"Arhoolie, Down Home Music. The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz" by Joel Slevin and Chris Strachwitz, Chronicle Books, 240 pages
The word “Arhoolie” in the title refers to a record company founded in 1960 by the principal author of this engaging book of photos and text rich in the lore of some of our country’s often overlooked roots music.
Strachwitz is the photographer for this handsome book, though Slevin penned a significant introductory essay and contributed to the treasure trove of notes about the musical artists featured in its pages.
As a European count with a maternal grandmother originally from San Francisco, Strachwitz grew up in Germany until age 16, when he came to the U.S. for the remainder of his schooling and to make his home here permanently. An interest in blues he heard on late-night radio shows of the 1940s and early '50s led to what became a 40-year quest to discover a host of indigenous music types.
Taking rudimentary recording equipment and a good camera, his travels often brought him to Louisiana, but he traveled north, south, east and west — from Mamou (where someone else photographed him scooping up a pile of 78 RPM recordings for his collection) to the Mexican border, from Chicago to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and other places where he recorded not just blues, but zydeco, Cajun, Tejano, gospel, early rock 'n' roll, country and bluegrass.
Clifton Chenier was one of the first Louisiana musicians to meet and greet him, at once proposing, “Oh, you’re a record man. Let’s make a record.” They did, more than one. Some of them featured just Chenier on accordion and his brother, Cleveland, on rub board. On others, his entire band played the “swamp music” popular in dancehalls of south Louisiana. He also recorded the Balfa Brothers in Lafayette.
In Crowley, he found old-time fiddler Wallace Reed and recorded Louisiana’s zydeco musicians Sam Brothers Five in Berkeley some months after meeting them in south Louisiana. In New Orleans, he recorded some R&B and early rock groups.
Lawrence Ardoin, Joe Falcon and Wade Fruge were among others he recorded.
If some of these names seem unfamiliar, that’s the point of Strachwitz’s pilgrimage. He wanted to preserve true folk music, the music of the people, noncommercial, which was a valuable part of our national heritage but largely unknown except in the local area where they lived and played. The text accompanying the photos tells a bit about the artists, some of whom went on to greater recognition and, in some cases, fame in the years after he photographed them.
Strachwitz was a talented photographer, as the 150 black and white photos in the book affirm. Unusually informal, intimate and relaxed, they seem to reveal a mutual trust and appreciation between Strachwitz and his subjects.
In trips back to Europe, he encountered members of the Rolling Stones and other rock bands at a couple of folk festivals he sponsored. Mick Jagger, in particular, was already the owner of and fan of some Arhoolie albums and he and other future rock stars were influenced by what they heard. On returning to California, he also sponsored folk festivals and is given credit for encouraging this type of event that became so popular in the 1960s.
The last photo in the book, on its last page, features Mark and Ann Savoy, musicians whom he had grown to know. Appropriately for Louisiana, they were shown hosting a party in their backyard in honor of Strachwitz’s visit.
One can conjecture that this eminent folklorist had the time and resources to indulge his quest to seek little-known musical treasures and to establish the Arhoolie Foundation to ensure the preservation of his work and further folklore studies after his retirement. Several documentaries about him and his work have been made and given good reviews by music critics not only in the U.S. but in Canada and as far away as New Zealand. His work deserves the attention.