Dear friends, artists, and relatives

The entire gang here at Arhoolie and the Down Home Music Store (including yours truly, the boss!) send our cheers for the Holidays and wish you a Happy New Year!
Somehow we again managed to produce a number of New Releases (new plastic Hoolies!) during 2001 of various vernacular traditions, both new recordings and re-issues of historic gems from the past. The record biz is in dire straits since the rich world is inundated with everything you can possibly buy while the poor world can hardly scrape enough food to eat. Let's hope in the New Year the world will somehow learn to share some of the wealth and begin to preserve our planet instead of bombing each other into oblivion!

1) ARH CD 489 - Live At The FIRST SACRED STEEL CONVENTION: "Train Don't Leave Me" (Superb music from various House Of God steel guitarists)
2) ARH CD 490 - LYDIA MENDOZA: "La Alondra De La Frontera - LIVE!" (The award winning legend of Tejano music in a live concert in 1982 with just her voice and 12 string acoustic guitar - includes her biggest Hit: "Mal Hombre" - never released before - celebrate the living and send her a note!)
3) ARH CD 496 - BILL NEELY: "Texas Law & Justice" (The late country singer and songwriter from Austin, Tx. bringing you some powerful songs with just his voice & guitar - including the title song, "Satan's Burning Hell", & more - many previously unissued)
4) ARH CD 497 - J. C. BURRIS: "Blues Professor" (20 original songs, 1/2 prev. unissued sung by the late harmonica wizard along with his rhythm bones and Mr. Jack! He learned from his uncle, Sonny Terry.)
5) ARH CD 498 - CSOKOLOM: "Ludo Ludo - Fools Fancy" (This delightful pan-European, Balkan, Gypsy band with three fiddles and a string bass produced this second CD on their own and what a gem it is! I hope they return to the USA soon!
6) ARH CD 499 - The Best Of LIGHTNING HOPKINS (and that's what you get from the emotional & inventive Texas Blues bard who was the reason I started Arhoolie Records back in 1960)
7) ARH CD 501 - The Best Of Mississippi FRED McDOWELL (the late giant of the Mississippi bottle neck guitar and haunting blues voice - heard playing both acoustic and electric guitar - the cream of the crop!)
8) ARH CD 503 - The CAMPBELL BROTHERS - "Sacred Steel On Tour" (Produced and recorded by the Campbell Brothers at various live venues - both church and secular - fine follow-up 2nd CD by these masters of steel guitar praise music)
9) ARH CD 504 - The CAMPBELL BROTHERS - "Sacred Steel for the Holidays" (40 years in the record business and Arhoolie had never produced a Christmas or Holiday recording - until now (at my suggestion!) - recorded and produced by the Campbells - mostly instrumentals - but includes a delightfully playful version, sung by Denise Brown, of "The Dreydl Song." Listeners who may not be all that fond of the high powered "praise music" heard in the House of God churches, will like these spirited, but mellower standards)
10) ARH CD 6001 - BANDA SALVATIERRA: "Esta Noche Tu Vendras" (first release on our REGIONAL imprint, here is one of the Bay Area's favorite Sinaloan styled 14 piece Mexican brass bands with a varied program of dance tunes and some vocals)
11) ARH CD 7023 - DON SANTIAGO JIMENEZ, Sr.: "Viva Seguin" (re-issue of 27 delightful original hits from 1947 - 1951 by the late popular accordionist from San Antonio, and father of Flaco Jimenez and Santiago Jr.)
12) ARH 7037-7038 - LAMENTO BORINCANO (PUERTO RICAN LAMENT) - "Early Puerto Rican Music: 1916 - 1939. (Two CD set with 56-page booklet annotated by Cristobal Diaz. 50 selections, beautifully remastered by George Morrow - delightful old music!)
13) ARH CD 7048 - BANDAS SINALOENSES: "Musica Tambora" (First recordings of Tambora Music from the Mexican State of Sinaloa (1952 - 1965) with 20 page booklet by Helena Simonett who's delightful book:: "Banda" was just issued by Wesleyan press - a first on this subject)
14) ARH CD 9019 - JOHN LITTLEJOHN - "Slidin' Home" (A re-issue of this classic Chicago blues album - now in our mid price 9000 series)
15) ARH CD 9020 - CHRIS THOMAS KING - "It's A Cold Ass World - The Beginning" (Rising young actor star of the hit movie "Oh Brother! Where Art Thou?," Chris Thomas King has recently been taking his music in a retro direction back to the roots of blues. These are his first recordings from 1986 when Chris emerged from his father's juke joint in Baton Rouge, La.).
16) ARH CD 9021 - CONJUNTO BERNAL - "Mi Humilde Corazon" (Our third CD by this influential south Texas accordionist and leader of the famous Conjunto Bernal who today heads a successful ministry and still performs religious music with his family).
17) ARH CD 9022 - PEDRO AYALA - "El Monarca Del Acordeon" (as IDEAL Records employed the then famous Narciso Martinez as "house accordionist" when they began recording in 1946, so did FALCON Records a few years later use Pedro Ayala - to make dance records of regional traditions and to accompany singers in the developing Norteño style. Strictly instrumentals, this CD includes two complete regionally issued LPs plus his first hit 78s. Puro Norteño! (From FALCON masters)
18) ARH CD 9023 - LOS ALACRANES DE DURANGO - "En Vivo! En Piedras Negras, Coah." (I recorded this delightful Norteño conjunto recently in a cantina in Piedras Negras: 2 fine dueting voices with accordion and bajo sexto plus pumping string bass. A joyful border music classic - in the style of Los Broncos De Reynosa.)
19) ARH CD 9024 - LOS PINGUINOS DEL NORTE - "Border Troubadors - Celebrating 50 years of Ruben 'The Penguin' Castillo & Los Pinguinos Del Norte in Musica Norteña." (I recorded this CD outdoors with the help of Prof. James Nicolopulos in Piedras Negras last New Year! Amazing repertoire of regional songs and corridos - includes 36 page booklet with all the songs and historic background)

