The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)* recently announced their 2016 slate of Awards for Excellence.
In the category of Best Historical Research in Recorded Country Music – Best Discography, the award goes to Gary B. Reid for The Music of the Stanley Brothers (University of Illinois Press).
Reid, a long-time resident of Roanoke, Virginia, began working on the
project in 1975, mainly to satisfy his own curiosity of the who, what,
when, where, and why of the music.
Over the years, as various people
learned of the research-in-progress, there arose of a chorus of “You need
to write a book!” Thirty-nine years later, the refrain was answered when the University of Illinois Press published “The Music of the Stanley Brothers”.
The book is a detailed account of the 20-year recording history of Carter
and Ralph Stanley, starting with their first 78 rpm release in 1947 and
ending with an album release that was made of live concert recordings of
their last appearance together in October of 1966.
The material is arranged chronologically, session by session, and song by song, and includes commentary by numerous musicians, producers, and songwriters who contributed or added to the recording process.
As Reid notes, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “It’s everything you never wanted to know about the recordings of the Stanley Brothers!”
Most recently, Reid has channeled his knowledge of all-things-Stanley into a one-man play called A Life of Sorrow – the Life and Times of Carter Stanley. Launched in Roanoke in September of 2014, the show has enjoyed 53 performances in ten different states and is currently booking a brisk 2017 season. Future plans include a biography of Carter Stanley.
Past accolades for Reid include the International Bluegrass Music
Association’s (IBMA) award for Print/Media Person of the Year (2015);
being a co-recipient (with co-author Fred Bartenstein) of an Association
for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) award for The Bluegrass Hall of Fame Inductee Biographies book; placing second at the Sounds of the Mountains Storytelling Competition in Fincastle, Virginia; and serving as a three-time recipient of the IBMA award for Best Liner Notes.
*The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods.
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