When Chris Strachwitz died earlier this year at the age of 91, his name was probably not familiar except to a specific school of record liner note readers and aficionados of certain types of musical genres.
He called it “down home music.” But it’s mostly known today as “roots music,” that mixture of old timey American sounds including (but not limited to) blues, hillbilly, zydeco, gospel, Cajun, Tex-Mex and norteño.
Music that he literally spent a lifetime searching out, recording, producing, promoting, and sharing his enthusiasms for, mostly as the founder and Key Man of label Arhoolie Records. He’s the guy that esteemed music journalist Joel Selvin calls in this book’s deep and lengthy essay “the single most important and formidable folklorist of his generation.”
But wherever Strachwitz traveled in this country, be it leading him down deserted country roads, former plantations, run down juke joints, ratty apartments and strange streets, he always carried a camera. Which probably made many even many locals more wary of this White dude with a heavy German accent and a lot of enthusiasm. A lot.
Over 150 of those amazing photos—mostly informal and never before widely seen—were taken over the span of decades and are collected in Arhoolie Records: Down Home Music—The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz (240 pp., $40, Chronicle Books). Most of the images are surprisingly crisp and clear as any modern JPEG file.
Selvin contributes a comprehensive and illuminating 20,000-word essay about the man, the label, and the music. He and Strachwitz collaborated on the captions prior to the sonic seeker’s death.
The list of subjects who found their way into Strachwitz’s viewfinder captured reads like a Who’s Who of “down home music” royalty: Juke Boy Bonner, Big Joe Williams, Mance Lipscomb, the Staple Singers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lowell Fulson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Fred McDowell, Bukka White, B.B. King, Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jiménez, Rose Maddox and many more.
Houston has a starring role in the book because it was Ground Zero for Strachwitz’s travelings, the destination for his very first music and fact-finding trip in the summer of 1959.
That’s when he (along with the aid of music scholar/writer Mack McCormick) went searching for the then-elusive Lightnin’ Hopkins on a tip from another scholar/writer, Sam Charters. Not only did he locate Hopkins (and this outcome was never guaranteed), he thrillingly saw him play at neighborhood joint Pop’s Place in the Third Ward. Hopkins even playfully included Strachwitz’s journey and presence in his improved lyrics. Selvin calls it Strachwitz’s “Road to Damascus” moment.
Strachwitz would return to Houston many times to record and meet not only Hopkins, but others musician including the blues man’s “cousin” Clifton Chenier. Chenier would go on to be the rarely disputed master of an entirely different genre, zydeco. Several of the photos in the book were taken on the streets of Houston and inside homes, recording studios and clubs.
All in all, Chris Strachwitz spent more than 60+ years running Arhoolie, releasing hundreds of records of music and performers that literally would have been lost for the ages without his drive, passion and knowledge.
And when it was sold in 2016, the label’s history, legacy and tapes came under the direction not of a music biz raider or corporate entity, but the Smithsonian Institution itself, which runs it to this day. And the Arhoolie Foundation continues his work.
Down Home Music was Strachwitz’s idea, but as his health faltered, he worked with Selvin hand-in-hand (and eye-to-eye) to make it happen.
There are also quotes from others praising Strachwitz and the Arhoolie story, including Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder and another famous Houstonian.
“Chris Strachwitz is a heroic figure if there ever was,” notes ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. “This book gets to the root of roots music and tells the story of Arhoolie most brilliantly. Arhoolie all right!”
Opening this book is akin to opening a treasure chest for the fan of roots…err, down home music. And each page reveals a new gem.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
