like to discuss our plans for the building, please don’t hesitate to email director Adam Machado at adam@arhoolie.org.

Thank you for your support as we begin this exciting new chapter!

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