Texas Archives - Page 7 of 8 - The Arhoolie Foundation

Little Joe Hernandez Interview 1991

Little Joe Hernández, from Temple, Texas, was born in 1940 and began his career as a musician in the late fifties, trying to break into the surging rock-and-roll market.

Don Tosti Interview

Edmundo Martínez Tostado, whose stage name became Don Tosti, was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1923. He exhibited musical talent at an early age, and by his twelfth birthday he was playing violin with a local group, La Orquesta Muro.

Marcellus 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…”

Mercy Dee Walton Interview

“The blues to me was a way of getting rid of your trouble through your music. During those times when I started playing things kinda rugged, you know what I mean. A dollar or two was a great thing back then. I just started playing the blues.”

T-Bone Walker Interview – Blues

“To be the best, I’d have to stick with my style. I can’t get away from it. That’s the reason why I don’t do rock-n-roll, which they’ve been trying to get me to do it, but I’ll get away from my style.”

Sunny Ozuna Interview

Little Joe’s fiercest rival in the Onda Chicana field, Ildefonso, or “Sunny,” Ozuna, was born in a west side barrio of San Antonio, Texas, in 1943.

Tejano Musician Andres Berlanga

“I started playing guitar, I didn’t know nothing about guitar, I was hard labor man working on construction and all that then I come to think, this man can do it I guess I can do it too and I tried it and I tried it and I got on it.”

Adolph Hofner Interview

“There wasn’t very many such things as guitars back in community I lived with, it was all brass and drums and tubas and vice-versa; but what got me interested in that was the steel guitars, I like the way they whine, you know? Also, see them in the Sears Roebuck catalogue and I figured it could be easy to play.”

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.”

Los Alegres de Terán Photo Gallery

Los Alegres de Terán Photo Gallery Los Alegres de Terán were one of the earliest Mexican Norteño bands started by Eugenio Abrego and Tomás Ortiz in...

Location: Texas