I can't believe how this year just zipped past -it seems like only yesterday that I was down on the border with Jim Nicolopulos during the last week of 2000. We drove from Austin to McAllen - visiting and interviewing people connected with the early development of Norteño music in that region. I had been there many times before but each visit brings new connections and contacts. We went to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and almost got to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the disposition of the local pioneer ORFEO label which was the first on the Mexican side to document this music. Those 78s are almost as hard to find as Charlie Patton Vocalions but since I am the only one who seems to want them, they aren't worth nearly as much on the almost non-existing market for Mexican 78s! We had a delightful interview with Juan Torres of Los Tremendos Gavilanes fame - and visited with family members of Los Montañeses Del Alamo who still tour under that name but the sound of the original group which featured a flute and violin lead with string bass and guitar backing, has long since been overpowered by an electric bass and a saxophone. Arhoolie is just about to re-issue their first original recordings from the late 1930s. Up to Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila where we recorded the nice CD 9024 with Los Pinguinos Del Norte - celebrating the leading Penguin's 50th year as a local songster. We drove up the river to Terlingua north of the Big Bend country where we met up with a fascinating lady, Mimi Webb Miller - who was involved with the late Pablo Acosta of Ojinaga and knows the area well. Most people are only aware of drugs smuggled north from Mexico - but are unaware of the huge amounts of arms smuggled south - into Mexico. It's not a comforting scenario but as long as the demand is there and guns of all kinds are readily available north of the border - and drugs south of the border - the exchange of contraband will continue to the annoyance of our respective governments.

In January the Campbell Brothers appeared with the Mighty Clouds of Joy in a Gospel concert here at Zellerbach Auditorium on the UC campus - something so far rather rare but hopefully a sign of recognition that gospel music is one of our many remarkable vernacular traditions. On the 1st of February I flew to Memphis to be present when the Blues Foundation honored my long time friend and documentor extraordinaire, Johnny Parth from Austria for his achievement of documenting the blues with his remarkable and huge series of CDs on the DOCUMENT label. Sadly Johnny sold the label to a British firm who removed us as the US importer/distributor and gave the label to Allegro Dist. The whole experience has been a nightmare for Johnny who is now very depressed. I hope some of you who might know Johnny Parth or who appreciate his work will send him a note to cheer him up. Arhoolie does now import and distribute via City Hall, his wife Riki Parth's NEATWORK label which is releasing all alternate takes to the great jazz classics. Check out our web site for a Big SALE on Document CDs along with a lot of other fine items! (www.ARHOOLIE.com)

