Willamette Week’s Monthly Donor Drive is on! When you support WW, you help keep Portland's leaders accountable. Reporting costs money and as a small, locally owned, free publication, we rely on reader support rather than corporate dollars.

Become a Monthly Donor.

Support

Portland-Based Reissue Label Omnivore Recordings Won a Grammy Last Night

“It’s Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers” beat out archival releases by Bela Fleck, Nat King Cole and Prince.

By Matthew Singer
IMAGE: B. Baltimore Brown.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, particularly the Portland neighborhood that’s home to Omnivore Recordings.

The reissue label, founded by Cheryl Pawelski, wife of Reed College president Audrey Bilger, won a Grammy last night in the Best Historical Album category for It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers, a compilation of songs performed by Fred Rogers on his iconic children's television show.

The collection beat out a remarkably crowded field that included Bela Fleck's Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions, Nat King Cole's Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) and the "super-deluxe" edition of Prince's 1999.

Pawelski accepted the award alongside Bilger from their home in Southeast Portland. Watch their acceptance speech below:

Omnivore Recording’s next release is an unearthed artifact of 20th century history that’s also a piece of Portland history specifically: the earliest known recording of Allen Ginsberg reading his epic poem “Howl” at Reed College in 1956.

Explore more on:

Cheryl PawelskiMister Rogersmusic-newsomnivore recordings

Matthew Singer

Matthew Singer

A native Southern Californian, former Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Singer ruined Portland by coming here in 2008. He is an advocate for the canonization of the Fishbone and Oingo Boingo discographies, believes pro-wrestling is a serious art form and roots for the Lakers. Fortunately, he left Portland for Tucson, Arizona, in 2021.