Cheryl Pawelski

Pawelski is the oldest child of a family from Milwaukee. Her father worked in manufacturing and is a longtime musician who regularly volunteered as a piano player at a Milwaukee hospital.[1][9] Her grandmother worked at a local department store which sold records, and encouraged Pawelski to begin a music collection at an early age.[2] Another had pursued a career as a singer before working in banking, and also encouraged her to seek a musical career.[10]

Pawelski attended Pius XI High School in Milwaukee,[11] and graduated from Marquette University in 1989.[12] After college but before moving to Los Angeles to begin her career in the music industry, Pawelski worked at a Milwaukee record store, Radio Doctors, to learn about record labels and distribution.[13][14] A musician herself, Pawelski played in several bands.[1]

Prior to co-founding Omnivore Recordings, Pawelski held positions at EMI-Capitol Records, Concord Music Group and Rhino Entertainment, and worked as a consulting producer for EMI-Capitol Music, Warner Strategic Marketing/Rhino, Rhino Handmade, iTunes, Sony Legacy, Rykodisc, Universal Music Group, BMG and others.[15]

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. and Warren Zevon. She has also 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.

Pawelski has been both a governor and trustee of The Recording Academy. She has served on the board of directors for the Blues Foundation, the Industry Advisory Board for the Center For Recorded Music,[16] and the Farm Aid Development Advisory Council,[13] and is the External Advisory Board/Music Industry Liaison for the epilepsy-awareness nonprofit Joey’s Song.[17][18]

An inveterate collector of music and memorabilia, Pawelski holds a vast personal archive. A portion of her LP collection formed the core of the exhibit Spaced Out! The Final Frontier In Album Covers, which opened at Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, and also showed at The Museum at Bethel Woods in New York. The exhibit featured 117 space-themed albums released from 1940 to 1969.[14][19][1][20]

Pawelski has won two Grammy Awards for Best Historical Album: In 2014, for producing Hank Williams' The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, and in 2021 for co-producing Mister Rogers' It’s Such A Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers. She received Grammy nominations for the box sets Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly, Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968 and Woodstock 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm.[22][23]

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.[24]

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[25] and Little Richard's Southern Child.[26]

In 2022, Pawelski was the recipient of the Diederich College of Communication's Professional Achievement Award, given annually to Marquette University alumni.[27]

In 2008, Pawelski married Audrey Bilger, a literature professor and (since 2019) president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon.[20]

• Cheryl Pawelski official website
• Cheryl Pawelski at Omnivore Recordings website
• "The World Of Rosetta Tharpe: A Turning The Tables Playlist": 2019 article by Pawelski for NPR
• Interview with Pawelski for The Sessions
• Henry Rollins interviews Cheryl Pawelski (2020)
• Center For Recorded Music