2023 Winners: ARSC Awards for Excellence
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at ARSC's annual conference, which will be hosted May 15-18, 2024 in St. Paul, MN. Additional information about the ARSC Conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence may be found on the association's website.
Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards for Excellence are awarded 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, aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards, and hopes to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category for Best History and Best Discography, and others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.
The 2023 Awards for Excellence honor works published in 2022.
Read the full press release here.
and other independent publishing sites.
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Rock or Popular Music ]
Best History Chuck Berry: An American Life by R. J. Smith (Hachette Books) |
Best Discography Dean Martin: A Discography by Bernard H. Thorpe (self published) |
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Certificate of Merit Carefully Taught: American History Through Broadway Musicals by Cary Ginell (Applause Books) |
Certificate of Merit In Perfect Harmony: Sing-a-Long Pop in 70s Britain by Will Hodgkinson (Nine-Eight Publishing) |
Certificate of Merit The Lives of Brian: A Memoir by Brian Johnson (Dey Street Books) |
Certificate of Merit This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick by Brian J. Kramp (Jawbone Press) |
Certificate of Merit The Sonic Swagger of Elvis Presley: A Critical History of the Early Recordings by Gary Parker (McFarland & Company) |
Certificate of Merit Nick Lucas: The Crooning Troubadour and His Guitar by Michael R. Pitts (McFarland & Company) |
Certificate of Merit Gary Moore: The Official Biography by Harry Shapiro (Jawbone Press) |
Certificate of Merit Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History by Bob Stanley (Pegasus Books) |
Best History The Voice of the Century: The Culture of Italian Bel Canto in Luisa Tetrazzini's Recorded Interpretations by Massimo Zicari (Open Book Publishing) |
Best Discography Zabelle Panosian: I Am Servant of Your Voice by Ian Nagoski, Harry Kezelian and Harout Arakelian (Canary Books and Records) |
Certificate of Merit Sound Within Sound: Radical Composers of the Twentieth Century by Kate Molleson (Abrams Press) |
Certificate of Merit 75 Years on 4 Strings: The Life and Music of François Rabbath by Hans Sturm (Avant Bass) |
Best History Jazz á la Creole: French Creole Music and the Birth of Jazz by Caroline Vézina (University Press of Mississippi) |
Certificate of Merit Sun Ra Sundays by Rodger Coleman (Digital Press of the University of North Dakota) |
Certificate of Merit The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation by Keith Hatschek (University Press of Mississippi) |
Certificate of Merit Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler by Richard Koloda (Jawbone Press) |
Certificate of Merit Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy (Hachette Books) |
Certificate of Merit Being Gerry Mulligan: My Life in Music by Gerry Mulligan and Ken Poston (Backbeat Books) |
Certificate of Merit Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer by Dan Sumner & Katy Hobgood (University Press of Mississippi) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Country, Folk, World, or Roots Music ]
Best History Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story by Merle Travis and Deke Dickerson (BMG Books) |
Best Discography Hank Williams' Discography: The Enhanced Version by Ed Guy (Hank Williams Press) |
Certificate of Merit Lovey's Original Trinidad String Band: Encore "Lovey"! by John Cowley, Steve Shapiro, and Ted Olson (RWA Records) |
Certificate of Merit The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard by Marc Eliot (Hachette Books) |
Certificate of Merit Queer Country by Shana Goldin-Perschbacher (University of Illinois Press) |
Certificate of Merit Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright, and the Reverberations of Colonial Power by Larisa Kingston Mann (University of North Carolina Press) |
Certificate of Merit Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions by Francesca T. Royster (University of Texas Press) |
Certificate of Merit Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music across Twentieth-Century North Africa by Christopher Silver (Stanford University Press) |
Certificate of Merit Music & Recording in Chulalongkorn's Bangkok by James L. Mitchell (Silkworm Press) |
[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, R&B, Gospel, Hip Hop, or Soul Music ]
Best History Wasn't That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster by Luigi Monge (University Press of Mississippi) |
Best Discography Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022 by Randye Jones (McFarland) |
Certificate of Merit Voices of Black Folk: The Sermons of Reverend A. W. Nix by Terri Brinegar (University Press of Mississippi) |
Certificate of Merit Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas (MCD) |
Certificate of Merit Dynamite! Ike Turner's Recorded Legacy by Fred Rothwell (Music Mentor Books) |
Certificate of Merit The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson: Blues, Race, Identity by Julia Simon (The Pennsylvania State University Press) |
Certificate of Merit The Naptown Blues of Leroy Carr by Guido van Rijn (Agram Books) |
Certificate of Merit Isn't Her Grace Amazing! The Women Who Changed Gospel Music by Cheryl Wills (Amistad Press) |
[ Best Historical Research on Record Labels or General Recording Topics ]
Best History Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century by Larry Jaffee (Rare Bird Books) |
Certificate of Merit You're with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music by Bruce Adams (University of Texas Press) |
Certificate of Merit Music and Digital Media: A Planetary Anthropology by Georgia Born, ed. (UCLA Press) |
Certificate of Merit "Matrix Listening; or, What and How We Can Learn from Historical Sound Recordings," Ethnomusicology 66/2: 290-318 by Morgan Luker (Ethnomusicology) |
Certificate of Merit Conversations with Women in Music Production: The Interviews by Kallie Marie (Backbeat Books) |
Certificate of Merit Extreme Music: From Silence to Noise and Everything In Between by Michael Tau (Feral House) |
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 2023 ARSC Awards Committee consists of the following:
Rob Bamberger (Jazz Music Judge); Dennis D. Rooney (Classical Music Judge); Matthew Barton (Popular Music Judge); Cary Ginell (Judge-At-Large); Richard Spottswood (Judge-at-Large); James Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal); Cece Otto (ARSC President's designee); and Roberta Freund Schwartz (Awards Committee Chair).
