Label Profile
Arhoolie Records
El Cerrito, CA
Profiled by Colin Beckett
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Easily one of the most eclectic record labels in existence, Arhoolie Records released its first field recordings in 1954. Chris Strachwitz, a German immigrant, had been taking time off his teaching schedule to travel the south, intending to capture Lightning Hopkins live bar room sound, as well as the other music that had intoxicated him growing up. In 1960, with the release of the label’s first LP, Mance Lipscomb’s Texas Sharecropper and Songster , Arhoolie became Strachwitz’s full-time job.

Through his travels, Strachwitz discovered and exposed artists including Flaco Jimenez, Clifton Chenier, Lil’ Son Jackson, Black Ace and BeauSoleil and revived the career’s of such blues singers as ‘Mississippi’ Fred McDowell.

While Strachwitz’s “main aim was to document the best authentic down home blues singers, and try and sell the albums to a new, mainly white ‘folk music’ audience”, he ended up recording not only blues, but everything from zydeco to country, jazz, gospel and Tejano. The only real qualifications for recording an Arhoolie disc were that the music had to be authentic “regional” music and appeal to Strachwitz. Unfortunately, Arhoolie’s dedication to authenticity didn’t reap great profits. The only thing that has kept the label afloat all these years is Strachwitz’s publishing company, Tradition Music. Through a stroke of good luck, Tradition secured the rights to Country Joe and The Fish’s “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” months before their star-making Woodstock appearance. Due to the royalties from that record, and the royalties from popular covers of Arhoolie bluesmen by such artists as the Rolling Stones and Alan Jackson, Strachwitz has kept Arhoolie alive into the present day.

While Strachwitz has been less active in recording new music (he’s been having trouble finding “music [he] really likes and consider[s] of special merit”), he has kept busy reissuing old Arhoolie classics on CD, complete with as much bonus material as there is available. Arhoolie has also been acting as distributor for the Austrian Document company, who intend to release “the complete recorded works of every pre-war blues and gospel artist.” In 2000, Arhoolie released a Grammy winning 5-disc 40th anniversary box set. The compilation collects 107 field recordings, documented by Strachwitz himself between 1954-2000. It is thanks to Strachwitz’s exhaustive research and documentation that we know much of what we do about American down-home, regional music of the past 50 years.

Label Roster: Clifton Chenier, Sonny Boy Williamson, Joe Turner, Lightning Hopkins, Flaco Jimenez, Omar Sharriff, Mississippi Fred McDowell, The Carter Family, BeauSoleil, Mance Lipscomb, The Klezmorim, Santiago Jimenez Jr, Del McCoury, The Maddox Brothers.

Ten Essential Releases:
V/A- Arhoolie 40th Anniversary Collection 1960-2000: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz
The Carter Family-On Border Radio-1939: Vol.1
Clifton Chenier-Bogalusa Boogie
Flaco Jimenez-Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio Y Mas
Santiago Jimenez Jr-El Mero, Mero
Del McCoury-I Wonder Where You Are Tonight
Mississippi Fred McDowell-The Best of…
Lightning Hopkins-The Best of…
The Klezmorim-Streets of Gold
Sonny Boy Williamson-King Biscuit Time