Roots music icon Chris Strachwitz is a detective of sounds and an archaeologist of deep American music, the antithesis of the corporate “mouse music” that dominates the American ear. Born a German count, Strachwitz fled Germany after WWII at age 16. In the United States he discovered, and shared, a musical landscape that most Americans missed. For the last fifty years, he has carried his tape recorder from sharecroppers’ shacks to roadside honkytonks, from cantina dives to wild blues clubs. His recordings on his indie label, Arhoolie Records, brought Cajun music out of Louisiana, Tex-Mex out of Texas, and blues out of the Delta—and into the living rooms of the world.
In “This Ain't No Mouse Music!” filmmakers Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling join Strachwitz for a hip-shaking stomp from New Orleans to Texas and from Cajun country to Appalachia as he continues his passionate quest for the musical soul of America.
Join us for a film screening and discussion with Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz and archivist and curator Jeff Place (Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage). A reception follows the discussion.
Organized by the German Historical Institute as part of its project on German immigrant entrepreneurs (see Chris Strachwitz’s biography HERE), the Goethe-Institut, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
The screening and discussion will take place at the
Goethe-Institut, 812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
202-289-1200 or info(at)washington.goethe.org
Tickets $7 / $4 (Goethe members).Please RSVP and buy tickets HERE.
Find a printable version of the Flyer with all the key information HERE.