Happy Birthday Mississippi Fred McDowell

Remembering Tennessee-born blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell with four mesmerizing guitar performances.

Down Home Music chronicles Arhoolie Records evolution with photos and stories

Before passing, Arhoolie boss Chris Strachwitz assembled a compendium of his photos & stories with SF Chronicle's Joel Selvin.

Here's the scoop on Down Home Music...

Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz (out November 14th) is a visual storytelling celebration of American roots music in its rich variety through unseen and newly scanned photographs by the founder of the legendary Arhoolie Records.

Founded in 1960 by Chris Strachwitz, the one-man operation Arhoolie Records eventually produced more than four hundred albums during more than forty years in operation, exploring the far corners of American vernacular music-blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, hillbilly, Texas-Mexican norteno music, and more.

From the very beginning, Strachwitz brought his camera along with recording equipment as he met and recorded now-legendary artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Clifton Chenier, and Big Joe Williams. This book collects more than 150 of his best, most intimate, and exciting images-many never-before-seen-each with rich captions by Strachwitz and award-winning music journalist Joel Selvin, along with a substantial 20,000-word essay by Selvin about Arhoolie, Strachwitz, and the music.

INTIMATE AND AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS: Although Strachwitz would always self-deprecatingly claim that the photographs he took while meeting and recording musicians were strictly documentary, and *maybe* of some use for a record sleeve later, they are much more than that. Lyrical, candid, real: His rapport with the musicians and their families is glowing and evident in these photographs.

RIVETING MUSIC HISTORY PHOTO BOOK: These are never-before-seen photos, and photos like you've never seen before. Every image is from freshly remastered scans, and the authors dove deep into the Arhoolie archives to uncover images almost no one has had the chance to see.

CRUCIAL AMERICAN MUSIC AND CULTURAL HISTORY: Strachwitz's wide-ranging interest and unbridled enthusiasm for all sorts of roots music led to his crisscrossing the country from artist to artist based on recommendations, rumor, tips, radio broadcasts-the result being a portrait (in sound for the label, and image in this book) of vital American music in a wide range of genres. He has rich stories for each photograph and artist.

AN INVALUABLE DOCUMENT: Arhoolie fundamentally shaped our understanding of American music. Longtime San Francisco Chronicle music journalist Joel Selvin has not only worked with Strachwitz to draw out the stories behind the photographs, but he has contributed an invaluable long-form essay about Arhoolie, Strachwitz, and the label's cultural legacy to anchor this incredible book.

Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz is slated to be published on November 14th but you can pre-order a copy right here. Check out the Arhoolie Records companion documentary also called Down Home Music right here. 

What musicians are saying about Down Home Music

“You hold in your hands a monumental treasure! Without the aid of Chris’s humanity, foresight, dedication, and love in recording these artists on wax, films, and photographs, this whole genre might have suffered and sustained massive dis-inclusion, lost forever, slipping away without a trace of existing. Go forth and enjoy it with great respect for a Man who made sure you didn’t miss the music and images of the unheard and unseen. Thank you, Chris.” —Taj Mahal

“Chris Strachwitz is a heroic figure if ever there was. This book gets to the root of roots music and tells the story of Arhoolie most brilliantly. Arhoolie all right!” —Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top

“No one has meant more to the preservation and appreciation of Americana roots music than Chris Strachwitz. He turned me on to Mississippi Fred McDowell and so many other greats. With his passion for the artists as people as well their culture, the creation of Arhoolie Records and Down Home Music, he’s given us some of the most thrilling and unique music we’ll ever know. How great that Chris and Joel have collaborated on telling his fascinating story in this wonderful book.” —Bonnie Raitt

“Hey Chris: I wanna buy you a Mercury and cruise you up and down the road. Chris Strachwitz’s life-journey led him to become one of the world’s greatest musicologists. Were Lightnin’ Hopkins, K. C. Douglas, and a host of other cultural giants alive today, they would all say, Thank you, Chris Strachwitz. Thank you for your passion, tireless work, and generosity. Me too.” —Steve Miller

“I traveled through South Texas with Chris for a few days once. He had his tape machine, a change of clothes, and a twenty-five-pound sack of oranges. Texas is big, you know. Five hundred miles a day—he stopped to eat only to be polite. He wore me out, but I learned a lot. The border Mexicans called him “El Fanático.” Chris is a really nice man—he liked the musicians, they liked him back. Even Mario Montes, the accordion player of Los Donneños, who had no use for white people, put up with him. Then, it was drink your orange juice, get in the car, and drive. Viva El Fanático!” —Ry Cooder

Bay Area 60s folk scene recordings uncovered by Folkways

The Village Out West: Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes 2CD set features rare recordings of Fred McDowell, Rev. Gary Davis and others.  

