Posted on 05/13/2023 10:02:26 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Most record company executives search for hits. Chris Strachwitz, a German immigrant who founded Arhoolie Records in 1960, recorded whatever he liked.
...Mr. Strachwitz derided most of the slick popular tunes of his day as “mouse music.” His Arhoolie label, named after a term for field hollers, favored the most obscure country blues, Tex-Mex, Cajun, zydeco and other regional or local artists snubbed by bigger record companies.
He liked his recordings raw, unrehearsed and unadorned. “My stuff isn’t produced,” he said. “I just catch it as it is.”
“He was the last of the great musical gold miners,” said Ry Cooder,
When he wasn’t finding new artists to record, Mr. Strachwitz searched for antique records in categories including blues, early jazz, country, Cajun, zydeco, Mexican-American and Mexican. In the early days of Arhoolie Records, he sometimes sold antique records from his collection to raise money for the recording business.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
German entranced by American music on the radio.
Preserved and popularized blues, Tex-Mex, and even klezmer.
RIP
Most artists can’t stand the way they sound unproduced and un adorned.
Reminds me of this scene:
https://youtu.be/YDDEqgmGIVg
What, a perfectly healthy 91 year-old dropping dead?
Must have been the Clot-Shot(tm)
“You seek a great fortune you three who are now in chains! You will find that fortune.. but it will not be the fortune that you seek!”
A lot of people in their 90s died this week. It’s a conspiracy, I tell ‘ya!
“’Chicago Transit Authority’?? That don’t sound country. They won’t amount to anything. Next!”
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