Chris Strachwitz Collection Archives - Page 4 of 7

Canray Fontenot Interview

Canray Fontenot was a legendary Creole french fiddle player. “…We played for white people…I still think about that…You go play dances, you could get in the front, or anywhere. The next day you wanted to buy a drink, you had to go in the back, if you was Black.”

Wallace “Cheese” Read Interview – Cajun

You probably won’t see Cheese Read at the local dance halls around Eunice because he is not a professional musician. He prefers to play music at home or at parties with a few friends. But a more powerful singer or a more precise, knowledgeable fiddle player couldn’t be found in Southwest Louisiana.

Chuck Guillory Interview – Cajun

“Since I was four, five years old I liked music. I’d rather play music than eat.”….“George Jones, I’m the one who put him where he’s at…That man was poor. He begged me to play. I didn’t need him, I had a 7 piece band. I hired him anyway…five dollars a night…After the dance he would just sleep on the table ‘til daybreak and get a ride back to Beaumont.” – Chuck Guillory

Harry Choates Interview – Cajun

Harry Choates was a complete musician and entertainer. All of his life he ate, drank, and slept music. It is sometimes difficult to unravel the facts and myths surrounding the life and times of the man who immortalized Jole Blon, a song many Cajuns claim as their national anthem.

Chris Strachwitz Collection: Vintage Concert Posters

Vintage Concert Posters During his years collecting and recording music Arhoolie Records and Arhoolie Foundation founder Chris Strachwitz acquired many posters for shows of vernacular music....

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.”

Leo Soileau Interview – Cajun Music

Leo Soileau was a traditional Cajun music pioneer. Listen to his 1974 interview with Arhoolie Records’ Chris Strachwitz to learn more about Cajun music history.

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…”

John Littlejohn Interview – Blues

“So when I got 14 years old, my father won a guitar in a crap game. He asked me – He really didn’t give it to me. I’d catch him going from the house and I’d grab it, you know. The first tune I learned how to play was – I heard Lightning Hopkins playing this tune – ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go.’”

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