Chris Strachwitz Archives - The Arhoolie Foundation

2023 Year-End Letter

Dear Arhoolie family, As the year comes to a close, we remember our founder and inspiration, Chris Strachwitz, whom we lost on May 5 at the...

John Hogg Interview

I don’t know. It’s just in me. It’s in me. They say- Actually, the guys, since I’ve been on the west coast have changed me over kind of on the modern kick, but I still can’t away from this.

“‘I just reach up and pull them out of the sky – call them sky songs- they just come to me.’ That’s how Bukka White described his music making. His performances were not polished, finished, slick tin pan alley songs but marvelous, on the spot creations – images and recollections as they come to the artist’s mind.”

The Chris Strachwitz Collection

As founder of both Arhoolie Records and the Arhoolie Foundation, Chris Strachwitz has been collecting, documenting, recording, and promoting regional roots music for over 60 years....

Los Pingüinos del Norte

I believe when I first heard Mexican music on the radio, there was a little station in Santa Paula, which is very close south of Santa Barbara. And in the afternoons, I would sneak back into my room sometimes.

Chris Strachwitz 1956 New Orleans

In 1956 Chris Strachwitz was discharged from the US Army at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Armed with a camera and the love of New Orleans jazz he took a bus to New Orleans for his first visit to his “city of dreams”. Here is an interview with Mr. Strachwitz talking about that trip and the photos he took.

KEUN – Eunice, LA 1962 Gallery

In 1962 Chris Strachwitz journeyed on a road trip that took him from California to Texas and all through the South, the East Coast, Midwest, and then back down to the South before heading back to California. 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. Here is an interview with Mr. Strachwitz talking about that visit to Eunice, Louisiana and the photos he took.