RIP Jim Kirchstein, Founder of Cuca Records

Today was my friend Jim Kirchstein's funeral in Sauk City. He lived to be 93 and led an amazing life. For those of you who didn't know Jim, he was the founder of Cuca Records--one of Wisconsin's most important record labels of the 1960s and '70s. Sadly, his 93-year old cousin "Cuca" in New Mexico, for whom his record label is named, also just passed away this month.

As soon as I moved to WI eight years ago, I began collecting Cuca Records for Mills Music Library and quickly struck up a friendship with Jim. About a year later he donated his entire collection--records, recording contracts, publishing and leasing agreements, photos and more--to Mills Music Library (the searchable finding aid is now complete and online: https://shorturl.at/HfkzQ)

The first time Jim invited me out to his place in Mt. Horeb to do an interview about Cuca Records he showed me his basement, which was filled with 400+ marionettes hanging at eye level, and for the next couple hours I completely forgot to ask about records. Instead, we talked about puppets, art, important figures in his life, his service in the Navy, his engineering degree from UW-Madison, and paper mache. He later introduced me to his friend Ken Vogel, the master puppet maker, and that spark was the inspiration for the Nate Gibson & the Stars of Starday puppet artwork (Ken made all the puppets and backdrops for that project, as well as the hundreds of puppets in Jim's collection).

Over the years Jim and I bonded over our mutual love for Ken's puppets, local music, playing trumpet, western wear, Mills Music Library, and even going out to see live music by artists who formerly recorded for Cuca Records. Jim was a guest host on Back to the Country with me a couple years back and we did several hours of recorded interviews over the years. I'm honored that he trusted me, and also my colleagues at Mills Music Library, to tell his story and to preserve the Cuca legacy. Since then, I've given numerous Cuca Records talks at conferences and lectures for classrooms, continued collecting and trying to complete the label for Wisconsin Music Archives and Mills, and hope to complete a new book on the label in short time.

Jim Kirschstein, Raylene (Bartel), and I. This was the first time Jim and Raylene had seen each other since she recorded for Jim's Cuca Records label in the early and mid '60s.

I could go on and on about all the great music on Cuca, but if you'd like to know more about the label, PBS Wisconsin did a great 8-minute segment (which still gets TV airplay now and then) as part of their Sauk Prairie Hometown Stories documentary and Jim and I both got to be the talking heads in it. If interested, you can watch it here: https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/wisconsin-hometown-stories/sauk-prairie-sound-wisconsin-7eybfr/ RIP Jim, and many thanks for all the great memories and music!

Jim Kirchstein showing off his puppet collection and holding a photo of his parents and siblings, the photo for which the puppets above it were modeled from.