I Just Discovered the Arhoolie Website. Wow.

Cafe Society
1

Yesterday I was listening to the second Csokolom CD, Fools Fancy…Transylvanian string-band music with Hungarian/Gypsy overtones, and a lot better than that sounds. Flipping idly through the booklet, I noticed that Arhoolie Records has a website. Huh. www.arhoolie.com

Well, of course they have a website. Everybody has a website. I just never thought to look for it before. I don’t BUY music by label. I’ve got several Arhoolie recordings…the blues harpist Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Flour Hour; The New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra’s Creole Belles…but I picked them up because of the artists, without thinking that the label would have lots MORE weird shit that would get me to drooling.

Holy Moses, though, just LOOK at that front page…Pachuco Boogie, Latin Swing/R&B from the 1940s! Real Zoot Suit Music!
The Reverend Pearly Brown singing blues gospel!
Jesse Lege & Edward Poullard live At the Isleton Crawdad Festival!
Jump blues singer Joe Turner with Pete Johnson Orchestra!
The mysterious blind conjunto fiddler Melquiades Rodriguez on San Antonio House Party!
The Strange Creek Singers, Mike Seeger’s post-New Lost City Ramblers band!
Political calypsos from 1930s Trinidad!
The first recordings of The Klezmorim, the first postmodern klezmer group!
The great bayou fiddler Canray Fontenot on Louisiana Hot Sauce, Creole Style!
Franco-Creole biguines from Martinique!

Goddamn, I don’t care if I haven’t got any money, I’ll dip into the kids’ college funds. Where should I start?

Hell, I’m even going to get the tee shirt!

2

Hmm. Nothing from The Band?

Need I say more? :slight_smile:

3

Yeesh. All the gin joints in all the cities in all the world, and who walks into mine? (insert smiley here)

I’d give this sort of thing a wide berth, Sauron; if the vocal stylings of The Band grate on your nerves, this stuff’ll curl your hair.

C’mon, where’s all the other fans of “roots music” ? The really ugly stuff!

4

As a matter of fact, I just bought a CD of The Band. :stuck_out_tongue:

Still haven’t got Music from Big Pink, though - loved it when it first came out, and still great.

I’ll probably have to get lots from Arhoolie. Thanks for the link!

5

This is one way cool website, Uke. I just emailed it off to Mr. Pug, who is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of this type of music. I’m off to start browsing myself.

Thanks for the post.

6

Good news, Ike – this site will be of absolutely no interest to you whatsoever, so maybe your kids will make it to college someday. :wink: