Kip Lornell

Bio

Kip Lornell began researching and writing about American vernacular music in the early 1970’s.  His 1972 proposal, "Field Research into the Afro-American Music of Georgia and the Carolinas," was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first of a nearly a dozen grants that he has received from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.  Beginning in 1971, he has authored some fifty articles in popular and scholarly journals as well as a dozen essays in books on topics ranging from the Black country music, pioneering country music radio shows, and downhome blues in Albany, New York, to African American gospel quartet singing.  Dr. Lornell has also published nineteen books related to American vernacular music since 1988; most recently Buzz Busby: The Father of Bluegrass in Washington, DC, co-authored with Tom Mindte (University of Illinois Press, Spring 2025).

Following a two year-stint as a post-doctoral fellow at Smithsonian Folkways during which he wrote two books: Introducing American Folk Music and The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (co-authored with Charles K. Wolfe), Dr. Lornell began teaching music-focused courses for American Studies, Anthropology, and Music students at GWU in 1992. During his tenure at GWU Dr. Lornell was named the joint winner of the 1993 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for The Life and Legend of Leadbelly and was awarded a Grammy in 1997 for “Best Liner Notes” for the Smithsonian Folkways reissue of “Anthology of American Folk Music.”  In 2020, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) bestowed him with a “Lifetime Achievement Award.”  He stepped away from teaching at GWU when the spring 2023 semester ended.

Kip Lornell lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he and his wife, Kim Gandy, shared raising two (now adult) daughters.  In addition to his musical endeavors, he collects 78 rpm records and is an avid bicyclist and golfer. A long-time volleyball player, Dr. Lornell currently serves as the Executive Director of the Beltway Region Volleyball Officials (BRVO) and has been a college, high school, and USAV volleyball official since the mid-1980s. 

Education

1983   Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology (Regional American Music), University of Memphis. Minors in Anthropology and Cultural Geography. Dissertation: "Happy in The Service of The Lord: Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis, Tennessee." 

1976   M.A. in Folklore, University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill. Thesis: "A Study of The Sociological Reasons Why Blacks Sing Blues: Secular Black Music in Two North Carolina Communities During The 1930s."

1975   B.S. in Cultural Studies, State University of New York: Empire State University. (Visiting student at Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina from 1973-1975.)