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24-584: In the segment of San Pablo Avenue that forms the boundary between Richmond and El Cerrito, the buildings on the western side (which are in Richmond Annex) have an El Cerrito postal address and their occupants are sometimes mistakenly described as being in El Cerrito, such as El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company and Down Home Records (formerly Arhoolie Records ). According to a local history written down by Fay Breneman circa 1941, "The land now known as Richmond Annex

48-448: A Grammy Award in 1986. With cinematographer Les Blank , he also made two documentaries about the music in the mid 1970s, Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazon . He discovered and released the first two albums of seminal klezmer revival band The Klezmorim . Another of Strachwitz's discoveries, and one of his biggest commercial successes, was Cajun musician Michael Doucet and his group BeauSoleil . Artists who have recorded for

72-667: A building in San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, California as the label's headquarters. Strachwitz also won royalties for Fred McDowell from the Rolling Stones ' performance of his song " You Gotta Move " on their Sticky Fingers album. During the 1970s, Strachwitz continued to record blues musicians, including Big Joe Duskin , Charlie Musselwhite , Big Mama Thornton , Elizabeth Cotten , and Robben Ford , as well as Cajun and zydeco performers such as Clifton Chenier , Lawrence Ardoin and John Delafose. He also continued to secure

96-487: A full-time farmer for many years while continuing to play music on weekends at dances and picnics. After decades of playing for small local gatherings, McDowell was recorded in 1959 by roving folklore musicologist Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins , on their Southern Journey field-recording trip. With interest in blues and folk music rising in the United States at the time, McDowell's field recordings for Lomax caught

120-577: A local band, Country Joe and the Fish , who were active in anti-Vietnam war protests at Berkeley. Strachwitz recorded the band singing " I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die ", and gained a share of the song's publishing rights. Eventually, royalties from the song - particularly its appearance in the Woodstock Festival movie and soundtrack album - helped subsidize the Arhoolie label, and enabled Strachwitz to buy

144-922: Is an American small independent record label that was run by Chris Strachwitz and is based in El Cerrito, California , United States (it is actually located in Richmond Annex but has an El Cerrito postal address.) The label was founded by Strachwitz in 1960 as a way for him to record and produce music by previously obscure "down-home blues" artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins , Snooks Eaglin , and Bill Gaither . Strachwitz despised most commercial music as mouse music. Arhoolie still publishes blues and folk music , Tejano music including Lydia Mendoza , Los Alegres de Terán , Flaco Jiménez , regional Mexican music, cajun , zydeco , and bluegrass . Chris Strachwitz immigrated with his family from Silesia in 1947, and became enamored with American regional music after seeing

168-540: Is believed to be the largest private collection of Mexican-American and Mexican music. He donated this collection, known as the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican-American Music, to the nonprofit organization Arhoolie Foundation. The first norteño album on Arhoolie was Conjuntos Norteños , by Los Pinguinos del Norte , released in 1970, but one of his biggest successes came with Flaco Jiménez , whose album Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio won

192-579: The Pine Leaf Boys , Los Cenzontles , The Klezmorim , Rose Maddox , Rebirth Brass Band , and HowellDevine . In 2014, filmmakers Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon released a documentary film about Arhoolie Records entitled This Ain't No Mouse Music , which is distributed by Argot Pictures. In May 2016, the Smithsonian Institution announced it had acquired Arhoolie Records from founder Chris Strachwitz and his business partner Tom Diamant for

216-572: The Smithsonian Folkways Recordings . In late 2023, the Arhoolie Foundation published the book Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz , by Joel Selvin with Chris Strachwitz. According to Selvin, he was a longtime friend and disciple of Strachwitz, and when Strachwitz suggested publishing a book from his huge collection of digitized photographs, Selvin enthusiastically offered to help. They worked on

240-570: The Arhoolie label include Black Ace , Juke Boy Bonner , Big Mama Thornton , Big Walter Horton , Lightnin' Hopkins , George 'Bongo Joe' Coleman, Snooks Eaglin , Dave Alexander , Nathan Beauregard , Clifton Chenier , Elizabeth Cotten , Sue Draheim , Jesse Fuller , Earl Hooker , John Jackson , Mance Lipscomb , Guitar Slim , Robert Shaw , Mississippi Fred McDowell , Whistlin' Alex Moore , Charlie Musselwhite , Doctor Ross , Bukka White , Big Joe Williams , Silas Hogan , Mercy Dee Walton , The Campbell Brothers , BeauSoleil , Jerry Hahn ,

264-788: The album "may be the best single CD in McDowell's output, and certainly his best concert release". McDowell's final album, Live in New York ( Oblivion Records ), was a concert performance from November 1971 at the Village Gaslight (also known as The Gaslight Cafe ), in Greenwich Village , New York. McDowell's version of the folk song " John Henry " from 1969 is included on the Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969: Vols 1&2, 2019 release. McDowell died of cancer in 1972, aged 68, and

