And here's an article from November in the New York Times, no less http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/arts/music/28arhoolie.html?_r=1

Ry Cooder on Arhoolie: Ry Cooder, the Grammy Award-winning guitarist and producer, recalled that "I must have been about 13" the day he took a bus to a blues and folk record store in downtown Los Angeles and for the first time heard Big Joe Williams singing ferociously and playing a nine-string guitar, on an album called "Tough Times." That recording, Arhoolie's second release, changed his life, Mr. Cooder said.

"The whole thing started like it was going to blow up, or fly apart at the seams, and it really took hold of me," he recalled. "I said to myself, 'This is what it ought to be like, total physical involvement with the music, going into it so hard that you just about lose control.' "

He added, "It started me on a path of living, the path I am still on."