Amoeba Music

Amoeba SF is honored to present a signing of Arhoolie Records Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz (Chronicle Books) with co-author Joel Selvin on Sunday, November 19th at 2pm. This new 240-page book 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, Chris Strachwitz. Purchase the book at Amoeba SF that day and get it signed by Joel Selvin, while Juan Antonio Cuellar (The Arhoolie Foundation’s Strachwitz Frontera Collection) treats us to a live DJ set.

Chris Strachwitz (1931-2023) is credited as one of the premier musicologists of American vernacular music: Blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, hillbilly, Texas-Mexican norteño music, and more. His final project Arhoolie Records Down Home Music: The Stories and Photographs of Chris Strachwitz collect over 150 photos he took over his 60 years helming the label. The Arhoolie catalog became part of Smithsonian Folkways in 2016, but Strachwitz’s influence continues. Co-author and renowned music journalist Joel Selvin worked closely with Chris on the comprehensive introduction and the detailed captions. Of the book, Taj Mahal said, “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."