The 2017 ARSC Awards for Excellence
The ASRC is pleased to announce that Bear Family's book with Tony Russell, The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp, has won a Certificate of Merit in the 2017 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research in Country Music.
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 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.
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).
The 2017 Awards for Excellence honor books published in 2016.
The awardees are as follows.
BEST RESEARCH IN RECORDED ROCK MUSIC
Best History
Steve Jones with Ben Thompson, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol (Da Capo)
Best Discography
Mark Jones, The Immediate Discography: the First 20 Years (The Record Press/lulu.com)
Certificate of Merit
Glenn Berger, Never Say No to A Rock Star: In the Studio with Dylan, Sinatra, Jagger and More… (Schaffner Press)
BEST RESEARCH IN RECORDED POPULAR MUSIC
Best History
John W. Troutman, Kika Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music (University of North Carolina Press)
Best Discography
Douglas E. Friedman, Four Boys and a Guitar: The Story and Music of the Mills Brothers (self-published)
Certificate of Merit
Don M. Randel, Matthew Shaftel, and Susan Forscher Weiss, A Cole Porter Companion(University of Illinois Press
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED JAZZ
Best History
Benny Golson and Jim Merod, Whisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson (Temple University Press)
Certificate of Merit
John Wriggle, Blue Rhythm Fantasy: Big Band Jazz Arranging in the Swing Era (University of Illinois Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORD LABELS
Best History
Richard Carlin, Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy (University Press of Mississippi)
Best Discography
Michael Kinnear, The Gramophone Company's first Indian recordings 1899 - 1907 (Bajakhana)
Certificates of Merit
Peter Adamson, “The 1898 Gramophone Co. Studio: New Perspectives” in For the Record: The Journal of The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society 56: 448-456; 59: 147-156; 60: 206-213.
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, Attractive Hebrews: The Lambert Yiddish Cylinders, 1901-1905(Archeophone)
Adam White, Barney Ales, and Andrew Loog Oldham, Motown: The Sound of Young America(Thames & Hudson)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY MUSIC
Best History
Bill Anderson and Peter Michael Cooper, Whisperin' Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music (University of Georgia Press)
Certificates of Merit
Ted Olson and Tony Russell, The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp (Bear Family Records)
Penny Parsons, Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The Life and Music of Curly Seckler (University of Illinois Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED ROOTS, FOLK OR WORLD MUSIC
Best History
Bernard McMahon, Allison McGourty and Elijah Wald, American Epic: When Music Gave America Her Voice (Touchstone)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED BLUES, GOSPEL, SOUL, OR R&B
Best History
Bill Dahl, The Art of the Blues: A Visual Treasury of Black Music’s Golden Age (University of Chicago Press)
Best Discography
Ed Ward, Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero (Chicago Review Press)
Certificates of Merit
Martin Hawkins, Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge (LSU Press)
Richard Martin, Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism & the Phonograph, 1890-1900 (Archeophone)
Allan Sutton, Race Records and the American Recording Industry, 1919-1945: An Illustrated History(Mainspring Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED CLASSICAL MUSIC
Best History
Raymond Holden, Barbirolli: A Chronicle of a Career (Barbirolli Society, in association with the Royal Academy of Music)
Certificate of Merit
Diana Lewis Burgin, Performing Life: The Story of Ruth Posselt, American Violinist (University of Massachusetts Press)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON GENERAL RECORDING TOPICS
Best History
Jace Clayton (aka DJ Rupture), Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Best Discography
Thomas Balacco, 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 (Thomas Balacco; Hardshell Publishing)
Certificates of Merit
Gabriel Gössel and Filip Šír, Recorded sound in Czech Lands, 1900-1946 (The Moravian Library)
Matthew Rubery, The Untold Story of the Talking Book (Harvard University Press)
