Remembering Jim Kirchstein
It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Cuca Records founder and Mills super-supporter Jim Kirchstein (1931-2025) passed away on February 2, 2025. Since the inception of his Sauk City-based record label in 1959, Kirchstein dedicated himself to the preservation of Wisconsin music. With an engineering degree from UW–Madison in hand, he built a recording studio to record musicians, a pressing plant to press records, a radio station to play the records, and a record store from which to sell them. Believing that every town in Wisconsin in the 1960s had both a polka band and a rock and roll band, Kirchstein set out to record them both. Along the way, he recorded a trove of blues, garage, gospel, surf, country, jazz, polka, folk, soul, and a whole lot more–essentially, a sonic snapshot of Wisconsin throughout the 1960s and early ‘70s.
Cuca Records is probably best known for the 1960 million-selling rock single “Mule Skinner Blues” by the Fendermen, though Kirchstein also recorded legendary blues records by Earl Hooker, Harvey Scales, and Birdlegs & Pauline, made the first recordings of Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, recorded Country Music Hall of Famer Pee Wee King and his band, and created the largest line of circus music and old-time and ethnic music–Kirchstein’s preferred genre.
Believing that Wisconsin music was important and deserving of long-term preservation, Kirchstein began donating materials to UW–Madison Libraries in 1969. Copies of recordings and small-batch donations from Kirchstein continued throughout the decades until 2018, when he donated the entirety of his collection to Mills Music Library–including physical records, artist contracts, publishing cards, recording indices, leasing arrangements, photos, and dubs of all recording master tapes.
The Cuca Records Collection is among the most important and significant music collections at Mills Music Library. We have an exhibit in our reading room currently of materials selected from the collection by Matt Appleby, Music Technical Services Librarian, celebrating the completion of the Cuca Records Collection finding aid. It is now also functioning as a memorial to Jim Kirchstein, whose legacy we are honored to preserve and make accessible.