Here's the scoop...

The Village Out West compilation – out September 24 via Smithsonian Folkways – celebrates the under-appreciated bastion of the Folk Revival that emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s, a counterpoint to the seminal New York City scene that has dominated the historical narrative. Compiled from a vast array of recordings by autodidact recording engineer Alan Oakes, the two-CD 51-track set features legendary names like Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell, New Lost City Ramblers, Hank Bradley, Larry Hanks, and Doc Watson, as well as unsung heroes of the local California communities that turned the region into fertile ground for American music. This music triumphantly transcends the passage of the decades with its luminous and passionate presence, making the case for California as a crucial hotbed for some of the most impressive and diverse folk music of the 20th century. 

Listen to a four-song sampler right here. Pre-order a copy of The Village Out West right here. 

Check the track list following an audio clip of Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Don't Mistreat Nobody ('Cause You Got A Few Dimes)" and Fred's 1969 performance of "Write Me A Few of Your Lines" below.

 

The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes

1. Hank Bradley and Rick Shubb - Beaumont Rag

2. Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins - Oh, Had I A Golden Thread 04:00

3. Ron Hughey, Frank Hicks, and Pete Everwine - Westphalia Waltz

4. LaWanda Ultan - Raggedy Pat

5. The Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with Kenny Hall - 8th of January

6. Merritt Herring - Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

7. Doc Watson - The Billboard Song

8. Mississippi Fred McDowell - Write Me a Few of Your Lines

9. Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band - Milwaukee Blues

10. Kathy & Carol - Swallow Song 01:36

11. Jerry Houck, Larry Hanks, and Tom Ninkovich - Charlie's Neat and Charlie's Sweet / Weevilly Wheat

12. Jim Ringer, Ron Tinkler, and the Sweets Mill Mountain Boys - Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee

13. Rev. Gary Davis - Gimme That Old Time Religion

14. Gene Bluestein - Talking Union

15. Kilby Snow - All My Friends Gonna Be Strangers

16. The Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with Kenny Hall - Texas Quickstep

17. Caroline Paton - Long Time a-Growing

18. Jerry Houck - Mardi Gras Dance

19. Don Rollins (aka Abel Fortune) - Lady of Carlisle

20. Mark Spoelstra - White Winged Dove

21. Sandy and Caroline Paton - Sardines and Pork and Beans

22. Dad Crockett and Frank Hicks - Hoop-e-Kack

23. Merritt Herring - Down, Down, Derry Down

24. Larry Hanks and Mark Spoelstra - Walking Down That Railroad Line

25. Ed Trickett - Duna

26. Hank Bradley, Rick Shubb, and Doc Watson - Orange Blossom Special

27. The Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with Kenny Hall - Fire on the Mountain

28. Sandy and Jeanie Darlington - When the Curfew Blows

29. Hank Bradley and Rick Shubb featuring Doc Watson - Ragtime Annie

30. Allan MacLeod - The Hounds Are Out (The Innocent Hare)

31. The New Lost City Ramblers - Bachelor Blues

32. Roger Renwick - Jimmy Whelan

33. The Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with Kenny Hall - Paddy, Won't You Drink Some Cider?

34. Ron Hughey and Frank Hicks - Good Night Waltz

35. Kathy & Carol with Will Scarlett - Searchin'

36. Doc Watson - The Clouds Gwine Roll Away

37. Larry Hanks, Roger Perkins, Kathy Larisch, and Carol McComb - Northfield

38. Rev. Gary Davis - Baby, Let Me Lay It on You

39. Larry Hanks - Talking Fishing Blues

40. Jerry Houck - Sweet Sunny South

41. Mark Spoelstra - Play Run Run

42. Hank Bradley and Sandy Rothman featuring Doc Watson - Cherokee Shuffle

43. Kilby Snow - Bringing Mary Home

44. The Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with Kenny Hall - The Lost Trapper

45. Mississippi Fred McDowell - Don't Mistreat Nobody ('Cause You Got a Few Dimes) 

46. Hank Bradley and Rick Shubb featuring Doc Watson - Billy in the Lowground