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288-427: The attention of blues aficionados and record producers, and within a couple of years, he had finally become a professional musician and recording artist in his own right. His LPs proved quite popular, and he performed at festivals and clubs all over the world. McDowell continued to perform the blues in the north Mississippi style much as he had for decades, sometimes on electric guitar rather than acoustic guitar. He

312-485: The book in the last 18 months of Strachwitz's life, and Selvin finished it shortly after Strachwitz's death. Mississippi Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell , was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist of hill country blues music. McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee . His parents were farmers, who both died while Fred

336-559: The defunct Swingtime label, and old country and western recordings on his Old Timey label, started in 1962. Strachwitz continued traveling to make field recordings of blues musicians, notably Mississippi Fred McDowell - whom he first recorded in 1964 - Juke Boy Bonner , K. C. Douglas , and Clifton Chenier . From 1965, he also hosted a Sunday afternoon music program on Pacifica Radio 's KPFA -FM in Berkeley, California , which ran until 1995. In 1966, his friend Ed Denson introduced him to

360-568: The film New Orleans . He eventually settled in the San Francisco bay area, and in 1960 he headed to Texas to record bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins , but it turned out that Hopkins was in Berkeley for a performance engagement. He met up with historian Mack McCormick , and together they traveled to Navasota, Texas where Strachwitz recorded Mance Lipscomb for what would become the first Arhoolie LP, Texas Sharecropper and Songster . The name "Arhoolie"

384-680: The largest of its kind in the East Bay. Other significant landmarks include: The Richmond Annex Senior Center, which was a firehouse from 1937-1976, and Huntington playground Park. The residents have also rallied successfully for a cell phone tower to not be built, had major input on the Carlson boulevard Interstate 80 overpass mural, and kept Fairmont elementary school in neighboring El Cerrito from being closed. 37°54′32″N 122°18′43″W  /  37.909°N 122.312°W  / 37.909; -122.312 Arhoolie Records Arhoolie Records

408-413: The rights to release archive blues material such as that by Snooks Eaglin and Robert Pete Williams . In the 1980s and 1990s, he continued to develop Arhoolie as a distributor of smaller independent blues labels, and an importer of jazz and blues releases on European labels. Strachwitz increasingly focused attention on Mexican and, specifically, norteño music, which he had long admired, amassing what

432-515: Was buried at Hammond Hill Baptist Church, between Como and Senatobia, Mississippi . On August 6, 1993, a memorial was placed on his grave by the Mount Zion Memorial Fund . The ceremony was presided over by the blues promoter Dick Waterman , and the memorial with McDowell's portrait on it was paid for by Bonnie Raitt. The memorial stone was a replacement for an inaccurate (McDowell's name was misspelled) and damaged marker. The original stone

456-685: Was farmed by the Conlon Brothers." The 1894 map showing the final verdict in Emeric V. Alvarado shows the entire Annex as the property of William Meyer (written on map as "Wm. Meyer"). It was annexed by the City of Richmond on September 26, 1926, after a 13-12 vote on whether to join Richmond or El Cerrito. In recent years, Richmond Annex has been home to the Pacific East Mall , a large collection of Chinese stores,

480-493: Was his first featuring electric guitar. It contains parts of an interview in which he discusses the origins of the blues and the nature of love. His live album Live at the Mayfair Hotel (1995) was from a concert he gave in 1969. Tracks included versions of Bukka White 's " Shake 'Em On Down ", Willie Dixon 's " My Babe ", Mance Lipscomb 's "Evil Hearted Woman", plus McDowell's self-penned "Kokomo Blues." AllMusic noted that

504-501: Was in his youth. He took up the guitar at the age of 14 and was soon playing for tips at dances around Rossville. Seeking a change from plowing fields, he moved to Memphis in 1926, where he worked in the Buck-Eye feed mill, which processed cotton into oil and other products. In 1928, he moved to Mississippi to pick cotton. He finally settled in Como, Mississippi , around 1940, where he worked as

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528-447: Was particularly renowned for his mastery of slide guitar , a style he said he first learned using a pocketknife for a slide and later a polished beef rib bone. He ultimately settled on the clearer sound he got from a glass slide, which he wore on his ring finger. While he famously declared, "I do not play no rock and roll," he was not averse to associating with younger rock musicians. He coached Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar technique and

552-636: Was reportedly flattered by the Rolling Stones ' rather straightforward version of his " You Gotta Move " on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers . In 1965, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival , together with Big Mama Thornton , John Lee Hooker , Buddy Guy , Roosevelt Sykes and others. McDowell's 1969 album I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll , recorded at Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi, and released by Capitol Records ,

576-460: Was suggested by McCormick, deriving from a word for a field holler . Strachwitz also recorded "Black Ace" Turner , "Li'l Son" Jackson and Whistlin' Alex Moore on the same trip, and later in the year recorded Big Joe Williams and Mercy Dee Walton in California. He also began reissuing archive material, both of R&B singers such as Big Joe Turner and Lowell Fulson who had recorded for

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