The Down Home Music Man
Once upon a time, when El Cerrito was a valley of the giants, I had a day that started with having lunch with Orrin Keepnews and ended, in the afternoon, upstairs at Down Home Music, talking to Chris Strachwitz. Orrin was a legendary Jazz producer and former critic, probably most famous for “discovering” (hate that term) and then producing Thelonious Monk as well as being head A&R honcho at Riverside Records (He produced SO MANY incredible Jazz legends. Sonny Rollins. Bill Evans, Coleman Hawkins, Chet Baker, etc etc etc John Lee Hooker, The Staple Singers, Mongo Santamaria). His home for years was the studio, setting up microphones and creating a controlled environment—just right—to capture the hip-stash evolving sound of (mostly) Jazz…bee-bop and beyond. The lunches I had with him were around his breakfast table in his suburban-esque home tucked in the hills of the east bay, he was physically slowing down but ready to dig into any story behind his music.
Chris Strachwitz lived in a very different world. His domain was an Oz of music, his record store packed with records, CDs, posters, ephemera... To find the wizard, you needed to walk through the store and be directed upstairs to where Chris would sit surrounded by desks of papers and more music, with walls of his record collection enclosing the temple. A cantankerous man with a sweet disposition and soft German accent, the conversation with him vacillated between talking about how shitty the music industry was to showing me the newest Arhoolie releases to asking me if I had or knew where to find any Tejano/Norteño 78s that were on his want list. He was a legendary collector who even had printed a postcard with the labels and catalog numbers of the records he was eternally searching for, which he gave to everyone he met.
Always bring Chris a record when you see him (even if it was not on his list)…I figured that one out early…maybe one of the blues comps I had just released…he would hold it up to the light as if it was a fine jewel. There was always room for more records in his collection.
While Orrin’s producer home was in the studio, for the most part Chris’ studio was the houses, fields…hang-outs of the musicians he searched out. Like Alan Lomax, Strachwitz embraced the field recording method finding his Truth by capturing the raw sounds of his subjects in their natural settings. Many (most?) Arhoolie records have printed on the back the line that reads PRODUCED BY CHRIS STRACHWITZ with the microphone he used for the session. Part of his genius was how he made the records sound so damn good. Like the RCA classical records recorded on one mike in the 1950s, Strachwitz had a gift for recording shimmering audio through his one input, finding natural reverb when needed…capturing the details within the playing and singing…getting great performances out of his artists.
Chris Strachwitz passed away last week at 91 years of age. The news outlets reported that his final days were spent seeing friends and getting serenaded by musicians. But before he died, he saw the Arhoolie catalog acquired by Smithsonian-Folkways in 2016 who have erected a website making it accessible to all. In 1995, he created a foundation, The Arhoolie Foundation, “dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and celebration of regional roots music and its makers” which is also home to his Frontera Collection, various video, audio interviews and photo collections…the best bio you will find for Strachwitz…it’s a great rabbit-hole of a site. His advisory board members include Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Miller, Billy Gibbons and Linda Ronstadt. In October, a book of his photos and stories that he put together with longtime friend Joel Selvin will come out via Chronicle Books (See the cover below! order it now!). They had just finished it before he went into hospice.
To celebrate the legacy of Chris Strachwitz, below are just a handful of some of the great records he recorded and/or released during his lifetime. This is an incomplete snapshot to say the least. It does not focus on all of the roots music from Mexico and Chris cared so much about…or the Tejano music from the US he released in the 1980s. In year one of Arhoolie, Strachwitz released fantastic records by Black Ace, Lil Son Jackson and Big Joe Williams. And some great comps. The first year of decades of releases. The body of work is just too big to comprehend; goto Arhoolie’s discogs page to get an understanding of the breadth and depth of the catalog.
Chris Strachwitz was a Renaissance man, dedicating his many talents to the creation and preservation of music while honoring the music makers. He will be missed.
JUST A FEW GREAT ARHOOLIE RELEASES:
Texas Sharecropper And Songster (Mance Lipscomb): Shall we start at the very beginning? The very beginning of Arhoolie records to be exact. 1961. While Lightnin’ trekking in Texas Chris came upon farmer Mance Lipscomb, a practitioner of the classic blues sound (blues? that’s what you call it?) who at 65 had never been recorded. Chris and Mance sat in Mance’s kitchen, Chris set up his microphone and brought Lipscomb to the world. Arhoolie #1.
