For close to 50 years serious albeit fun-loving fans of stomping, honking, swinging rhythm and blues music, traditional jazz, bluegrass and honky tonk, early rock ‘n roll, Mexican conjunto music, and, yes, polkas, have trekked from around the globe to an otherwise innocuous storefront in El Cerrito to visit Down Home Music, a record store with a mission.

It has been a mission shared with other occupants of the building at 10341 San Pablo Avenue -- a pioneering folk, blues, country and world music record label, Arhoolie Records, run by the late Chris Strachwitz (1931-1923), who also owned the store, and a separate filmmaking studio, Flower Films, now Les Blank Films, that has focused largely on traditional cultures and their music and foods – with excursions touching on such subjects as the outré film director Werner Herzog.

The owner of the property, a trust made up of Strachwitz’s heirs, plans to sell the building, according to filmmaker and art car artist Harrod Blank, son of Les Blank (1935-2013), who runs Les Blank Films. Harrod has right of first refusal to buy the property at market value, he says, thanks to a provision in Chris Strachwitz’s will. Read the article.