Mid February I flew to Vancouver, B.C. where the Folk Alliance at their annual conference gave a Lifetime Achievement Award and a grant from the Arhoolie Foundation to the legendary Queen of Tejano music, Lydia Mendoza. The grant was given to persuade Lydia and her relatives to gather and preserve any and all artifacts such as costumes, letters, photos, posters, etc. At the end of March Tom Diamant and I flew to Orlando, Florida (yes, near Mouseland!) to attend the 2nd Sacred Steel Conference. It was again organized by steel guitarists from various House of God churches who gathered to enjoy each other's talents and socialize outside the usual formal confines of the church - just to enjoy the steel guitar music! A very moving event and some great music. The Arhoolie Foundation was able to assist in giving away to needy young musicians a number of steel guitars, which had been contributed by several individuals and organizations. We do plan to attend again this coming year when the 3rd Sacred Steel Conference will take place in Orlando April 5 & 6. In mid April we enjoyed the visit by Paul and Valerie Oliver who took a vacation here in northern California. I learned a lot from Paul when we first traveled through the South together in the summer of 1960 when I was getting ready to start the Arhoolie label. At the time I was simply a fan of blues and other types of American vernacular music but was very impressed by the fact that Paul had been sent by the prestigious BBC to interview these old singers and fully document their lives as well! In time I also took on some of this role of the historian.

The end of April took me once again to New Orleans where the 100th birthday of Louis Armstrong made several programs of the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival especially appealing. The incredible trumpet player Nicholas Payton and Prof. Michael White along with a devoted little band, did a fine job of recreating and bringing to life some of the remarkable records made by Louis' Hot 5 and Hot 7 back in the late 1920s when real Jazz first took the world by storm. The McDonald Sisters from Fayetteville, N.C. were my favorites in the Gospel tent. Thanks to Lars and Kathy Edegran for their wonderful hospitality which also allowed me to join in on some fine traditional jazz parties and jam sessions. Off to Lafayette, La. where on the last day of the Festival Internacional - Sunday April 29, 2001 they ended the Festival with a remarkable re-union of the Clifton Chenier band including drummer Robert Peter who came from Dallas, saxophonist John Hart, Clifton's son C.J. Chenier, little Buck Senegal on guitar, and also Sonny Landreth played some soulful stuff - but the real star I think was Buckwheat Zydeco - Stanley Dural who was for several years the organist and arranger in Clifton's band. He sounded hauntingly like the King himself! He made that accordion talk the way Clifton could and no one since has come close! He also sings fluently in Creole and just blew me away with his presentation - it was from the heart and he really has taken after the late master. All that soul and real feeling was there - almost overpowering - and almost none of the usual modern zydeco excesses with all the hog noises, bullshit and hollering about can you feel it! I never got the name of the young rubboard player but he was superb - with almost Cleveland Chenier like syncopation - a new maestro! A huge photo of Clifton hung above Robert Peter who was grooving with his eyes closed - beating out the powerhouse rhythm - just the way he did all those years with the "old man." Cleveland's widow came out on stage and joined in the dancing - it was a truly magical evening dedicated to the one and only king of Zydeco: Clifton Chenier. But off again to Eunice where Gino Delafose put on his amazing party for all his friends featuring Mr. Energy and Dynamite, Leo Thomas - my favorite zydeco drummer! The next day a great annual crawfish boil at the Savoys with D.L.Menard as guest. By the way if any of you would like to enjoy southwest Louisiana and its music to the fullest but don't quite feel like doing it on your own - call Nancy Covey who puts together these amazing tours which take you everywhere worth seeing and hearing - including of course Jazz Fest - but also out to the Cajun country - it's the real deal - I guarantee! (Festival Tours - 310- 454-4080 or try 310-459-2035).

From Baton Rouge I flew over to San Antonio and drove out to Eagle Pass where Billy Roy Morales took me to hear several norteño conjuntos in Piedras Negras. We arranged with the help of several Morales brothers to record Los Alacranes De Durango who are very active in the cantinas and hired the superb bass player, J. Raul Torres on string bass. Drove back to San Antonio and caught some of the 20th annual Tejano Conjunto Festival. Opening ceremonies celebrated the life and times of Valerio Longoria with his sons doing a fine job of carrying on their father's tradition. Also a reception and press conference celebrating the release of a fine book about this regional accordion dance music: "Puro Conjunto" - edited by Avelardo Valdez and Juan Tejeda. Both Steve Jordan and Flaco Jimenez gave outstanding performances - especially Flaco who presented quite a variety show. He first sang several duets with Fred Ojeda - with whom he made some of his best local recordings in the past - they sounded like Los Alegres de Teran - puro norteño! Then he was joined by his old bajo player Oscar Telles, with some good conjunto sounds - on to his current C&W vocalist who is trying too hard to copy Garth Brooks - then a Santana like guitarist joined the program and put it into the R&R mode - until a pretty blonde girl from England joined the fun on fiddle! But somehow it all worked and I thought this was one of the best programs I've ever heard from Flaco!

