Bio
Don Armstrong is the author of The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason: Dispatches from the Front (Bloomsbury, 2024), the first biography of the influential journalist who shaped music journalism from the 1940s into the 1970s.
Armstrong is a retired tenured professor and now an independent scholar specializing in the history of music journalism whose articles have appeared in Rock Music Studies, Jazz Perspectives, and other peer-reviewed journals.
Additionally, Armstrong founded the Facebook group Music Journalism History, which provides an important forum for leading music journalists, musicians, and music industry professionals. He also writes a weekly blog about music journalism history called “Off the Page.” Armstrong lives on Florida’s southeast coast with his journalist wife, Jessica.
Selected Publications by Don Armstrong: Click on Image for More Information
The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason: Dispatches from the Front, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
“Hot Collecting Off the Record: Ralph J. Gleason’s Start in Music Journalism,” Jazz Perspectives online, December 19, 2019.
“The Animals, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones: The History of the Blues-Rock Press Part 1,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Howlin’ Wolf: The History of the Blues-Rock Press Part 2,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Breaking Out of the Galaith Box: Women Music Journalists in America,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“An Interview with Baron Wolman,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Space (Un)Veiled: Techne as a Means of Promoting Visibility in the Beginning Design Studio,” (with Carla Jackson Bell, Ph.D.). In Space Unveiled: Invisible Cultures in the Design Studio (Carla Jackson Bell, Ed.), Routledge, 2015.
“Brick Making and the Production of Place at the Tuskegee Institute.” In Space Unveiled: Invisible Cultures in the Design Studio (Carla Jackson Bell, Ed.), Routledge, 2015.
“Dispatches from the Front: The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason,” (with Jessica Armstrong), Rock Music Studies, February 2014.
“Teaching for Transfer: Fostering Transmission of Knowledge between Classroom and Studio,” Proceedings of the ACSA 2009 Annual Meeting.
“Brick Making and the Production of Place at the Tuskegee Institute.” 2005 ARRIS: Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
“The Low Cash-Cost Housing Program at the Tuskegee Institute.” Archipelagos: Outposts of the Americas/Enclaves Amidst Technology, Proceedings of the ACSA 2004 Technology Conference.
“Techstudio: A Studio approach to Teaching Architectural Technology” (with Jim Streuber). Architecture, Culture, and the Challenges of Globalization, Proceedings of the ACSA 2002 International Conference.