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Smithsonian Folkways and its imprint Arhoolie Records are out today with an eight-track sampler of rare, unreleased, and classic songs by GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Clifton Chenier ahead of the publication of the landmark box set entitled 'Clifton Chenier: King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco.' Folkways and Arhoolie are also announcing that the long-awaited box set, which is the first ever dedicated to Chenier, will be released on February 6th, 2026, with an expansive 4 CD, 6 LP, 160-page spread of essays, photographs, and other rare graphic artifacts. It is the first release from Arhoolie since the legendary roots music label founded by Chris Strachwitz joined the Folkways catalog ten years ago, and features many significant songs that Chenier originally released on Arhoolie beginning in the 1960s.
The songs out today include unreleased music from Clifton's historic 1976 performance on Austin City Limits, where he shared the stage with Townes Van Zandt for the television series' third-ever episode, and that year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Today's collection also includes the earliest-known live recording of Chenier circa 1959/1960.
This sampler follows the June release of a 7" featuring The Rolling Stones' cover of Chenier's signature song "Zydeco Sont Pas Salés," celebrating the “King of Zydeco’s” centennial birthday. Read Mick Jagger talking about the single, his lifelong fandom of Chenier’s music, and the impact of zydeco on the Stones' music in The Atlantic and Rolling Stone.
Listen to the sampler HERE, and check out The Rolling Stones' "Zydeco Sont Pas Salés” HERE.
The sampler offers a glimpse into Chenier’s world, pairing classics with rare and never-before-heard recordings. Coming this February, the 67-track box set is the first ever release of this scope and breadth to be dedicated to the icon who fused blues, R&B, Afro-Caribbean, Cajun, and Creole traditions into the sound now known as zydeco, and who played with and influenced artists from The Rolling Stones to friends like Etta James, Little Richard, and Ray Charles. The set features a whopping nineteen unreleased tracks, as well as a wealth of material pulled from the Arhoolie Records catalog, which became a part of Smithsonian Folkways in 2016.
More information on the sampler is below, and watch this space for more to come ahead of the February box set release!
The tracklist includes:
-“Ay, Ai, Ai” – Originally released on Chenier's 1965 LP Louisiana Blues & Zydeco
-“Cher Catin” (Live at St. Marks, 1971) – Previously unreleased
-“Someone Told Me It Was Over” (1973) – Originally released exclusively as a 7” single alongside “Key to the Highway”
-“Je Suis en Racoleur (I’m a Farmer)” (1975) – Originally released on the Grammy Hall of Fame–inducted album Bogalusa Boogie, which was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2015
-“Calinda” (Live on Austin City Limits, 1976) – Previously unreleased
-“My Mama Told Me” (Live at the Louisiana Jazz & Heritage Festival, 1976) – Previously unreleased
-“Party Down (at the Blue Angel Club)” (1983, live) – Originally released as a 45 from a live recording at the 1983 Long Beach Blues Festival by radio KLON
-“Baby What You Want Me To Do” (1959/60) – One of Chenier's earliest known live recordings, previously unreleased
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