In June I went to Santa Barbara to join some of my old class mates for our 50th high school re-union! That was fun - and you really notice how we really don't change that much after our teenage years - or do we? John Lee Hooker's funeral was a really joyful event - many singers and musicians - his daughter as MC was full of humor - and so were some of his sons even though one of them is a preacher in a Holiness church. Held at the Mormon Temple - overlooking the bay area from the Oakland hills. My own 70th birthday bash on July 1 was about the best yet - very memorable with lots of music and lots of good friends & delicious food. My mother, two sisters, and a niece also attended - thanks everyone for making it such a blast!

The Tragedy in New York on September 11 left everyone depressed and shocked for quite some time. Although the recession had been advancing for some time - this tragedy brought everything to a standstill. Beausoleil, however were on tour in the midwest on September 11th but they had a van and actually carried on performing! They played Reno, Nevada on the 12th and arrived here in Berkeley for their gig at Ashkenaz on the 13th. Although a bit subdued it was a fine program and dance. Since all air ports were closed, I cancelled my planned trip to London for the annual ARSC conference (which stands for Association for Recorded Sound Collections) - which brings together a lot of interesting people who are concerned about the preservation and collecting of recordings and try to figure out how best to preserve the sound in the grooves of fragile old discs. All this new technology available to us does not necessarily mean permanent preservation - old 78 rpm discs in good shape and their metal masters are still the best and most permanent artifacts. Digitizing them , however will make them available to the public.

Which brings me to the latest programs undertaken by the ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION. Just about all of the roughly 13,000 - 78s, 15,000 - 45s, and 3000 - LPs in the Chris Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican-American recordings have now been cataloged and can be sorted by any category desirable. In addition the AF has received a grant to cover a pilot program to digitize ca. 1000 of the 78s so that scholars and interested parties can actually hear this material which has not been possible up to now since we do not let any outsiders handle these fragile 78s. The grant has come to us from the Fund For Folk Culture - but originated with Los Tigres Del Norte Foundation via UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center. The pilot digitization project will be completed by mid January 2002 and a joint press conference is planned for that month with the Arhoolie Foundation, UCLA and Los Tigres del Norte Foundation. Stay tuned - or check our web site: www.ARHOOLIE.com and point to the foundation. We always welcome contributors to the ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION and urge you to become at least a "Friend of the Foundation" for $100.00 (tax deductable) and we will send you a free copy of the wonderful video: "SACRED STEEL"

Back again in ole' San Antone on September 28 & 29 for the very first International Accordion Festival put on by the good folks at the Texas Folklife Resources (Pat Jasper), the City of San Antonio, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center - who invited me to participate in panels and show "Chulas Fronteras." Tourism was still at an all time low but the locals turned out well for the free outdoor dances and concerts which brought to San Antonio various accordionists among them: Joaquin Diaz from the Dominican Republic (via Canada), Jao Cerilo from the Cape Verde Islands, a Colombian vallenato group (which I never did get to hear!), Eddie Blazonczyk & the Versatones (Polish polka band from Chicago), Raul Jaurena (fine Argentine tango group from New Jersey who had the audience spell bound by the elegant sexiness of the dance which was performed quite well by 25 some couples from various local dance schools who showed off their lessons well learned). From Louisiana came the incredible Geno Delafose who has taken on the role of embassador of zydeco to the world - and he does it with such confidence, energy, humbleness, joy, musicianship and a sense of his historic role. I wish his father, the late John Delafose could see Geno in action delivering a superb program ranging from pure country Creole music to Bayou rock - he would be proud! From closer to home came the Czech-Texas Vrazel polka band and perhaps the star of the program, local Texas Conjunto hero, Mingo Saldivar y sus Tremendos Cuatro Espadas who had them dancing everywhere! In the morning there were workshops with various accordionists talking about what they did and why (Marc Savoy was in rare form as usual!) - as well as scholars giving talks and film makers showing their gems - all about accordions - it was simply fascinating! Much of the credit for the success of the event must go to Eduardo Diaz who came up with the idea of the festival and who was the perfect host. Especially for most of the Spanish speaking musicians, he interpreted casually but instantaneously, hardly interrupting the flow of their monolog - but rather aiding the flow of the conversation.

