A MUST HEAR EVENT!

MOMCI at ASHKENAZ THIS Saturday at 9:00

If you have any room in your musical heart and ears for the best damn band in the land - in the Tamburitza tradition (that is string band music from Croatia and Serbia)- you owe it to yourself to come to Ashkenaz in Berkeley this Saturday to hear this remarkable family band - with the father leading his family which includes young Peter on prim - the lead instrument - and exchanging wild solos with his father and other members of his family band - uncle and other siblings - Peter is like a young David Grisman of the tamburitza scene!

They also appear Sunday in SF at the Croatian American Cultural Center - check out their link! Be there or be absolutely square! And don't come up to me and say you are sorry you missed it! Cheers - Chris

PS - this is dance music and there will be dance lessons - so have fun - but they also make fantastic listening - and Peter turns on the girls with his youthful charms and his incredible hot playing! I doubt if they will do many schmaltzy tunes - this will be hot music from start to finish! CS

Howdy Folks!

Hello - just to let you know I am still kicking and will get on with this blogging business mighty soon! Adam Machado is my guide to this wierd empire out in the ether - and we will soon post some videos and assorted other goodies - stay tuned and check back soon for progress, because Progress IS progress - isn't that right?? I'll send an Arhoolie CD of my or maybe your choice to the first 5 cats out there who can tell me where I heard that phrase!

Send us your answers via the Contact Us page at http://www.downhomemusic.com/

Hello everyone:

If you attended any of our events around Arhoolie's 50th Anniversary you no doubt noticed my hobbling around with a cane! Well, I just got a brand new right hip here at the Stanford Medical Center, and thanks to Dr. Malone, his team, and his great expertise, it seems to be a rousing success. Although the recovery period is a bit long, I look forward to getting back to work and hearing some fine music very soon!

The three day Benefit for the Arhoolie Foundation was a huge success and resulted in the Foundation making over $55,000.00 plus additional donations coming in from various friends. I wish I could personally thank every one of you who helped in this amazing production, but at this stage I can only say: Thank you all from the bottom of my sometimes cranky but well meaning heart!

I am glad to have received this computer from my local "angel" Rob Robinett, who along with his incredible wife Sandy Miranda, invited me to have this operation down here on the Peninsula, and my man at Arhoolie, Tom Diamant, who put my e-mail file on it as well as other goodies! But it is very tedious for me to type this since I am neither a fast typer nor quite used to this keyboard!

I want to express special thanks to Ry Cooder whose many loyal fans filled the Freight & Salvage to capacity for the Friday show and I believe many more were turned away. But that special THANKS does not diminish my THANKS to all the other fantastic musicians and all the many helpers! I am just now starting to listen to the music from those three incredible days and hope to pick out my favorite performances for a CD package release in the hopefully not too distant future.

I also want to go ahead with the production of several other projects which have been on my mind for some time: The Chicano Experience will be a book with four CDs, including the texts and translations of all the corridos, along with lots of illustrations. Another project is the Legacy of Dr. Harry Oster - again probably a book with some of his writings, transcriptions of texts and translations (for the Cajun/Creole material), and four CDs of his finest recordings covering a wide variety of American regional music.

Since the Arhoolie Foundation is now in better financial health, I also plan to move forward on several AF projects:

1) Of course continuing the digitization of the 45s and rare cassettes in the Frontera Collection.

2) Installing a listening station for the Frontera Collection at the Down Home Music Store so that fans, students, and scholars of the music can come in and listen to the complete recordings free of charge.

3) Contacting (with your help!) all the schools in the Bay Area who have any interest in Chicano Studies to make them aware of the listening station and to invite their involvement in our efforts to preserve, document, share and celebrate this great music!

That's it for now - cheers from Chris

Some News & Such!

