Hello Down Home music lovers:

If you went cruising on the Internet and happened to have landed on the Arhoolie launch pad, welcome!

I've been recording and releasing Down Home music since 1960! Back then I sold LPs mostly out of the trunk of my old car when I went traveling around the country with Mance Lipscomb and then with Fred McDowell. It was hard to get stores to carry Arhoolie LPs because they wouldn't know where to get them since I had only a few small distributors and was not distributed by one of the big companies! Since most of the artists were not "big names" it was double hard! The interest in authentic regional folk musics was however gaining all over the country and slowly Arhoolie was able to record and release more LPs over the years - I survived! Barely until the CD came on strong - all of a sudden we could sell more per item and at a better profit! Since the CD I have also been lucky in having some songs published by my Tradition Music Co. covered by "big name" artists from the Rolling Stones to Alan Jackson! This past year, however the roof fell in! Our nice distributors were unable to sell a lot of our CDs - many never got out of their warehouses - because you, the good customers were simply overwhelmed with the amount of recordings available and since the economy hasn't been all that great either, we got back a -hit load of "returns" - almost $200,000.00 worth! We had to take 'em back and we just about came to sudden stop! Thanks to Alan Jackson making a hit with "Mercury Boogie" (by the late blues singer K.C. Douglas) which was published by my Tradition Music Co. , ARHOOLIE made it through the first 6 months of this year! I hope we're over the worst of it - and I wish to thank all of you out there who have bought some of our CDs in the past for making it possible for Arhoolie to keep going!

Since the regular retail market is increasingly over-loaded by the big companies and their pop hits and misses, us little cats hope to find good customers out there on the Internet - like you! But we are not giving up the regular retail market yet - we are coming out with a series of "Budget CDs" ( each CD sells for only $8.00!) sampling some of the wonderful artists I have encountered over the years. I hope many of you who have perhaps never bought one of our CDs will pick these up and discover that Arhoolies are rather special! You can read about our other New Releases elsewhere on our Web site but I'd be glad to send out any personal notes about them if you are interested. I want to let interested fans out there know that I am willing to share any info I might have with you - just write us your questions or comments.

I also want to let you know that the ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION is now a reality and is a certified tax exempt foundation dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of "down home" musics from around the world but with a focus on the regional musics in the Americas. We have already funded a research project to document the productions of the first major record company in Mexico: PEERLESS records - which began in the late 20s and had never published a catalog. We now have a complete numerical listing of this label from release # 1500 (1939) through # 4948 (1955) with matrix numbers. We were lucky to get to this firm while they still had rather solid documentation of the label since 1939 - Victor, Mexico is unfortunately a hopeless scenario since almost no documentation has survived several plant fires and moves and new management which has no interest in the past! The Arhoolie Foundation has also aided several film projects including Maureen Gosling's documentary on a strong matriarchy in southern Mexico and Alan Governar's documentary in progress about the remote town of Ojinaga in the Mexican state of Chihuahua on the Texas border, on the Rio Grande - where I wanted to document the music of the region especially the many corridos (ballads) about the late drug lord, Pablo Acosta. It's a remarkable but desolate place where the first Spaniards crossed into Mexico. The Arhoolie Foundation is also involved in making a documentary about one of New Orleans' young brass bands who plan to record for Arhoolie during the first week in October. Last year the Arhoolie Foundation received a grant from the Rex Foundation (Grateful Dead) to present a copy of the Arhoolie CD 7019/20 Corridos Y Tragedias De La Frontera - with its 160 page booklet, to over 500 libraries in the south west at no charge. These corridos are the vernacular literature of the people of the border region and I wanted to make these recordings of these ballads available to those whose culture created them. In case you are connected with a foundation who might be able to help the Arhoolie Foundation carry out more needed work, please let them know that we would gratefully accept any and all contributions. We also accept funds from individuals. We are also interested in building our archives of Mexican-American recordings and related materials since this collection is apparently rather unique in as much as we seem to have gathered the largest collection of 78s and 45s anywhere with many unique items where we know that the originating label has no longer any parts or copies. I am personally also interested in buying collections outright if you require payment. I am also interested in authentic regional musics from around the world especially on 78 rpm discs in excellent condition. We soon hope to have a brochure available giving you more details about the ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION.

That's about enough for right now - I'll get back on the ether with you from time to time! Just before I sign off, I want to reach out to any presenters or promoters who might be interested in bringing some of the greatest regional Mexican folk musicians to the US this coming spring, including Los Caimanes, Conjunto Alma de Apatzingan, and the incredible 85 year old fiddler Juan Reynoso whom I had the pleasure of hearing at the Fort Townsend Fiddle Festival over the July 4 week end! He not only plays all the regional gustos and sones but mastered the entire repertoire of the 19th century orquestas tipicas! Pick up his CD on Corason - the man is a treasure and should be heard! - cheers!

Chris Strachwitz