Cheryl Pawelski's father worked in manufacturing and is a longtime musician who regularly volunteered as a piano player at a Milwaukee hospital.
11 Facts About Cheryl Pawelski
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Cheryl Pawelski's grandmother worked at a local department store which sold records, and encouraged Pawelski to begin a music collection at an early age.
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Cheryl Pawelski attended Pius XI High School in Milwaukee, and graduated from Marquette University in 1989.
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Cheryl Pawelski has supervised recordings, reissues and boxed sets for a wide variety of artists including The Band, The Beach Boys, Big Star, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, The Staple Singers, Rod Stewart, Richard Thompson, Townes Van Zandt, Wilco, Hank Williams Sr.
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Cheryl Pawelski has produced or overseen several reissues of film soundtrack albums, including Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, Fiddler on the Roof, Raging Bull, Shutter Island, Up in the Air and Woodstock.
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An inveterate collector of music and memorabilia, Cheryl Pawelski holds a vast personal archive.
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Cheryl Pawelski has won four Grammy Awards for Best Historical Album: In 2014, for producing Hank Williams' The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, in 2021 for co-producing Mister Rogers' It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers, in 2023 for co-producing Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and in 2024 for co-producing Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos.
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Cheryl Pawelski won a 2017 Blues Music Award in the category of Historical Album of the Year, for producing the Bobby Rush box set Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History Of Bobby Rush.
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Cheryl Pawelski won Blues Blast Magazine's Blues Blast Music Award for Best Historical or Vintage Recording in both 2020 and 2021, for, respectively, Johnny Shines' The Blues Came Falling Down, Live 1973 and Little Richard's Southern Child.
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In 2022, Cheryl Pawelski was the recipient of the Diederich College of Communication's Professional Achievement Award, given annually to Marquette University alumni.
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In 2008, Cheryl Pawelski married Audrey Bilger, a literature professor and president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon.