Nick Carswell, Audio-Reader program manager, earns 2026 Governor's Arts Award

Audio-Reader program manager, lead singer of Carswell & Hope, KPR show host of 105 Live, and Lawrence Music Alliance founder - Nick Carswell really does it all! 

Sylas May from the Lawrence Journal World attended the award ceremony and followed up with a front page news article. All of us at Audio-Reader congratulate Nick on this well earned recognition! 

Here is a preview of Sylas May's article:

"What does a leader in the local music scene do? Nick Carswell has been doing it for more than a decade, and his answer is: Whatever the musicians need him to do.

Carswell, who founded the Lawrence Music Alliance in 2023, has actually been helping musicians since around 2009, when he was living in Ireland. “I discovered artists whose music I was just very excited about,” he told the Journal-World, “and I approached them and asked them, what do they need to achieve what they want to achieve with their music?”

That led him to found an independent record label, but the musicians’ needs, it turned out, went beyond just putting out albums. Carswell said he filled all sorts of roles for these artists, “driving the tour bus, being more like a band manager, sometimes playing in the band.”

“Because that was the need that they had,” he said."

Read the Full Article on the Lawrence Journal World's website.