Arts & Events

This Ain't No Mouse Music is the story of local cultural icon Chris Strachwitz—founder of El Cerrito-based Down Home Records—and his 54 years as a student, fan, collector, curator and producer of "the people's music." This ain't no lie: This Ain't No Mouse Music is one of the best musical documentaries since Twenty Feet from Stardom. A ticket to this film is a ticket to a non-stop carousel of eclectic musical encounters—from blues to zydeco to conjunto to bluegrass and beyond.

 

This Ain't No Mouse Music! (92 minutes) 

Directed and Produced by Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling 

Opens September 19 at the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley 

Reviewed by Gar Smith 

Note: Directors Maureen Gosling & Chris Simon, Chris Strachwitz in person. September 19 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley 7pm 

The simple truth is This Ain't No Mouse Music is one of the best musical documentaries since Twenty Feet from Stardom. And it arrives at the same time that another terrific roots-music doc, Take Me to the River, is also shaking the walls of local movie theatres. No Mouse Music is the story of local cultural icon Chris Strachwitz, the founder of El Cerrito-based Down Home Records and his 54 years as a student, fan, curator and producer of "the people's music." After the introductions and historical backstories are taken care of, the film quickly becomes a non-stop carousel of eclectic musical encounters—from blues to zydeco to conjunto to bluegrass. But first, the backstory. 

The son of a count from Silesia, Germany, Strachwitz and his family fled invading Russian troops in 1945 and came to America. Co-directors Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling have known Strachwitz for more than 25 years and their film is clearly a labor of love—about a feisty German immigrant who became the improbable impresario of America's largely overlooked grassroots musical heritage. 

The film opens with Strachwitz shuffling through his El Cerrito office. (This is probably the only film you'll ever see that contains a scene of someone soaping and washing a vinyl LP over a sink.) Leaning over a turntable, Strachwitz pulls out a vinyl platter, drops the needle and breaks into a grin as the voice of Lightning Hopkins booms through the speakers. 

Strachwitz' first musical revelation as a young American was the discovery of New Orleans jazz. And then, the blues. When Strachwitz first encountered Lightning Hopkins and his music in 1960, no one even knew where Hopkins lived. A French jazz magazine speculated that he was from Mississippi but, when a friend tipped Strachwitz that Hopkins actually lived in Texas, that's all it took. Strachwitz packed his car and took off for Texas. He discovered Hopkins in a small bar, playing his electric guitar for a band of drinking buddies. Strachwitz was blown away by what Hopkins was doing. Unlike most music of the day, this was raw, real, immediate and largely improvised. "It was made-up poetry on the spot," Strachwitz recalls. "I said, 'Goddammit,' somebody's got to record this stuff!" 

Strachwitz has a pithy explanation of his work ethic: "My stuff isn't produced. I just catch it as it is!" Strachwitz is dismissive of commercial companies that record only what they think will sell. He calls mainstream music "mouse music"—as in "cheesy" and inauthentic. "I wouldn't want to record stuff I didn't like," he says. 

In the 1930s, folklorists like Alan Lomax and Charles Seeger (Pete's dad) spent years touring America's rural back roads with bulky sound recorders to capture "non-commercial," "traditional" music. Following this tradition, Strachwitz has spent more than five decades tracking down and preserving America's "deep-rooted music." But, in addition to lugging around sound-recording equipment, Strachwitz frequently showed up with a film camera as well. (With camera-in-hand, Strachwitz captured priceless black-and-white footage of Mance Lipscomb, Lightning Hopkins and other blues greats who would come to enjoy worldwide acclaim thanks to the LPs pressed by Strachwitz's Arhoolie Records.) 

This slender blond white kid armed with nothing but a microphone and a recorder might have looked out of place in the Colored bars of the segregated South, but Strachwitz felt right at home. Still, there were constant reminders of the dangerous world that lurked beyond the walls of the local blues clubs. Before recording his song, Tom Moore's Farm, Mance Lipscomb had Strachwitz swear that he would not release the record while the real white farmer, Tom J. Moore, was still alive. 

It was folklorist Mac McCormick who urged Strachwitz to start a record company and suggested the name "Archoolie" (local argot for a "field hollar"). Speaking of Lispcomb, McCormick tells the camera: "If you want to start a record company, what Leadbelly was for Allan Lomax, this fellow could be the same for Archoolie Records. An incredible find: The whole history of black rural culture in his head. A memory filled with blues, reels, gospel songs, ballads, children's songs." 

No Mouse Music boasts interviews with a number of well-known "singing heads." 

Ry Cooder defines Strachwitz as "a classic record man. Not corporate. Not about to take orders. Not about to fit into any kind of system." 

Bonnie Raitt recalls Strachwitz' impact on the life of Red McDowell, a hardscrabble musician who spent his life farming and wound up touring Europe playing before thousands of fans at music festivals. 

Taj Mahal is also on hand to offer trenchant recollections while Michael and David Doucet provide both recollections and some rip-roaring fiddling. 

Flaco Jimenez adds his voice to the commentary. One of the stars of Chulas Fronteras (a 1976 Les Blank film about norteño and conjunto music from the Tex-Mex borderlands), Jimenez calls Arhoolie's musical playlist "the poetry of the people" and adds the philosophical observation that: "Sharing the music makes the world rounder." 

There are around 70 songs on a soundtrack that ranges from Big Mama Thornton singing "You AIn't Nothing but a Hound Dog" to the first recording of Country Joe & the Fish singing the "Fixin' to Die Rag." The 7-inch 33-1/3 rpm LP was recorded in Strachwitz' living room on a mike dangling from a cheap chandelier. 

This was in October 1965. In 1969, when Joe and the Fish hit the stage at Woodstock, Fixin' to Die took off like a rock-and-roll rocket and quickly became an anthem of the Anti-War Movement. Strachwitz' proceeded to open Down Home Music with the profits from Country Joe's Fixin' to Die Rag. 

There are dozens hurricane-force performances in No Mouse Music and many memorable musicians, but a personal favorite is the delightful Canray Fontenot. By day, Fontenot is shown working as poorly paid day laborer in a mercantile store. But after work, he's irresistible when he picks up his violin and breaks into a joyous smile while singing a mischievous Cajun love song. As someone comments, with music like this, it's "like going to paradise without suffering death!" 

The film ends with a New Orleans-style musical parade through Berkeley's downtown streets to celebrate Arhoolie's 50^th anniversary. Look closely. If you don't find yourself in the parade, you'll probably spot a friend. One warning: This is the kind of film that could induce Repetitive-Stress-Syndrome-of-the-foot – thanks to the enormous amount of non-stop toe-tapping the soundtrack produces. 

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"This Ain't No Mouse Music" Special Events: Q&A Schedule  

September 18 at Rialto Cinemas Cerrito in El Cerrito 7pm 

• Directors Maureen Gosling & Chris Simon, Chris Strachwitz in person

• Chris Strachwitz in person for Q&A music by Michael Doucet

• Post-screening Q&A with Maureen Gosling

• Q&A with Chris Simon & Bonnie Raitt. Co-director Chris Simon will be joined by film participant Bonnie Raitt for a discussion following the screening.

• Post-screening Q&A with Chris Simon

• Before the screening, music by HowellDevine . Q&A after screening with Chris Strachwitz and Maureen Gosling.

• Q&A Chris Simon, Maureen Gosling - followed by music by Will Spires .

Take Me to the River is playing at the UA Theatre in Berkeley.