Chris Strachwitz, a record label executive and record producer from Germany passed away on Friday, May 5 2023, from complications with congestive heart failure at an assisted living facility in Marin County, according to the Arhoolie Foundation. He was 91.
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Chris Strachwitz was the founder and president of Arhoolie Records, which he founded in 1960.
Arhoolie Records grew into one of the leading label’s recording and releasing blues, Cajun, notes, and other forms of roots music from the United States and around the world.
Chris Strachwitz was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award in February 2016 at the 2016 Grammys in recognition of his contributions in areas of recording other than performance.
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Aside from his Grammy, Strachwitz received a lifetime achievement award from the Blues Symposium and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame as a non-performing member.
Chris Strachwitz founded the Arhoolie Foundation in 1995 to “document, preserve, present, and disseminate authentic traditional and regional vernacular music,” with Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt as advisers.
Chris Strachwitz sold his majority stake in the record label to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a division of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, in 2016.
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