Wikipedia
Dust-to-Digital
Dust-to-Digital is a record company that specializes in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel, and country music. Their method combines rare recordings with historic images, photographs, and detailed texts describing artists and their works.[1] The company has won a Grammy Award and a Living Blues award.[2][3]
History
In February 1999, after taking over an Atlanta college radio station and becoming frustrated at the unavailability of gospel music from before 1940, Lance Ledbetter formed his own label[1] and set out on a search for rare recordings of gospel music. After five years of research, Ledbetter issued Goodbye, Babylon on his newly formed Dust-to-Digital label. The six-CD box set, containing gospel music from 1902 to 1960,[4] and accompanied by a 200-page book and hand-packed with raw cotton in a wooden box, was well-reviewed.[5][6][7] The company's success has been partly attributed to its distinctive packaging, presenting products in pine boxes, silk screen, and raw cotton.[1]
The young record company followed up the set with Where Will You Be Christmas Day? Since 2004, Dust-to-Digital has issued more than 60 titles. A box set chronicling the origins of recorded music in Georgia was planned but never completed.[8]
Excavated Shellac
Excavated Shellac, started in 2007 as a website of "a 78-collector" released Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music that consists of 100 recordings and 100 stories in 186-page book by Jonathan Ward. The digital album was nominated for Grammy 2022 as Best Historical Album. The album was described as "a sonic smorgasbord from across the globe unfolds: Afghanistan, Sudan, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Uganda, Spain, Albania, Mongolia, Mexico and onwards and onwards."[9][10][11]
Dust-to-Digital also published Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM, Excavated Shellac: Reeds, and Excavated Shellac: Strings.[9]
Releases
| List of Dust-to-Digital Releases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Release | Artist | Format | Notes |
| 2003 | Goodbye Babylon | Various Artists | CD box set with book | Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album and the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package |
| 2004 | Where Will You Be Christmas Day? | CD | Compiled by Lance Ledbetter and Dick Spottswood | |
| 2005 | Fonotone Records Frederick, Maryland (1956-1969) | CD box set with book | Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package; Compiled by Joe Bussard and Lance Ledbetter | |
| 2006 | How Low Can You Go?: Anthology of the String Bass (1925-1941) | CD box set with book | Nominated for Jazz Journalists Association Award for Reissue/Historical Box Set of the Year; Compiled by Lance Ledbetter and Dick Spottswood | |
| Desperate Man Blues | CD | Soundtrack to film of the same name; won Living Blues Award for Best Historical Reissue | ||
| Edward Gillan (director) | DVD | Documentary on Joe Bussard | ||
| I Belong to this Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings | Various Artists | CD | Compiled by Matt Hinton and Lance Ledbetter | |
| 2007 | Art of Field Recording: Volume I | CD box set with book | Won Grammy Award for Best Historical Album; nominated for Grammy Award for Best Liner Notes; and nominated for Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research; Compiled by Lance Ledbetter and Art Rosenbaum | |
| Melodii Tuva: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva | CD | Liner notes by Dr. Pekka Gronow | ||
| Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics | Compiled by Ian Nagoski | |||
| 2008 | Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days | Two CDs with book | Compiled by Rob Millis and Jeffrey Taylor | |
| 2009 | Art of Field Recording: Volume II | CD box set with book | Field recordings by Art Rosenbaum | |
| Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography, 1890-1950 | CD with book | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album[12] and Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Best Research in Recorded Country Music; Compiled by Jim Linderman and Lance Ledbetter | ||
| Au clair de la lune | Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville | Vinyl record | ||
| 2010 | Jesus Christ from A to Z | Rev. Johnny L. Jones | Vinyl record | |
| The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta | Two CD set | |||
| Excavated Shellac: Strings (Guitar, Oud, Lar, Violin and More from the 78rpm Era) | Various Artists | Vinyl/CD | Compiled by Jonathan Ward | |
| Baby How Can it Be?: Songs of Love, Lust and Contempt from the 1920s and 1930s | CD set | Compiled by John Heneghan and featuring liner notes by Nick Tosches | ||
| Let Your Feet Do the Talkin' | Stewart Copeland (director) | DVD | Documentary on Thomas Maupin and clogging | |
| Ten Thousand Points of Light: 20th Anniversary Edition | George King (director) | Documentary on an Atlanta family's Christmas light display | ||
| 2011 | Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely | Macel Ely II | Book | Includes a CD featuring a sermon by Claude Ely; nominated for Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Best Historical Research in Blues, Gospel, Hip-Hop or R&B |
| Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside | Various Artists | CD | Compiled by David Murray | |
| Never a Pal Like Mother: Vintage Songs & Photographs of the One Who's Always True | Book with two CDs | Book features an introduction by Rosanne Cash and an essay by Sarah Bryan | ||
| I Listen to the Wind that Obliterates My Traces: Music in Vernacular Photographs, 1880-1955 | Book with two CDs | Compiled by Steve Roden | ||
| Your Past Comes Back To Haunt You: The Fonotone Years 1958–1965 | John Fahey | CD box set | Compiled by Glenn Jones | |
| Opika Pende: Africa at 78 rpm | Various Artists | CD box set with book | Compiled by Jonathan Ward; Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album, 2003 | |
| I Have My Liberty!: Gospel Sounds from Accra, Ghana | CD | Produced by Calpin Hoffman-Williamson | ||
| Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen | Compiled by Chris Menist | |||
| 2012 | Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio, 980-1980 | Patrick Feaster | Book and CD | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album and won Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research |
