2017 Winners: ARSC Awards for Excellence
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 12, 2018, during ARSC’s annual conference in Baltimore, MD. Additional information about the conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence can be found at www.arsc-audio.org.
Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards are given to authors of books, articles or recording liner notes to recognize those publishing the very best work today in recorded sound research. In giving these awards, ARSC recognizes the contributions of these individuals and aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards and to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category, for best history and best discography, and several others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.
The 2017 Awards for Excellence honor books published in 2016.
and other independent publishing sites.
[ Best Research in Recorded Rock Music ]
Best History Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol by Steve Jones with Ben Thompson (Da Capo) |
Best Discography The Immediate Discography: the First 20 Years by Mark Jones (The Record Press/lulu.com) |
Certificate of Merit Never Say No to A Rock Star: In the Studio with Dylan, Sinatra, Jagger and More… by Glenn Berger (Schaffner Press) |
[ Best Research in Recorded Popular Music ]
Best History
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Best Discography Four Boys and a Guitar: The Story and Music of the Mills Brothers by Douglas E. Friedman (self-published) |
Certificate of Merit A Cole Porter Companion by Don M. Randel, Matthew Shaftel, and Susan Forscher Weiss (University of Illinois Press) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz ]
Best History Whisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson by Benny Golson and Jim Merod (Temple University Press) |
Certificate of Merit Blue Rhythm Fantasy: Big Band Jazz Arranging in the Swing Era by John Wriggle (University of Illinois Press) |
[ Best Research in Recorded Country Music ]
Best History Whisperin’ Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music by Bill Anderson and Peter Michael Cooper (University of Georgia Press) |
Certificate of Merit The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp by Ted Olson and Tony Russell (Bear Family Records) |
Certificate of Merit Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The Life and Music of Curly Seckler by Penny Parsons (University of Illinois Press) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Roots, Folk or World Music ]
Best History American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself by Bernard McMahon, Allison McGourty and Elijah Wald (Touchstone) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Gospel, Soul or R&B ]
Best History The Art of the Blues: A Visual Treasury of Black Music’s Golden Age by Bill Dahl (University of Chicago Press) |
Best Discography Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward (Chicago Review Press) |
Certificate of Merit Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge by Martin Hawkins (LSU Press) |
Certificate of Merit Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism & the Phonograph, 1890-1900 by Richard Martin (Archeophone) |
Certificate of Merit Race Records and the American Recording Industry, 1919-1945: An Illustrated History by Allan Sutton (Mainspring Press) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music ]
Best History Barbirolli: A Chronicle of a Career by Raymond Holden (Barbirolli Society, in association with the Royal Academy of Music) |
Certificate of Merit Performing Life: The Story of Ruth Posselt, American Violinist by Diana Lewis Burgin (University of Massachusetts Press) |
[ Best Historical Research on General Recording Topics ]
Best History Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton (aka DJ Rupture) (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) |
Best Discography Australia’s Most Comprehensive Vinyl Record Guide: A Definitive Catalogue Of Music Released By Artists And Bands Who Shaped The Music Industry Around The World For 70 Years by Thomas Balacco (Thomas Balacco; Hardshell Publishing) |
Certificate of Merit Recorded sound in Czech Lands, 1900-1946 by Gabriel Gössel and Filip Šír (The Moravian Library) |
Certificate of Merit The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Matthew Rubery (Harvard University Press) |
[ Best Historical Research in Record Labels ]
Best History Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy by Richard Carlin (University Press of Mississippi) |
Best Discography The Gramophone Company's first Indian recordings 1899 - 1907 by Michael Kinnear (Bajakhana) |
Certificate of Merit "The 1898 Gramophone Co. Studio: New Perspectives" (A three part series) by Peter Adamson For the Record: The Journal of The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society 56: 448-456; 59: 147-156; 60: 206-213 |
Certificate of Merit Attractive Hebrews: The Lambert Yiddish Cylinders, 1901-1905 Henry Sapoznik and Richard Martin with the assistance of Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture and the Mills Music Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Archeophone) |
Certificate of MeritMotown: The Sound of Young America by Adam White, Barney Ales, and Andrew Loog Oldham (Thames & Hudson) |
For more information, please contact Roberta Freund Schwartz (University of Kansas).
Winners are chosen by a committee consisting of three elected judges representing specific fields of study, two judges-at-large, the review editor of the ARSC Journal and the President or past President of ARSC. The 2017 ARSC Awards Committee consists of the following:
Dan Morgenstern (Jazz Music Judge); Jon Samuels (Classical Music Judge); Matthew Barton (Popular Music Judge and ARSC Presedent); Cary Ginell (Judge-At-Large); Richard Spottswood (Judge-at-Large); James Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal); Patrick Feaster (ARSC past President); David N. "Uncle Dave" Lewis (Awards Committee Co-Chair), and Roberta Freund Schwartz (Awards Committee Co-Chair).