Have been too busy to squak lately - so here goes: Am off to Louisiana to visit friends and check out the celebration for Sammy Rimington during second week end of Jazz Fest - plus other good musical events. Jazz Fest is just getting out of hand and too many big stars! It ain't what it used to be - but then what is? Will be back in a week but then return to New Orleans for the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) annual gathering there and will give a presentation that Saturday about song catching in sw Louisiana over the past 50 years!
I think this went out and was posted by mistake - anyway here goes some more:
Friend and folklorist Alan Govenar's new book LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS has just been released and you can get a copy in a few days at the Down Home Music Store! It's an excellent book with many good photos well printed on glossy in the center and a discography of his recordings. It's well researched and Alan interviewed a lot of folks still around who remember Poor Lightnin' - I gave him my two cents worth and Minnie Phillips really tells about her really amazing experiences with the man! It's the only book on Lightnin' and every blues freak ought to read it! Since Sam was such a prolific recording artist and for every label which came around looking for him, the emphasis is a bit heavy on the various sessions - but there is plenty of history, early life and getting to Houston and of course many folks talking about him and interviews - especially that with Les Blank early on was great! I was just a fan of his and never really pestered Lightning about all that background - but enjoyed hanging around with him and meeting Clifton Chenier and once recording the whole Hopkins family, traveling to Europe with him for Lippman & Rau's American Folk Blues Festival, the West Coast, and even Newport - although I missed the big fight there between Alan Lomax and Mr. Grossman who managed Bob Dylan who had plugged his guitar into an amp! My hangover that day was too horrible to get out of bed - but when the gang came back to the barracks - Willie Dixon and Howling Wolf and Lightning etc - all told me about the Big Fight - oh well, you can't be everywhere - especially when you had to get booze for Lightning and I got a bottle of peach brandy for myself! What a killer!
The Arhoolie Foundation has just been blessed to receive the good news from the NEH (National Endowment for the Humities) that we are getting over $ 200,000.00 under the "We the People" program which will allow us over the next three years to complete the digitization of the rest of the 45 rpm discs in the Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American recordings which we have been working on for many years! Thanks to Adam Machado who wrote the grants and keeps in touch with the folks there and also thanks to our loyal digitizer, Antonio Cuellar who has listened to just about every one of these thousands of discs!!
Stay tuned cause Arhoolie will celebrate it's 50th Anniversary later this year - even though it seems to be the last round-up for the CD format! What a shame - the stupid inventors are never happy with anything that's really good - they always invent some new crap to keep the peons poor and begging for more to feed their addiction to the latest junk!!! But LPs and real records are making a come-back - even 78s are still the real thing but the collectors only want the rarest of the rarest - keep your turn tables folks, and don't waste your money on yet another stupid TV format or the latest Piss-pod! Enjoy Life while you can! Later - Chris

The Down Home Music Store

After serving roots music lovers since 1976 the Down Home Music Store was facing a critical financial situation at the end of last year. We have had a long and successful run as a retail shop specializing in all sorts of Down Home, Roots or vernacular musical genres and as an outlet for my Arhoolie Records, but times have been very hard for record shops everywhere. Two years ago the staff felt that we should open a second store on Berkeley's fashionable 4th Street shopping area in an attempt to reach out to a wider audience. Unfortunately this last ditch effort to make the store more visible and accessible made our financial situation worse. We were forced to close on 4th Street, but our San Pablo Avenue store remained open and inherited a large number of listening stations and wonderful CD racks which I hope our customers appreciate for the wide variety of music they can now freely view and listen to.

At the start of 2010 I personally took over ownership of the Down Home Music Store, but had to economize and cut the staff to three and the hours and days of operation to 11 AM to 7 PM from Thursdays through Sundays. Since I am fortunately the owner of the building and wanted the store to survive I am now trying to revitalize the place by having a lot of live, in-store events along with making it more and more a "collector's shop." We also started an eBay store where you will find our more collectable items, especially in the Mexican music field but soon also in other genres and including more and more items from my personal collection. Stay tuned also for Down Home's revitalized web site! We have always bought and sold used LPs, 45s, 78s, and other collectibles and we continue to do so. So, stop by and check out our revitalized stock of not only new and used CDs but older formats like LPs as well.

I also want to take this oportunity to let you know that the Arhoolie Foundation is a not for profit charitable organization which can accept donations of all kinds and give you in return a tax credit. If you have been wondering what to do with your old record collections (of CDs, LPs, 78s, or 45s) that the ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION would love to accept them as a donation, evaluate them fairly, and give you a generous tax deduction. The Arhoolie Foundation in turn could sell such collections at a reasonable price to the Down Home Music store - thus helping both the Foundation and the store! (Chris Strachwitz)

With the Magnolia Sisters at the GRAMMYs

Hello again: Ann Savoy called me and said she and the Magnolia Sisters are flying out to LA for the GRAMMYs because their Arhoolie CD "Stripped Down" had been nominated in the Cajun/Zydeco category and wouldn't I like to come down and join them if she could get me admitted to some of the pre-TV parties and gatherings on Saturday. That I could not refuse - as long as I did not have to put on a monkey suit and attend the TV show! So I flew to LA and rented wheels - because I had been informed that the various events on Saturday were to be at several venues and the ladies needed a chauffeur! At 10:30 we met at the Figueroa Hotel and luckily I had rented a van since there were not only the four Magnolias but also Joel Savoy and Lisa's boy friend and that made it a party of seven!

First stop was the Millenium Biltmore Hotel's Emerald Ballroom where at 11 AM a delightful lunch was presented for the 2010 GRAMMY nominees from Louisiana and their close friends by LED (Louisiana Economic Development) and the Louisiana office of the Lt. Governor. As we entered and sipped the champagne handed us at the door, we already heard the sounds of Cedric Watson (Ex Pineleaf Boy!) and his wonderful band, Et Bijou Creole . The food was fine served by a well known chef from Louisiana - I especially liked the sauce piquante - lots of green salad - the gumbo was already gone by the time I decided to eat! More great music by Harry Connick who was joined by a good rhythm section of bass and drums as well as a fine trumpeter, Shamarr Allen who I felt sang better than Mr. Connick and Trombone Shorty to do some great jamming. Also a fine female jazz/R&B singer - I think her name was Ledici - did some tasty scat singing.

In the afternoon we walked over to the GRAMMY Museum - which had a show of photos about Elvis Presley and also a nice small theatre where the Zydeco/Cajun nominees were to present an informal concert at 9 PM. They all did their sound checks after which we returned to the hotel which seemed to be a nice, comfortable, old fashioned place with no glitz but a large, high ceiling lobby with old tiles and a funky feel from the past!

Around 5 PM we drove over to the Wilshire Ebell Theatre where the GRAMMY folks hosted a spectacular Special Merit Awards Ceremony and Nominees Reception for all nominees and their partners - luckily Ann got me a ticket! All drinks and food were free and of incredible quality and quantity! As I was the chauffeur, I decided to only get one drink right at the start - and gave the out-in-the-patio bartender some directions to make a perfect margarita. He had excellent tequila and was not using syrupy mix but all fresh ingredients - all I had to ask for was more limes!! From there to the inside where I spotted a huge table with salads, asparagus, roasted potatoes, roast pork, beef, and lamb in superb gravies! I went for the incredible roast lamb - I think it was the best I have ever had with a superb gravy! (And I thought I was a good gravy maker!) Wenty for seconds in no time! Later I found out from Joel that there were other tables loaded with crabs, fish, lobsters, etc - and I am not sure what other foods! It was simply superb - very few expensive restaurants could top this! The amazing array of little pastries was also startling and every one delicious - I think I tried at least 8 different ones! I admit I became a hog for that food! There was also live music and nominees had their pictures taken - formally and with assorted well known artists!

Then back to the GRAMMY museum for the evening's concert. Here again we were confronted by delicious guacamole, fruits, chips, as well as mineral water, beer and wine. I asked the lady in charge of service who made all this food and she told me that all the GRAMMY food was prepared by Austrian chef Wolfgang Puck who is apparently quite famous and certainly had trained his minions to perfection!! The concert started with the Magnolia Sisters doing a fine short but varied set after lengthy intros from Mrs. Buckwheat who after all was the prime force behind the establishment of the Zydeco & Cajun category in the GRAMMY's ever lengthening list of categories and the official MC whose name I don't recall but who seemed to be very involved and dedicated to many of the lesser or more regional musical traditions. Zachary Richard and C.C.Adcock followed and finally Cedric Watson and his group put down some great zydeco and were joined by Trombone Shorty and trumpeter Shamarr Allen for the last number which turned into a great long jam mixture of Zydeco and New Orleans funk! An unforgettable afternoon - thanks Magnolia Sisters - I hope you win the next time!

