The holidays brought glad tidings to El Cerrito’s Down Home Music Store after a looming threat that the legendary property might go up for sale and be taken over by the highest bidder.
Since 1976, 10341 San Pablo Ave. has been the site of not only Down Home Music — a world-renowned destination record store for lovers of current and historical folk music from the U.S. and across the globe — but also the headquarters of Chris Strachwitz’s Arhoolie Records (now the Arhoolie Foundation) and Les Blank’s Flower Films (now Les Blank Films). Strachwitz produced many albums of blues, Cajun, Norteño, and other genres of roots music and collaborated with Blank on documentary films about the cultures where that music originated.
After Blank’s death in 2013 and Strachwitz’s in 2023, Blank’s son Harrod, also a filmmaker, and the Arhoolie Foundation, which was formed in 1995, launched a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the purchase of the property. Their initial offer, somewhat under market valuation, was refused earlier this year by Strachwitz’s estate. But a week before Thanksgiving, the parties consented to a contract. The Arhoolie Foundation and Les Blank Films are both nonprofit organizations, and Down Home Music might also be designated as such. “What we’re arguing,” said Harrod Blank, “is that the retail supports the mission of involving the community with musicians. The IRS will hopefully look at it the same way.”
In a phone conversation shortly after Christmas, Blank noted that he’d received substantial support from certain donors eager for end-of-the-year tax write-offs.
Early in the new year, he plans to meet with Arhoolie Foundation Executive Director Adam Machado and Down Home manager John McCord “about further fundraising and event planning and working on the building — basically dreaming for the future,” Blank said.
In keeping with the mission of community involvement, the entrance to Down Home is set to be reconfigured as an arch — “so that it’ll be more like a cathedral,” Blank said. “And I’ve got some ideas to make the outdoor a lot more festive and hearty and utilitarian.” He described the new lighting he envisions for record-swap meets and other events. Indoors, he anticipates there will be more in the way of in-store concerts, and the Arhoolie Foundation will establish a vault for its archives. The upper floor of the building will continue to house the foundation’s offices and Les Blank Films, of which Blank is president. He plans to keep releasing improved prints of his father’s documentaries as well as his own new work.
Down Home had for years served as a shrine for Joel Selvin, longtime pop music critic and writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of a 2023 book compiling Strachwitz’s musical travelogues and photographs. “Any time a new trend emerged and I needed to beef up my information, Down Home was the place I had to go to,” recounted Selvin. “They were always drivers in that culture, not just reflecting it. And Chris was the most admirable person I ever met in the record business because he remained closest to his original bliss.”
Selvin acknowledged that record stores are “an endangered species” driven toward extinction by online outlets. But he pointed out that without the brick-and-mortar establishments, “there’s no communal locus for the whole world of records. You can’t go somewhere and meet people who are similarly interested, and you can’t browse reissues and the latest releases.”
Blank is planning a public gala celebration for around Easter time, when the deal is expected to be consummated and Down Home effectively reborn. In addition to the ongoing GoFundMe campaign, Les Blank Films and the Arhoolie Foundation are accepting donations directly.
