Chris Strachwitz started to love blues from listening to 78s and did some early recordings of Jesse Fuller in 1954. After a spell in the Services, he heard Lightnin' Hopkins and wanted to record him live in a juke joint. His search took him to Navasota with his friend Mack McCormick where they were directed to enquire of Peg-Leg at the railway station. They came across a 65-year old who played in the songster tradition: Mance Lipscomb [born 9th April 1895] - his simple, graceful playing were stylistically far from Hopkins but both McCormick and Strachwitz knew they'd found the debut recordings for a brand new imprint. So it was in November 1970 that Chris and family gatherred round the kitchen table stcking labels and putting albums into sleeves - the album was "Texas Songster", the first of several Lipscomb did in the next few years for the new Arhoolie label.
The name Arhoolie was a mishearing of the answer a singer gave to a question on his music: the nervous stutter of "arw" slurred into "hoolie" meaning holler. STAR BLUES on 3rd April 2011 took the risque track "'Bout A Spoonful" from a label cd sampler "15 Country Blues Classics".
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