| Drop on Down in Florida: Field Recordings of African-American Traditional Music, 1977-1980 | Various Artists | Two CDs and book | Compiled by Dwight DeVane and Blaine Waide | |
| Just Before Music | Lonnie Holley | CD/Vinyl | ||
| 2013 | Greek Rhapsody: Instrumental Music from Greece, 1905-1956 | Various artists | Two CDs and book | Compiled by Tony Klein |
| Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music | CD/Vinyl | Liner notes by David Evans | ||
| Kassidat: Raw 45s from Morocco | ||||
| Longing for the Past: The 78 rpm Era in Southeast Asia | CD box set with book | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album; compiled by David Murray | ||
| Keeping a Record of It | Lonnie Holley | CD/vinyl | ||
| Michigan-I-O: Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition | Todd Harvey | Book | ||
| 2014 | Lead Kindly Light | Various artists | Two CDs and book | Compiled by Sarah Bryan and Peter Honig |
| Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings, 1947-1959 | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album; Compiled by Lance Ledbetter and Nathan Salsburg with essays by Alan Lomax, Anna Lomax Wood and Bruce Jackson | |||
| Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers: Arkansas at 78 rpm | CD | Compiled by Tony Russell and Maxine Payne | ||
| Making Pictures Three for a Dime | N/A | Book | Featuring vintage photo booth photography; compiled by Phillip March Jones | |
| 2015 | No More Good Time in the World for Me | J.B. Smith | CD | Field recordings by Bruce Jackson, recorded at the Ramsey Unit in 1965-66; liner notes by Nathan Salsburg |
| Ola Belle Reed and Southern Mountain Music on the Mason-Dixon Line | Ola Belle Reed | Two CDs and book | Compiled by Henry Glassie and Clifford Murphy | |
| The Birth of Rock and Roll: Photographs from the Collection of Jim Linderman | Jim Linderman and Joe Bonomo | Book | ||
| Rawhead & Bloodybones | Brian Harnetty | Two CDs | ||
| Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll | Various Artists | CD/Vinyl | Soundtrack for the documentary of the same name | |
| Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946 | CD box set with book and DVD | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Liner Notes; compiled by James P. Leary | ||
| The Year of Jubilo: 78 rpm Recordings of Songs from the Civil War | CD | Compiled by Joe Bussard | ||
| Excavated Shellac: Reeds (Reed Performances from Tanzania, Kurdistan, Turkey, India, China and More from the 78 rpm Era) | CD/vinyl | Compiled by Jonathan Ward | ||
| 2016 | I'm Always Thinking of You | Bruce Conner | Greeting card | Reproduction of 1957 greeting card |
| Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll | Various Artists | Double LP | Expanded vinyl edition of film soundtrack | |
| Blind Alfred Reed: Appalachian Visionary | Blind Alfred Reed | CD and book | Liner notes by Ted Olson | |
| Music of Morocco from the Library of Congress: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959 | Various Artists | CD box set with book | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album; Introduction by Lee Ranaldo and liner notes by Philip Schuyler | |
| Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams | Washington Phillips | CD and book | Liner notes by Michael Corcoran | |
| 2017 | Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll: Promo 45 | Various Artists | Vinyl Record | Record Store Day Release |
| 2018 | Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris | Various Artists | CD box set with book and DVD | Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Historical Album; Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Liner Notes; Liner notes by Scott Barretta, David Evans, William Ferris and Tom Rankin |
| Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music | Various Artists | Two CDs and book | Liner notes by Alex Perullo and Hugh Tracey | |
| The Early Films of William Ferris 1968-1975 | Various films | DVD | Seven documentary films by William Ferris with a total running time of 115 minutes | |
| Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris | Various Artists | Vinyl | Single LP vinyl edition of box set | |
| 2020 | Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music | Various Artists | Digital only, 100 tracks with 186-page pdf | Compiled by Jonathan Ward. Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. |
References
- ^ a b c Fantz, Ashley. "Label turns forgotten music into gold". www.cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ^ "The Grammys". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ^ Williams, Wyatt. "An Unfinished State". www.oxfordamerican.org. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ^ Battaglia, Andy. "Music review: Paul Bowles' Moroccan musical survey from the 50s". www.thenational.ae. Abu Dhabi Media. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ^ Miller, Michael H. "Dust-to-Digital Brings Brother Claude Ely Back to Life". www.observer.com. Observer. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ^ "Goodbye Babylon". www.crossrhythms.co.uk. 15 February 2004. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
- ^ "Dusted Reviews: V/A - Goodbye, Babylon". www.dustedmagazine.com. 16 April 2004. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
- ^ Williams, Wyatt (5 January 2016). "An Unfinished State". Oxford American. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
- ^ a b "Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History Of The World's Music". The Attic. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^ "Excavated Shellac". Excavated Shellac. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^ "Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music (1907-1967)". Dust-to-Digital. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^ "Grand Haven collector nominated for Grammy for historical album" . The Grand Rapids Press, John Sinkevics January 31, 2010
Notes
- Bilger, Burkhard (28 April 2008). "The Last Verse". The New Yorker. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
- Petrusich, Amanda (10 December 2007). "Various Artists: The Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1 review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
- Radford, Chad (6 January 2010). "Decade in Review: Goodbye Babylon Revisited revisited". Creative Loafing. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
- Steele, Alicia. "Dust-to-Digital". This is Atlanta with Alicia Steele. PBA30. Retrieved 9 February 2016.