Association for Recorded Sound Collections Announces the Winners of ARSC Awards for Excellence
Eugene, Oregon – October 23, 2023
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. Additional information about the ARSC Awards for Excellence can be found at www.arsc-audio.org/awards.
The 2023 Awards for Excellence honor books published in 2022.
BEST RESEARCH IN RECORDED ROCK OR POPULAR MUSIC
Winner, Best History
RJ Smith Chuck Berry: An American Life (Hachette Books)
Winner, Best Discography
Bernard H. Thorpe, Dean Martin – A Discography (self-published)
Certificates of Merit
Cary Ginell, Carefully Taught: American History Through Broadway Musicals (Applause Books)
Will Hodgkinson, In Perfect Harmony: Sing-a-Long Pop in ’70s Britain (Nine-Eight Publishing)
Brian Johnson, The Lives of Brian: A Memoir (Dey Street Books)
Brian J. Kramp, This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick (Jawbone Press)
Gary Parker, The Sonic Swagger of Elvis Presley: A Critical History of the Early Recordings (McFarland & Company)
Michael R. Pitts, Nick Lucas: The Crooning Troubadour and His Guitar (McFarland & Company)
Harry Shapiro, Gary Moore: The Official Biography (Jawbone Press)
Bob Stanley, Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History (Pegasus Books)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED JAZZ
Winner
Caroline Vézina, Jazz à la Creole: French Creole Music and the Birth of Jazz (University Press of Mississippi)
Certificates of Merit
Rodger Coleman, Sun Ra Sundays (Digital Press of the University of North Dakota)
Keith Hatschek, The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation (University Press of Mississippi)
Richard Koloda, Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler (Jawbone Press)
Aidan Levy, Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins (Hachette Books)
Gerry Mullgan and Ken Poston, Being Gerry Mulligan: My Life in Music (Backbeat Books)
Dan Sumner & Katy Hobgood: Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer (Bookbaby)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY, FOLK, WORLD, OR ROOTS MUSIC
Winner, Best History
Merle Travis and Deke Dickerson, Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story (BMG Books)
Winner, Best Discography
Ed Guy, Hank Williams’ Discography: The Enhanced Version (Hank Williams Press)
Certificates of Merit
John Cowley, Steve Shapiro and Ted Olson, Lovey’s Original Trinidad String Band: Encore “Lovey”! (RWA Records)
Marc Eliot, The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard (Hachette Books)
Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Queer Country (University of Illinois Press)
Larisa Kingston Mann, Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright, and the Reverberations of Colonial Power (University of North Carolina Press)
Francesca Royster, Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions (University of Texas Press)
Christopher Silver, Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music across Twentieth-Century North Africa (Stanford University Press)
James Mitchell, Music & recording in Chulalongkorn’s Bangkok, (Silkwornm Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED BLUES, R&B, GOSPEL, HIP HOP, OR SOUL MUSIC
Best History
Luigi Monge, Wasn’t That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster (University Press of Mississippi)
Best Discography
Randye Jones, Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022 (McFarland)
Certificates of Merit
Terri Brinegar, Voices of Black Folk: The Sermons of Reverend A. W. Nix (University Press of Mississippi)
Dan Charnas, Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm (MCD)
Fred Rothwell, Dynamite! Ike Turner’s Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books)
Julia Simon, The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson: Blues, Race, Identity (The Pennsylvania State University Press) [5]
Guido van Rijn, The Naptown Blues of Leroy Carr (Agram Books)
Cheryl Wills, Isn’t Her Grace Amazing! The Women Who Changed Gospel Music (Amistad Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON RECORD LABELS OR GENERAL RECORDING TOPICS
Winner
Larry Jaffee, Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century (Rare Bird Books)
Certificates of Merit
Bruce Adams, You’re with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music (University of Texas Press)
Georgia Born, ed., Music and Digital Media: A Planetary Anthropology (UCL Press)
Morgan Luker, “Matrix Listening; or, What and How We Can Learn from Historical Sound Recordings,” Ethnomusicology 66/2: 290-318.
Kallie Marie, Conversations with Women in Music Production: The Interviews (Backbeat Books)
Michael Tau, Extreme Music: From Silence to Noise and Everything In Between (Feral House)
Contact:
Roberta Freund Schwartz
Chair, Awards Committee
rfschwar@ku.edu