PS I was curious as to who paid for all this fantastic food, and was told by the same nice lady who tended to us in the green room -- or maybe it was someone else who told me -- that all of the GRAMMY food extravaganzas were paid for by the TV show!

Mr. Chris' Year End Letter and Tirade:

December 18, 2009

Dear Relatives, Friends, Artists, etc:

All my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!
Yet another year is drawing to a close and it seems time just gallops along with the ups and downs inherent under our uncontrolled capitalist system which makes “the rich get richer and the poor poorer” (or have children as a variant of this old saying goes)! Unfortunately young folks who grew up in the 1990s thought that the booming economy and its easy money would last for ever! They never heard of the rule of physics which says that everything that goes up has to come down! They only learned how to spend it all and never heard of saving! Then came the bust! Today no one claims that they were aware of the shenanigans of the greedy financiers and bankers who run Wall Street and our financial institutions throughout the world. But these trixters exert enormous influence via their lobbyists and clever lawyers in Washington and their shady paper money is spread all over the world. I hope we can soon regain control over the enormous power of the “Military & Industrial Complex” of which we were warned by the late President Eisenhower back in the 50s and the huge banking conglomerates which have been established since largely with our tax payer money! What ever became of anti trust laws?? Not to mention the unbelievable political influence of the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations who are trying to kill once again any meaningful reform ! And how about the horrific growth and power of “chain stores” over the past 50 years which have decimated the centers of our small towns along with the continuing dependence on cars to get people to and from work with ever more wasted hours on the roads and using ever more polluting fuels. Perhaps my thoughts reflect my getting older – but it sure looks like life is on a down hill road! Why do people constantly claim that we are a Democracy when we are a Republic where we have to depend upon the representatives we send to Washington and Sacramento? They can hardly be held responsible for reading and understanding everything put before them and the polarization of the country has continued to mire us in a total lack of real progress in spite of the fact that we finally have a great president. I also somehow wish that people would refer to Republicans as Reactionaries (why conservatives?) and Democrats as Progressives (why liberals?). Just wishful thinking!

I am grateful for still being here and enjoying life to the fullest even though the record business has gone down the tubes or better: has been inundated by the availability of endless free entertainment via the internet. I tell people that we have had 100 good years making records or musical snapshots of some of the most wonderful sounds ever created by man all over the planet. Lets forget the garbage – but then one man’s junk is another ones treasure!

Arhoolie Records has continued to function and present interesting and enjoyable roots music both on CDs as well as via down-loads on the internet (see below) thanks to my manager, Tom Diamant; product manager, Jonathan Schiele; and administrative assistant, Haley Ausserer. We have a brand new web site showing all our productions including LPs and 45 rpm discs still on hand and how to order them from us. There is also a link to I-Tunes and Amazon for downloads of all our CD goodies, including a lot of previously unavailable music – especially Tex-Mex conjuntos and orquestas – now available only by down loading (see below).
In the future we will continue to make more and more of our catalog of obscure material available via down loads. We would love to hear from you via e-mail as to what you would like to hear. The Arhoolie web site also has a link to my BLOG where I pontificate or enter tirades about various things – especially great music I have heard recently! And I really enjoy your responses – keep it up!

On the Arhoolie web site you will also find a link to the incredible Down Home Music Store which has served the Bay Area and beyond for over 33 years (that’s another good speed now that I am 78 years old!) with the best in roots music. The Down Home web site however is in great need of improvement but Allison, a kind volunteer, has appeared to help and there will be progress soon! In the mean time send them your e-mail address and you will receive regular Bulletins about in-store music and other matters of interest. The store has suffered along with all other retailers of CDs (and books) in light of the ever changing scenario as to how music is sold.



