When you listen to anything released by Arhoolie Records, you’re hearing the heart of a community being sung into life. Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie’s founder who passed away earlier this year, was one of the 20th century’s most enthusiastic and prolific documentarians of traditional music, whose work in the field and in the studio produced hundreds of albums on Arhoolie. By celebrating the musicians populating his label, we celebrate Strachwitz as well.

Featuring the prodigious, exuberant talent of artists like Lydia Mendoza, Clifton Chenier, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, and of groups like Beausoliel, Treme Brass Band, and the Any Old Time String Band, Arhoolie charts unique pathways into local, international communities of music.

Introducing: Arhoolie Records features 30 curated, rotating songs.

To read more about Arhoolie Records, which was acquired to help preserve its legacy by Smithsonian Folkways in 2016, see the Folkways feature, "The Story of Arhoolie Records” and read our obituary, "Chris Strachwitz: A Life as Art.”

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