Texas Blues Man (Lightnin’ Hopkins): Strachwitz recorded so many great Hopkins records. It is virtually impossible to pick just one…so I picked the LP that features one of the great portraits of the musician on the cover (taken by Chris). The ultimate in coooooooool is this record, recorded again with Strachwitz’s portable, which showcases that Hopkins smooth and effortless picking, with just the right amount of natural reverb to bleed the audio into the air molecules.
King of the Bayous (Clifton Chenier): Before Los Lobos, before Doug Sahm started truly stew-ing up the Tejano/Tex-Mex/Soul, there was Clifton Chenier blowing out the Louisiana Mambo for the whole world to eat up. Chris, with his always interested ear searching for music of all shades and shizes, helped promote the Zydeco genre as portrayed by King Clifton. I Am Coming Home is one of my all time favorite tunes from an album that is packed with greatness. A close-to-be perfect thing.
Sky Songs (Bukka White): Who does not love Bukka White, the godfather of the Hill Country sound, one of the greatest storytellers of all recorded music. With Sky Songs Vol. 1 & 2, White expands on his past recordings by taking the idiom he helped create in the late 20s and going llllloooonnggggg. I think Bald Eagle Train is a career pinnacle for White…over seven minutes of a stream of consciousness story with White’s guitar as motor and a washboard Music-Manning the sound of the train; I would have loved to have been in the room with Chris when Bukka laid that down. By the way, if you are starting to cringe at my use of “greatest” and “all time favorite” terminology that is flowing freely in these descriptions, it is because Chris Strachwitz was involved in some of the greatest records of all time.
Mississippi Delta Blues (Mississippi Fred McDowell): Bukka White begot Fred McDowell (who begot RL Burnside who begot RL Boyce) and even though Chris would be infuriated with me for saying it: this ain’t no Delta Blues record, it is pure Hill Country magic. While Alan Lomax recorded McDowell years earlier, Strachwitz was the first to release a record by him…and it is a killer. Once again recorded through a single microphone, this record introduces the iconic McDowell sound…with him duetting with the slide melodies he sews…including staple numbers Kokomo Blues, Shake ‘Em On Down, 61 Highway. The subsequent Arhoolie sequel release…Vol. 2…has the song that the Rolling Stones heard, covered and made immortal on Sticky Fingers: You Got To Move. North Mississippi, baby, there is nothing like that place and that blues.
Bongo Joe (Bongo Joe Coleman): One of the greatest odd-ball recordings, immortalizing a street singer/storyteller who played two manipulated oil drums while hooting and hollering; Bongo Joe is celebration of the outside artist. To me, Coleman was the Moondog of the south…less Jazzy, more primal…funky rhythms, Prof Longhair whistles and alien voices. Chris recorded and released Bongo Joe’s sole record, which has gained a reputation from the critics and the collectors over the last few decades. Chris Morris posted this record on his socials the day after Chris’ death was announced, also posting a stylish, fascinating short film of Bongo Joe produced by George Nelson.
Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass (Del McCoury): Who released the first Del McCoury record…with Del leading his own combo? Yes: Chris Strachwitz’s Arhoolie Records. Del had been heard prior as part of Bill Monroe’s band but it was with Arhoolie where he found his first home for his signature guitar strumming & picking style…a style that helped usher in a whole new era of bluegrass and bluegrass fans. Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass sounds so fresh…with a great band featuring other Bill Monroe alumni Billy Baker and Bill Emerson, whose fiddle and banjo respectively flow through each track with complicated playing done effortlessly…throwing down a party…in lock step with McCoury.
Big Mama Thornton, The Queen of Monterey (or named and featuring: Big Mama Thornton with Muddy Waters’ Blues Band): Big Mama Thornton. Her blistering version of Hound Dog with her power-blower shout of a voice predated Elvis’ and prophesied the rise of rock ‘n’ roll. Later in her career, Strachwitz worked with Thornton several times and this album, featuring Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, James Cotton…WOAH…is a thick platter of electric blues with a wailer of a Mama who is in full force.
2 Bugs and a Roach (Earl Hooker): Earl Hooker was one of the early practitioners of electric guitar blues and considered one of the great virtuosos of his time. By the time he was recording for Arhoolie, he had already made a name for himself, playing with everyone under the sun and recording a few records on his own. 2 Bugs showed off all of his mad skills, pairing him with singers, testing the waters of different styles. It is considered one of the masterpieces of an artist whose early death left few recordings in its wake (yes, he was John Lee’s cousin).
If you have a favorite Arhoolie record that is not here….but it in the comments section below!
Chris Strachwitz RIP