In November I was invited to participate in a symposium about Prison Music at Louisiana State Penitentiary entitled: "Angola Bound" which took place at Angola, La. on November 17th. The biggest prison farm in the country, Angola is probably best known to blues fans for inmates Leadbelly and Robert Pete Williams, the latter discovered and recorded in the 1950s by the late Dr. Harry Oster. Both were pardoned largely due to outside support and help. No one seems to have made field recordings at Angola since Harry Oster and at the symposium no talented inmates were introduced except for the prison band which included both blues and country singers. Ex-inmate Charles Neville hinted that even in the 1970s when he was there, the old time work songs were pretty much a thing of the past. He learned one song, "Angola Bound" which he made into a pop recording. On the other hand conditions seem to have improved for the inmates, even though almost 70% are there for life. Warden Burl Cain seems like the perfect man for this job - an easy going, jolly type who seems to be genuinely interested in the safety and decent treatment of the inmates and he also seems to have a nice, folksy sense of humor. He also lets you know that he does not make the laws which send so many people to Angola, he just makes sure this enormous prison farm is run well. (even their rodeo!) Some 200 outsiders turned up on this saturday morning to listen to the panelists and musicians which included Alvin Batiste, Charles Neville, Kip Lornell discussing Leadbelly, Nick Spitzer dealing with all sorts of prison songs, Bruce Jackson, Dick Waterman and I dealing with the late Robert Pete Williams who had several relatives in the audience. Also briefly mentioning the late Harry Oster who discovered him. There was a lot more - a fascinating experience for me and I believe everyone involved. Plans are afoot to have more of the prison population take part in the next such symposium. Since November 4th had been announced as the date for the annual Savoy boucherie, I went down there early and spent some time over in Texas hunting records! KCTI in Gonzales, TX. has been letting me roam through their old Mexican 78s & 45s and purchase what I needed to fill holes in the ever growing Frontera Collection. I also visited Edward Poullard in Beaumont who has made some fine tapes with Jesse Leger while in California which we hope to release on Arhoolie Records soon! I caught the incredible Gypsy tour at UT's Hogg Auditorium in Austin thanks to our friend Mark Rubin who got me into the sold-out program. Attended Wurst Fest in New Braunfels - a very Texas-Germanic event attracting huge crowds with three music tents and ballrooms. Unfortunately the music was of mediocre quality - mostly corny and too German rather than Texan. The Round Rock Brass Band was an exception - they played very nicely and in traditional style. Although they featured one of their trumpet players singing in Czech - the leader declined my request for the "Shiner Polka" which is distinctly Texas-Czech rather than German! The food was OK and people seemed to consume beer almost in Munich quantities. Star attraction was Jimmy Sturr & his polka band - very slick and glitzy but a very good band with a delightful fiddler who was a hell of a showman to boot and the public just loved the whole Vegas type show! Next day I caught Fidel Peres at the PanAm Flea market in San Antonio - he bills himself as El Rey De la Polka and with his son on drums played for a large crowd of several hundred dancers - strictly old time accordion music, rock steady but nothing fancy. What a nice down home scene!

I want to thank all of you who have helped to make our recordings possible, the artists, the pressers, studios, printers, you the customers, and the few good stores and distributors left in this age of globelized corporate gangsterism. Thank God, Koch International is still our distributor and hopefully won't go the way of Valley Distributors and poor DNA (owned by Valley) who have recently gone belly up, taking a lot of independent labels down the drain. There ought to be a law against letting companies go bankrupt whereby they not only do not pay for the goods they hold in stock, but can sell those goods and pay the proceeds to the bank instead of at least returning unpaidfor goods to the firms to whom they owe for those goods!! I guess it's American justice which really is rigged to the benefit of the monster corporations, the Gods of the USA, mainly the God of Greed! Only the real God knows why! How can we allow the gangsters who ran Enron Corp. to not only terrorize Californians to the tune of billions of $s, but to influence our president and his energy policies and ruin the lives of all the people who worked for that firm? In Houston they even have a huge stadium in that "God's" name! I hope they confiscate all their assets (but since Enron were only hustlers and produced nothing, there may not be much except the head monsters' fortunes!) and string him up along with Bin Laden - to my mind they have a lot in common! But I guess we should let the courts decide that first!

Cheers for the New Year.!!

Chris Strachwitz