Press & reception
What historians, archivists, broadcasters and teachers have said about the project, and where it has been written about since 2007.
Scholars and archivists
“Dr Brummer … combs record stores around the world looking for obscure and unique songs written about the war, and the collection he’s continually building is some serious and important work.”
Erin R. McCoy · University of South Carolina Beaufort
A War Tour of Viet Nam: A Cultural History (McFarland, 2021)
“Justin A. Brummer … and his Vietnam War Song Project … attempt to document every song recorded about the Vietnam War. The public face of the project is a YouTube channel where you can listen to many rare 45s unavailable on any streaming service.”
Jason Mellard · Texas State University
The Journal of Texas Music History, 2024 ↗
“The VWSP is amazing to behold, containing thousands of discs that are organized, researched, and written about. It’s obviously controlled by a passionate and loving archivist, and that archivist is Dr. Justin A. Brummer.”
Franklin Fantini · founder, Dollar Country
Dollar Country Newsletter, November 2024
“The magnificent Vietnam on Record discography, compiled by Hugo Keesing, Wouter Keesing, C. L. Yarbrough, and Justin A. Brummer.”
Rachel Lee Rubin · University of Massachusetts Boston
Merle Haggard’s Okie from Muskogee (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)
“The Vietnam War Song Project … is an ever-expanding project seeking to assemble a comprehensive discography of the war.”
Modern Songs of War and Conflict · University of Maryland Libraries
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Writers and broadcasters
“The Vietnam War Song Project is an epic undertaking … it’s an invaluable resource for anyone who cares about the history of the war … Justin A. Brummer, the one-man operation who put together the project [is] the greatest scholar of songs about the Vietnam War.”
James Barber · Military.com
“The Weird and Obsessive World of Songs About Vietnam”, 2017 ↗
“Justin A. Brummer … is an expert in the rich heritage of protest music from the era. The Texas-based researcher is the founding editor and digital archivist of the Vietnam War Song Project (VWSP), a digital archive that also analyzes and interprets songs referencing the Vietnam War.”
Alexander Plaum · Deutsche Welle
“Vietnam War: How protest music fueled a movement”, 2025 ↗
“Widespread dissensus is enfleshed in the many thematic groups compiled by Justin A. Brummer, founder of the Vietnam War Song Project, a digital archive of more than 6,000 recordings spanning protest and/or peace, anti-protest/patriotic, pro and anti draft songs, battleground pick-me ups, laments of love and longing, and combinations of the above.”
Seán Casey · Shindig!
“The Vietnam War: Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest”, vol. 167, 2025
Teachers
“Vietnam War Songs Project continues to find incredible Primary Sources for teachers to use in their Vietnam War teaching … it adds a different primary source emphasis to dealing with the Vietnam War.”
James Akenson · Tennessee Council for the Social Studies
2022
In the media
Radio and television interviews, features and podcast appearances. The project’s own writing is listed on justinbrummer.com.
Writing about the project
Journalists, researchers and teachers are welcome to use the archive, and to get in touch for help finding something — [email protected].
In an article or broadcast, a mention of the Vietnam War Song Project by name, with a link to the site, is all that is asked.
In academic work, please cite it as Justin A. Brummer, Vietnam War Song Project (VWSP), vietnamwarsongproject.com. Where you refer to a particular record, its title and SongID make it findable again — the SongID is stable.