Roots

Back when I was a San Diegan, one of my favorite spots in the world was Folk Arts Rare Records, a musty/dusty little shop full of aging vinyl.

I was less jazz-literate in those days, and less interested in country & old-timey music. Also, I was dirt-poor, I usually had to borrow $40-80 against the next paycheck each month just to meet rent. So I didn't get to take advantage of the shop's resources in the way I would if I lived there now... but still I found my way in from time to time, looking for the under-$5 LP that would change my life. (I found it occasionally, too).

The proprietor, Lou Curtiss, is a quiet older gentleman who I always perceived to be quite intimidating, like facing a bear in his den. The store was always a little darker and smaller than comfortable: browsing records meant squeezing into a small space and hunching over for long periods of time. The payoff, more than the generally excellent selection, was the man's brain: I could ask about Peg Leg Howell, or Al Green, or Furry Lewis, and he'd know. Not only did he know of, but occasionally he'd know someone personally: he'd been instrumental since the early 1960s in staging concerts for folk (in the larger sense of the word) musicians, and thus had some personal experiences with folks like Sam Chatmon and Merle Travis.

For many years he ran the yearly Adams Ave. Roots Festival, which was two blocks from my house during some of my prime stoned-musician-geek years. (I submit that there's not much better in this life than taking a day off from work, getting high, walking two short blocks down a sunny street, and then sitting down to listen to a Bulgarian bagpiper swirling trance-inducing waves of wonderfulness, in the middle of the street, then following it up with some acoustic blues and mexican folk music. That was a good day.)

Here's the shop's website: http://www.folkartsrarerecords.com

Not a huge amount of listening here, though the archive of old festival recordings has some gems (and apparently it's expanding).

The links page has some good resources too: right now I'm listening to WFMU's Secret Museum of the Air.

For many many years Lou also has done a weekly show on the local jazz station. Unfortunately there isn't a vast archive, just a short sample, or that'd be a great place to spend all day:
http://www.jazz88.org/rss/Jazz%20Roots/

All in all the man has contributed enormously to keeping the world's soul alive. I often think that, though no one knows, he's one of the most important living people in Southern California. A Lamed Wufnik.

I've been thinking about this in part because a coworker's husband does radio shows, and is planning to do one about Lou.

Kind of exciting, I'd like the man to become famous...