LOS ANGELES (June 26, 2017) Angel City Press announces that Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941 by Darryl Holter and William Deverell has earned a gold medal in the category of Performing Arts and Music (Adult Nonfiction) in the 19th annual Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards.

The announcement was made during the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago June 24. The awards recognize the best books published in 2016 from small, independent, and university presses.

The first book to thoroughly explore the legendary folk singer’s time in Los Angeles, Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941 argues that Guthrie’s brief residence in Los Angeles in the later years of the Great Depression forever changed his music, his politics, and his enduring legacy. The book’s twelve essays, richly illustrated by photographs from the era, explore such themes as Guthrie’s early radio success in Los Angeles with the Woody and Lefty Lou Show ; his first recordings made on old Presto disks; and the important friendship he forged with the actor and leftist radical Will Geer (later of “Grandpa Walton” fame). Other pieces cover Guthrie’s racial egalitarianism, his ability to mold evangelical perspectives into politically savvy folk songs, and the impact his songs still exert decades later.

Co-author Darryl Holter manages several family businesses in Los Angeles and is an adjunct associate professor of history at the University of Southern California. He is also a singer-songwriter and a member of Professional Musicians Local 47.

Co-author William Deverell is a professor of history and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West at the University of Southern California.

Over 2,000 entries were submitted in 66 categories, with Foreword ’s editors choosing the finalists, and a panel of over 150 librarians and booksellers acting as judges to pick the winners.

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by Darryl Holter and William Deverell