Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. San Francisco Bay Blues [#] - Jesse Fuller
2. Mercury Blues - K.C. Douglas
3. Shake, Shake Mama - Mance Lipscomb
4. Cairo Blues
5. Barbershop Rhythm - Robert Curtis Smith, Wade Walton
6. One Thin Dime - Butch Cage, Willie Thomas
7. Charmin' Betsy - The Hodges Brothers
8. Whistlin' Alex Moore's Blues - Alex Moore
9. I Am the Black Ace - Black Ace
10. Brother James - Big Joe Williams
11. Lady Luck - Mercy Dee
12. Don't Drive Me Away - R.C. Smith
13. Zydeco Introduction
14. Bernadette Chere - Albert Chevalier
15. Bald Headed Woman - Lightnin' Hopkins
16. Baby Please Don't Go - Blind James Campbell
17. Believe on Me - Rev. Louis Overstreet
18. Low Down Blues [#] - George Lewis
19. Country Blues - J.E. Mainer
20. Crowley Waltz - Hackberry Ramblers
21. She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain - Booker T. Washington White
22. Ay, Ai Ai - Clifton Chenier
23. Write Me a Few Lines - Mississippi Fred McDowell
24. James, Charlie - Mance Lipscomb
25. Louisiana Blues - Clifton Chenier

Disc 2:

1. Cindy - John Jackson
2. Little Red Rooster - Big Mama Thornton
3. Betaille - Isom Fontenot
4. Calcasieu Waltz - Nathan Abshire, The Balfa Brothers
5. Almlied
6. I Wonder Where You Are Tonight - Del McCoury
7. In the Breeze - Jerry Hahn Quintet
8. Going Back to the Country - Juke Boy Bonner
9. Sometimes I Cry - Johnny Young
10. Two Bugs and a Roach - Earl Hooker
11. Dream - John Littlejohn
12. Things Gonna Get Better - Bee Houston
13. Visions - Sonny Simmons
14. I Wish I Could Sing - Bongo Joe
15. Boogieing in Strasbourg - Whistlin' Alex Moore
16. Death of Doctor King - Big Joe Williams
17. Please Settle in Vietnam - Lightnin' Hopkins
18. Shake 'Em on Down - Mississippi Fred McDowell, Johnny Woods
19. Desesperado [Corrido] - Los Pinguinos del Norte
20. Creole Belles - The New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra
21. Finger Lickin' Good - Charlie Musselwhite

Disc 3:

1. Church Point Breakdown - Austin Pitre
2. Gstanzelm Aus Dem Freistriztal
3. Gibson Creek Shuffle - Charles Ford Band
4. Ups and Downs - L.C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson
5. You Ain't Got a Chance
6. Home Sweet Home - Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin & Sons, Canray Fontenot
7. Satan's Burning Hell - Bill Neely
8. Luzita [Marzurka] - Narciso Mart�nez
9. Yo Me Enamore [Canci�n] - Trio San Antonio
10. Borracho Perdido [Ranchera] - Trio San Antonio
11. One of These Mornings (I'm Checkin' Out) - J.C. Burris
12. Allons a Grand Coteau (Let's Go to Grand Coteau) - Clifton Chenier
13. Under the Green Oak Tree (En Bas du Ch�ne Vert) - Dewey Balfa, D.L. Menard, Marc Savoy
14. Besos y Copas [Ranchera] - Chavela Ortiz
15. Fast Santa Fe (Bear Cat) - Robert Shaw
16. I'll See You in C-U-B-A - Any Old Time String Band
17. Balaj - Conjunto Alma Jarocha
18. Gata - Los Caporales de Panuco
19. Beym Rebns Sude (At the Rebbe's Meal) - The Klezmorim
20. J' Ai Laisse de la Maiso
21. Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio [Ranchera] - Don Santiago Jimenez, Sr.
22. Mi Problema - Lydia Mendoza

Disc 4:

1. Gr�tenme Piedras del Campo [Ranchera] - Flaco Jim�nez
2. Co-F�? (Why?) - John Delafose
3. Single Girl - Rose Maddox
4. Bee de la Manche - Canray Fontenot
5. Bosco Stomp - Octa Clark, Hector Duhon
6. Negra Ausencia - Santiago Jimenez, Jr.
7. Chanson de Cinquante Sous [#] - Beausoleil, Michael Doucet
8. Shake What You Got - Preston Frank
9. 'Tits Yeux Noirs (Little Black Eyes) - Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band
10. Chill of a Saturday Afternoon - Wade Frug�
11. Jolie Blonde - Chuck Guillory
12. Here to Stay (P.I.E.) - Rebirth Brass Band
13. I Know That's Right - Katie Webster
14. I've Been There - Lawrence "Black" Ardoin
15. Mentiste Cuando Dijiste [Ranchera] - Flaco Jim�nez
16. Aguililla [Huapango] - Los Campesinos de Michoac�n
17. Reine de la Salle (The Queen of the Dance Hall) - Odile Falcon
18. Chanson de la Sagesse (Ballad of Wisdom) - Michael Doucet
19. Hot Chili Mama - Beausoleil
20. Check Out the Zydeco - C.J. Chenier
21. Canoero [Cumbia] - Valerio Longoria, Sr.
22. Corrido del Mono (Ballad of "The Monkey") [Tragedia en Palo Alto]
23. San Francisco Can Be Such a Lonely Town - Omar Shariff

