August 14, 2003
Two more links.
Before I continue on with more Blogs, I would like to call your attention to two links that I restored to the list, namely Arhoolie Records and Rootsworld.
I work at Arhoolie Records. My main duties are the marketing and promotions, but since we are a small label I also edit CDs, write liner notes, handle royalties, fend off A and R requests, cook lunch (the boss and I are the resident foodies, so we do the lunches once in awhile), pack orders, deal with our lunatic customers (like Mr. 5 Page Handwritten Letter Once a Month or Mr. The Germans Are Out to Get Me so I will Send You My Rant on Cassette (never mind that 4 of the 6 of us are Krauts)), etc. etc. etc.
You can read about the history of Arhoolie on the website (and can order lots and lots of CDs!), but in a nutshell we have been around for 43 years, putting out raw, gritty folk music: blues, Cajun, Zydeco, Tex Mex, Free Jazz, Bluegrass, and a lot more. Our highlights include Del McCoury's first record as a bandleader, just about all of the major Clifton Chenier titles, the best Cajun catalog out there, Flaco Jiménez's Grammy winning Ay Te Dejo in San Antonio, the Sacred Steel gospel music of the House of God, free jazz master Sonny Simmons, blues legends Lightning Hopkins, Fred McDowell, Earl Hooker, and Big Mama Thornton.
Rootsworld is a great on-line magazine of world roots music. Cliff Furnald out of Connecticut (or one of those states on the other side of the Berkeley Hills), edits it. I sometimes write for Rootsworld. It has been awhile, but I have a couple of things to send Cliff. It is a great magazine that has turned me on to a lot of great music from around the world. So, go visit, look around, better yet, contribute and become a subscriber (I think Cliff sends you a CD for doing so, as well as some browsing rights).
Posted by erik at August 14, 2003 5:44 PM | TrackBackClifton Chenier rocks!
Posted by: Barrister at August 21, 2003 8:11 PMAlicia,
Thanks for the tip. I will check Monday to see if they stock our titles.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at August 17, 2003 12:02 AMI could give you even more reasons to dislike Tower, for instance, the fact that they extort from labels heavily (basically for anything but the standard misfiled bin labels have to pay big bucks, much more than Tower will ever justify in sales). However, they are the best game in most towns for Classical, Jazz, World and Folk genres. In the more civilized Towers, they have some separation so that one can actually look for Classical music without being subjected to the awful music the staff plays over the sound system.
I really wish that Borders did a better job, so they could fill in for what Tower has done well, but they are making some incredibly stupid moves. They want to be a deep catalog store, because it is good for their reputation, but they do not want to actually buy deep catalog material, so they look to labels to pay (sound familiar?). Since times are so tight for the record business, we are all balking, which means they will have to decide whether to pay for the material or will go the way of Wherehouse (and there is no market for that sort of record store anymore, with the collapse of Top 40). The local stores tend to be way too rock oriented (in Sacramento The Beat comes to mind - blues is about the only non-Rock genre they do well). Sacramento really should be able to support a good independent record store, but hasn't so far. I don't understand it.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at August 16, 2003 11:59 PMWe have a good independant record store in Concord NH - Pitchfork records on Main street. The local Borders does not like it at all.
Posted by: alicia the midwife at August 16, 2003 6:44 PMThanks, Erik. Perhaps I'll look around some. However, I really, really, really hate the idea of supporting Tower in any manner. I go in there when I'm desperate but always hate the experience. The place is permeated with obscenity. The shifty-eyed perverts, the mutilated young bodies, the vulgar advertisements, the head-banging noise on the sound system ... the place is demonic. I'm all for supporting small local businesses, but this place needs to be shut down.
Posted by: at August 16, 2003 10:52 AMLogos is essentially used and remaindered (what little is left of that market in books), Borders is selective with our stuff, since they rely on tyrranical buyers in remote Ann Arbor, MI for THE WHOLE CHAIN! Grrr.
Streetlight carries some of our stuff, and can order the rest of it. Due to the fact that it is the only independent game in town, it is difficult to get a sales rep to go there. For Santa Cruzans living a few blocks from the beach on the Eastside, they can order directly from me, and I will deliver it to your door. Instead of the usual shipping and handling charges, all I need is a martini!
Santa Cruz really needs a good record store, the way Cymbaline was (yes, I know they were expensive, but they had great selection).
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at August 15, 2003 12:12 PMDoes Streetlight sell your stuff? They're the only game in town here anymore since everyone else has gone out of business. That's not true: Logos is still here, but they mostly deal with used, and Borders is doing okay, but the Wherehouse closed their Pacific location.
Posted by: ann at August 15, 2003 11:17 AMTower Records on 16th and Broadway has a lot of our stuff, but often misfiled. Every time I am in there I have to move a Tex Mex title to the correct section from the Cajun section. (Hint to any of my readers at Tower #111: Clifton Chenier belongs in Cajun/Zydeco; Flaco Jiménez does not).
Any record store that is serviced by one-stops or Koch Entertainment Distribution (basically any record store that sells new CDs), can get our stuff, overnight if they order through a one-stop. Unfortunately many record store employees do not know this, either from laziness or that no one told them.
If nothing turns up in a local store, one can order direct from us or through Amazon, although I really urge people to support their local record stores (and for Sacramento, Tower is local).
If there are any good record stores out there that should carry our stuff and don't, I would love to know about them so I can send a sales rep their way!
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at August 15, 2003 9:32 AMWow, it looks like there is lots of good music at Arhoolie Records. Is there an outlet for these in Sacramento?
Posted by: at August 14, 2003 7:34 PM