I am determined to give the Down Home Music Store another chance to survive and have made some changes. First, I have dissolved the corporation and am once again the sole owner as of January 1, 2010. Secondly, we have reduced the days when we are open to the public to Thursday through Sunday. Third, we hope to increase the number of live performances of various types of music at the store and make the stage a permanent platform for good sounds and perhaps discussions (Paul Oliver will be in the area in early January and we hope to have him at the store – keep in touch as to date!). Fourth, I hope to enlarge the inventory by carrying other items related to the wonderful roots music we all enjoy such as instruments, turn tables for playing ever more popular LP records, or what else can you suggest? Fifth, the store will become more active on the internet to service you wherever you might live! The Down Home Music Store is already actively selling and auctioning rare LPs via our E-Bay store. I will also make more and more of my own collection available to them because I can’t ever listen to all the material I have accumulated over the many years. The crew now is John McCord, J.C., & Lyuba – please visit them!

ARHOOLIE RELEASES for 2009:

CD 367 – Ballads & Corridos: 1949 – 1975. Various artists – wonderful performances originally issued by the south Texas labels IDEAL and FALCON – ranging from old ballads from the late 1800s to the death of the Kennedys, civil rights, Carol Chessman, Patricia Hearst, Martin Luther King, Beulah, and Texas Rangers! One of my favorites! Listen to it all the time in my car!


CD 454/455 – Uncensored Folk Music of Austria. Recorded and collected by Chris Strachwitz & Johnny Parth between 1967 and 1998. Incredible stuff - from a solo girl yodler to a trio of risqué songsters with accordion, clarinet, and hammered dulcimer - to all kinds of musical styles and instruments from almost every part of Austria. Hard to sell but the people who have bought it are totally in love with this set. Includes transcriptions of all songs in a) dialect; b) high German; and c) English! Also includes a video track (plus more audio tracks) by the fantastic fiddle and vocal duet of Hermann Haertel and his wife with bass and accordion which I recorded on my video recorder in Graz!


CD 507 – Rumel Fuentes: Corridos of the Chicano Movement in the 60s. Interesting ballads about struggles on the Mexican border composed and sung by Rumel and accompanied by his then wife, Jo Zettler and two other guitarists. Spirited performances which I recorded at their apartment in Austin, Texas on a Nagra with two mics and which I wish I had issued earlier!



CD 537 – The Best of Mance Lipscomb. The great songster and guitarist who filled the very first Arhoolie LP and whom I had first met with Mack McCormick in Navasota, Texas in 1960 with 22 blues, songs, ballads, instrumentals and more. It took me a good while to edit this from all the tapes I had made of Mance but it’s become one of my all time favorites and stays on my car stereo!



CD 538 – The Magnolia Sisters: Stripped Down”. Ann Savoy, Jane Vidrine, Lisa Trahan, and Anya Burgess have now been making delightful Cajun music together for many years and they are in total synch! From unaccompanied ballads to contemporary dance hall favorites you will hear the incredible variety of voices and instruments by these talented Louisiana women and the CD has just been nominated for a GRAMMY – I hope they win so vote for them if you are qualified! It’s a real honest and raw gem!



DVD AF 204 - The New Lost City Ramblers in “Always Been A Rambler”. A film by Yasha Aginsky and produced by the Arhoolie Foundation. The film celebrates 50 years of the NLCRs: John Cohen, Mike Seeger, Tracy Schwarz & Tom Paley with old historic footage from the 1950s and 60s as well as recent performances by the group at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in SF. Also seen are many of the old timers which the members introduced to a wider urban audience: Clarence Ashley, Balfa Brothers, Maybelle and Sara Carter, Elizabeth Cotton, Roscoe Holcomb, etc and contemporary singers like Ricky Skaggs, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Doc Watson (among others) are seen and heard. Unfortunately the world lost Mike Seeger shortly after we finished this project but he got to see it and gave his stamp of approval!