Disc 5:

1. Mother - The Paramount Singers
2. Gumagarrugu - Chatuye
3. Khandan -E Amaturi III - Aziz Herawi
4. Ti, Colombia - Ivan Cuesta,
5. Food Stamp Blues - Treme Brass Band
6. Ain't It a Shame - Roma Wilson
7. J'Ai �t� au Bal - Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band
8. Mal Sentada [Ranchera] - Los Cenzontles
9. Falling for You - Rose Maddox
10. Traficantes del Bravo [#]
11. Jesus Will Fix It for You - Sonny Treadway
12. Medved Na Lancu (The Bear on the Chain) - Cs�kolom
13. Jale Griego - Jos� Antonio Moreno
14. Corrido de Esquiel Hernandez - Santiago Jimenez, Jr.
15. What's His Name?...Jesus! - The Campbell Brothers
16. Just a Closer Walk With Thee - Aubrey Ghent

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199453 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Extra tracks
• Dimensions: 2.57 pounds

Amazon.com
Superbly packaged and lovingly annotated, the five-disc Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection distills four decades of musical passion into six hours of highlights. The passion is that of Arhoolie founder Chris Strachwitz, a German immigrant and former California schoolteacher whose label reflects a devotion to American roots music at its most vital and varied. Southern bluesmen Mance Lipscomb and Fred McDowell, Louisiana zydeco kingpin Clifton Chenier, and Tex-Mex conjunto accordionist Flaco Jimenez are just a few of the regional mainstays to achieve national renown through Arhoolie, and all of them are represented here.

The spirited diversity of the 105 selections (including 13 available on CD for the first time) finds the label extending its reach from string-band country (Hackberry Ramblers) to hard-driving jazz (Jerry Hahn Quintet) to New Orleans brass bands to more recent forays into "sacred steel," featuring gospel music with pedal-steel guitar. Where so many folk preservations might as well be embalming musical relics, Arhoolie champions "vernacular music": music that retains a strong, integral connection to its community and gets people clapping, stomping, and dancing. Throughout the set, the immediacy of the performances transcends trendiness or timeliness, showing how America sounds beyond the plasticity of popular culture. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews

American Music 101
If you're looking for a place to go to get a comprehensive lesson in the finest in American roots music spanning blues, cajun/zydeco, gospel, bluegrass, tex/mex/conjunto, barrelhouse rock'n'roll, etc, look no further than this amazing collection. Intended as a "scrapbook" of label owner Chris Strachwitz's 40 year journey traveling across the hinterlands collecting and annotating the mostly obscure(though not all) raw sounds that he has had the pleasure of offering to us, the listening public, through Arhoolie. I like to think of it as a nice side companion to the Harry Smith collections. Including an amazing thick photo/essay book that makes this worth the price alone, this is as important release to serious music lovers as the recent Louis Armstrong box. WORTH EVERY PENNY!

A Treasury of Obscurities
I wasn't sure how I was going to like this box set when I bought it because I had never heard of most of the artists. When I first obtained it, I listened through once then put it on the shelf. On a recent road trip, I decided to put all 5 CDs in my CD changer to listen to in sequence and lemme tell you, am I ever glad to have done so.
The Journey of Chris Strachwitz is a musical journey through parts of America most of us never see or hear. There is Cajun, Zydeco, country, Tejano, blues, gospel and more. There is not the polished, overproduced kind of music one often hears on the radio, but rather the raw authenticity of music being played straight from the heart. Most of these musicians have made very little money in the business and are forced to do other work in order to make ends meet. Its a shame because just the small sampling here shows me that most of these artists have more talent than an army of top-40 schlocksters like Backstreet Boys and Madonna.
I am not equally enthusiastic about every song, but I was introduced to many performers from whom I want to hear more. Its hard to choose favorites, but I was impressed with Mance Lipscomb, the Reverend Louis Overstreet, Lydia Mendoza, Valerio Longoria, Omar Sharriff, Chatuye, The Campbell Brothers, and Aubrey Ghent in addition to more familiar performers like Clifton Chenier, Charlie Musselwhite, and any of the Jimenez clan. The worst song on the album is more pleasurable listening than most of the vapid pap served up on commercial radio.
With the CDs comes an informative booklet, filled with photos and stories of the performers and the sometimes serendipitous ways that Strachwitz hooked up with them.
If your musical taste runs the gamut, you should like this fairly priced box set. Chris Strachwitz did American music a tremendous turn when he set out to capture the sound of the folk before it was lost to us forever. I give this treasury of obscurities my heartiest recommendation. You won't be sorry you bought this!

Great set and great value for money
This is a truly wondrful set that works on every level.

Beautifully presented with a very informative book and five high quality CD's.

The sound quality is superb as are all the production values.

The mixture of world music, old-time music and American regional sounds, as repesented in the output of Arhoolie Records, works extremely well here.

I found my self playing all 5 CD's one after the other without strain and enjoying them all.

Once having heard many of the artists for te first time the search wil then commence for solo albums if they exist, and they probably do in most cases.

If this were a "Bear Family" set there would certainly be another $... on the askng price.

If you are already a fan of this type of musci or are looking to explore it furter this really is THE set to buy as a starting point.

All the tracks are strong and there is no "padding" at all.

Combine this with a quite outstanding book giving full details on the artists and the history of Arhoolie and this is a set that will be cherished for years to come and played with great regularity.

Highly recommended.