Wednesday, February 06, 2013

WSJ article recommended by PHS Marky G (yes, he DOES read!)...


Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz (left) with Ry Cooder.
Only a handful of American roots-music recording labels have lasted decades. And in the whole arena's welcome evolution—away from a pre-1960s emphasis on highbrow folkloric preservation and from a related preference for decorous music strikingly lacking in rhythm, wit and sex—no label has made more of a difference than Arhoolie Records of El Cerrito, Calif. The little Bay Area label established in 1960 would find, record and spotlight such working, stomping artists as Fred McDowell in the blues, Clifton Chenier in zydeco, BeauSoleil and the Doucet family in cajun, the Campbell Brothers in sacred steel, and Flaco Jiménez in Tex-Mex Tejano, while bringing to the fore older, legacy acts, live or from recorded archives, in the same muscular, zestful mode—the Maddox Brothers and Rose, the Hackberry Ramblers, Mainer's Mountaineers, Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lydia Mendoza. The range and focus on underexplored musical flavors were groundbreaking.

Arhoolie (the word refers to shouting-out-loud field hollers), the child of Chris Strachwitz, a music-struck German émigré, celebrated its 50-plus years last February in a three-day celebration that featured concerts at San Francisco's Freight & Salvage. Those shows are now on "They All Played for Us," a lavish 4-CD set with a hardbound book of commentary and colorful photography, released by the label last month. Arhoolie veterans are joined by such admiring, label-influenced roots-music stars as Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Peter Rowan on some 70 exuberant tracks. (read more)

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