47. Merritt Herring - The Curlew's Song

48. Will Spires - Jamie Raeburn's Farewell

49. Rev. Gary Davis - Hesitation Blues

50. Sandy and Caroline Paton - I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober

51. Hank Bradley and Rick Shubb - O, Them Golden Slippers

Watch the Memphis '69 concert film

Memphis '69 features performances by Rufus Thomas & The Bar-Kays, Furry Lewis, John Fahey, Bukka White and many others. 

Here's the scoop...

Fat Possum Records to release the concert film, MEMPHIS ’69, via YouTube August 6th followed by DVD release on September 17th, featuring sweat-stained performances by Rufus Thomas & The Bar-Kays, Bukka White, John Fahey, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Johnny Winter and other luminaries.  Premiered at Slamdance, the documentary spotlights the landmark 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival and is made up entirely of previously unreleased footage. 

Fat Possum Records will release the Memphis ’69 documentary film, capturing three days and two nights of the sweltering, interracial 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival. Full song performances include a number of iconic Blues Hall of Famers such as Rufus Thomas & The Bar-Kays; slide guitar great Booker “Bukka” White; Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachel; Texas’ Johnny Winter; Memphis’ own Furry Lewis, Beale Street sweeper who opened for the Rolling Stones; and North Mississippi bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell. There are no talking heads, just the unfiltered shots of the concert and its surroundings from the time. Memphis ’69 will be available from Fat Possum on DVD September 17th. Preorder it right here. 

Other highlights include cult American primitive guitarist John Fahey; Moloch, with a young Jim Dickinson before his sessions with Bob Dylan and the Stones; Rev. Robert Wilkins—whose “Prodigal Son” was covered by the Stones—and family; Nathan Beauregard, introduced as estimated to have been born just a year after the Civil War; visual artist, grave digger, and bluesman James “Son” Thomas, whose clay sculptures has been featured in the National Gallery of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the Studio Museum in Harlem; two-time Billboard R&B chart top ten artist Piano Red, whose songs were later covered by the Beatles and the Lovin’ Spoonful; and John D. Loudermilk, who saw versions of his tunes recorded by the Everly Brothers, Marianne Faithfull, Johnny Cash, and Eric Burdon & War and who wrote the now-standard “Tobacco Road.”

Additional performances include mesmerizing turns from a young Joann Kelley and “Backwards” Sam Firk; delta bluesman Lum Guffin; Memphis’ own Jefferson Street Jug Band joined by Fahey; the electric Insect Trust; and gospel group The Salem Harmonizers.

The footage was originally filmed by Adelphi Records founder Gene Rosenthal, who drove down from Maryland with a crew, shooting undaunted even as the heat reached 106 degrees. With over 40,000 feet of film, he spent his entire budget and just to process it, having to sell the cameras he had just acquired and leaving him with no ability to craft it into a finished film. Fat Possum’s Bruce Watson came on board in 2016, bringing with him filmmakers Joe and Lisa LaMattina, who have also done film work for Green Day, Rihanna, the Cold War Kids, Snoop Dog, Florence + The Machine, and Tom Morello. The LaMattinas then edited the footage, crafting it into the finished film. This was no easy task given that the audio engineer in 1969 was tripping on acid. Award-winning author and filmmaker Robert Gordon also served as a consultant. 

Watch Memphis '69 while it's temporarily available on YouTube... 

Happy Birthday Mississippi Fred McDowell

Remembering blues great Mississippi Fred McDowell with some rare performance footage. 

Happy Birthday Mississippi Fred McDowell

Remembering blues guitar great Fred McDowell on his day with a couple of rare performance clips.

Happy Birthday Mississippi Fred McDowell

Remembering blues great Mississippi Fred McDowell on his day with a couple of brilliant performance clips.