Arhoolie Records now also has the following classic Texas-Mexican music available ONLY for DOWNLOADING:


All from IDEAL master recordings:
Narciso Martinez (Vol.1 & 2): THE great accordion pioneer who established the norteno sound!
Carmen y Laura (Vol.1 & 2): Delightful women dueto – they sound like Latina Andrew Sisters!
Beto Villa: THE most popular Tejano orquesta during the 1940s and 50s
Rosita Fernandez: Famous San Antonio singer who later became a TV star
Balde Gonzalez: Blind vocalist, pianist, and band leader best known for his smooth crooning voice.
Tony De La Rosa: The great accordion polka king of south Texas – his first recordings.
Las Abajenas: Nice women dueto from northern Mexico
Gaytan y Cantu: Juan Gaytan, well liked singer and composer with his partner from San Antonio.
Los Dos Manueles: Well known male dueto from San Antonio.
Rosita y Laura: Rosita Fernandez singing duets with Laura Hernandez of Carmen y Laura fame.
Delia Gutierrez: Well liked female solo vocalist with her father’s orquesta from south Texas.
Isidro Lopez: Known as El Indio, a superb singer, saxophonist and leader of a powerhouse Tejano Orq.
Hermanos Maya: Best known for their boleros and as pioneers on radio in Nuevo Laredo.
Hermanas Mendoza: Lydia’s sisters, Juanita & Maria formed a superb and very popular dueto.

Re: The world situation: I just thought of an old blues verse sung by country blues artist Texas Alexander:
“If you see a mule run away with the world – let him go ahead on!!”


My Year 2009

I just want to share a few of my experiences during this past year but I will try to be short!

In January Wayne Pope finished the fine brochure for the Arhoolie Foundation – the Savoy Family Band played a number of gigs in the Bay area prior to their appearance at the wonderful Benefit for the Arhoolie Foundation which was held at Los Cenzontles Center in San Pablo on January 18th and also included Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, Taj Mahal, Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Suzy Thompson, and of course Los Cenzontles themselves who just two weeks ago got a raving review for their recent CD (which also features Taj Mahal and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos) in the New York Times editorial page no less!! The money we raised has kept us going to continue the digitization of the Frontera Collection’s 45 rpm discs. But we urgently need more funds to get us to the New Year when we hope to get support from some sources where we have applied this year – with the help of our new assistant, Adam Machado.

In February I once again heard the truly wonderful and dynamic Croatian band, Momci from Detroit who appeared at the Tamburitza Festival at San Francisco’s Croatian Cultural Center. It’s a family band with a father, sons and a daughter plus his brother – it is one red hot string band – if you have a chance to catch them you must do so! Unfortunately the family is spread out and according to the father they have a hard time getting together – I really would love to record them!

On March 22 we lost our great friend, board member and mentor, Archie Green – who did so much for real folklore study and preservation in this country – a truly remarkable person who will always remain in my memory as a driving force and how we should all act! On March 26th Los Tigres del Norte, who have been the prime sponsors of our digitizing the 78 rpm discs in the Frontera Collection, held a press conference at UCLA in Los Angeles celebrating the completion of that part of the collection and which Tom Diamant and I attended with great pleasure and joy. Los Tigres are THE super stars of the Norteno music field and have a powerful protest song on You Tube which you should check out – the title of the song is “La Granja” which really hits at the heart of so much what is troublesome in US – Mexico relations.

On April 10th the great Cajun band, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet, gave a superb in-store concert at Down Home Music – and Los Cenzontles appeared that night at the Freight & Salvage folk club in Berkeley. On the 18th I flew to New Orleans for the annual trek to check out Jazz Fest etc. Some of my highlights were Lars Edegran’s String Band at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church in NOLA, then the Savoy Family and others at the Balfa Camp up the country near Ville Platte, La. – then back to NOLA for the Savoy Family Jam Session brought to the Fais Do Do stage – all 30 odd participants! The full Del McCoury Band played their classic bluegrass but at the tiny Preservation Hall with Ben Jaffe on tuba and a few jazz horns joining in at the end with spectacular results. Finally in NO for the Ponderosa Stomp. The most amazing part for me was meeting and hearing from Joe Bihari about how he as the youngest brother was elected to do the pressing for their then up-start Modern Music record label. The Capitol Records pressing plant told the Biharis that they did not have time to press their stuff but if they could furnish a guy to do the pressing in the middle of the night, then he would let him in there! Joe remembered even how they mixed the shellac with cotton filler to make those discs at the time (ca. 1947) and how he after pressing records loaded them in his car and went to Central Avenue and sold them to stores! Then he told stories about how he and Ike Turner drove through Mississippi recording all kinds of great down home blues. Modern, RPM, etc Records owned by the Bihari Brothers, was of course one of the major producers of what was then called Rhythm & Blues – and those guys inspired many of us who came later trying to capture what was left of real blues down south! Meeting Joe was in connection with the release of John Broven’s wonderful book about the record men of that era! Marshall Chess was also there but he was no substitute for his late father and he hardly let Joe Bihari get a word in! A great evening at the Gaslight club in the Treme district where I first recorded the Re-Birth Brass Band many years ago! Then back up the country again to catch Wilson Savoy with Jason Frey at Fred’s Lounge in Mamou!

In May the Pine Leaf Boys visited us in the Bay area followed by ex-Pine Leaf boy, Cedric Watson playing the Eagle Hall in Alameda. Cedric has become a truly incredible performer and musician with his own band and has learned how to get a dancing audience turned up to full steam. Then I visited Washington, DC for the annual ARSC conference and from there down to Chapel Hill, NC to visit with archivist Steve Weiss and then drove up to Fries, VA to visit with Joe Wilson of the NCTA (and his wife Kathy) who works with the Blue Ridge Music Center and produces fine concerts there. Also attended the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention in Mt. Airy, NC where besides some fine mountain music, I saw Mike Seeger working with Yasha Aginsky documenting various banjo players on film.

In June there was a wonderful Memorial for Archie Green in San Francisco where Mike Seeger organized the fine music – unfortunately that was the last time I saw him. On July 4th we head our annual Birthday Party here at Arhoolie – celebrating my 78th and of course Uncle Sam’s birthday as well. Yet another Archie Green memorial was organized in September by the Folklife Center at the Library of Congress which of course was largely established through the lobbying efforts by Archie. I went and am glad I did – it was very moving hearing from many of the people he influenced in many ways – from labor union organizers to scholars and folk musicians etc. That evening was a musical celebration of Joe Wilson at the Coolidge Auditorium with a full House of Prayer black church brass band along with various other traditional musicians – what a program! Late in September the Arhoolie Foundation was invited by the Busto Media company to do a two hour radio program of historical Mexican norteno music and corridos over their extensive network of stations serving primarily recent immigrants all over the country.

This is getting out of hand! The Savoy Family returned for Bay Area shows in November and with Ann unable to sing due to a bad cold, Wilson had to do the honors on all songs – and he did it with superb results and taste. They really are now the First Family of Cajun Music – I just hope more festivals will engage them whenever possible – that is when Wilson is free from gigs with his Pine Leaf Boys! Just call Ann Savoy direct! Finally, I just returned from the Savoy Boucherie in Eunice, LA which was not only perhaps the best one ever but also the occasion for a Christening of the latest addition to the Savoy family – daughter Sara’s little daughter! The porker was superbly tender because he had been corn fed and raised by Marc himself for this occasion – and the music was non-stop in several places. Cajun jam in the main room – old time and Irish outside – country and swing in the kitchen with Mark Rubin making his multi talented presence felt everywhere – at the end a marvelous duet between Cajun fiddler, David Greely and a delightful girl cello player – like at our Arhoolie parties! The whole event was held at a brand new barn at the Lake View Park just north of Eunice – the place where I first saw a Cajun music broadcast back in 1963 or so – with Revon Reed, several drunk musicians and Paul Tate who led me to Marc Savoy! The previous night there was a public dance at this same barn with Jason Frey’s band which included Joel Savoy on fiddle. The surprise for me was that the pretty good sized audience was made up mainly of young people who seem to be once again enjoying their own culture and music – all having a great time dancing and partying! Let the bon ton roulet!
Cheers from Chris and have a good New Year!