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2017 Excellence Awards Winners

2017 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

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 at ARSC's 2018 annual conference. 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 2017 Awards for Excellence honor works published in 2016.

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Rock Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol by Steve Jones with Ben Thompson (Da Capo)	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 Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
Kika Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music by John W. Troutman (University of North Carolina Press)	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 Music ]

Best History

Certificate of Merit

Whisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson
by Benny Golson and Jim Merod
(Temple University Press)

Blue Rhythm Fantasy: Big Band Jazz Arranging in the Swing Era

by John Wriggle

(University of Illinois Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Country Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
Whisperin’ Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music by Bill Anderson and Peter Michael Cooper (University of Georgia Press)	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 Blues, Gospel, Soul, or R&B Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
The Art of the Blues: A Visual Treasury of Black Music’s Golden Age by Bill Dahl (University of Chicago Press)	Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward (Chicago Review Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge by Martin Hawkins (LSU Press)	Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism & the Phonograph, 1890-1900 by Richard Martin (Archeophone)	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	Certificate of Merit
Barbirolli: A Chronicle of a Career by Raymond Holden (Barbirolli Society, in association with the Royal Academy of Music)	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	Best Discography
Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton (aka DJ Rupture) (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)	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	Certificate of Merit
Recorded Sound in Czech Lands, 1900-1946 by Gabriel Gössel and Filip Šír (The Moravian Library)	The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Matthew Rubery (Harvard University Press)

[ Best Historical Research on Record Labels ]

Best History	Best Discography
Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy by Richard Carlin (University Press of Mississippi)	The Gramophone Company's First Indian Recordings 1899 - 1907 by Michael Kinnear (Bajakhana)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	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	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)	Motown: The Sound of Young America by Adam White, Barney Ales, and Andrew Loog Oldham (Thames & Hudson)

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