Catalog of Releases
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Goodbye, Babylon
"This fantastic box of holy ruckus is the greatest anthology of antique Southern sacred song and oratory ever assembled. Packaged like a pioneer-family heirloom -- in a cedar case with a nineteenth-century etching of the Tower of Babel on the lid -- Goodbye, Babylon is six CDs of blues hymns, hillbilly hosannas, choral thunder and hellfire sermons from the 78-rpm era. Some of the most important figures in American music testify here...
But much of this suffering and faith is the poetic invention of lesser-known men and women, white and black, who intimately knew heavy labor and poverty. On Disc One, bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson and J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers, a white string band from North Carolina, both sing of life after death with the heated urgency of men for whom life on earth held few rewards. In 1930's "Memphis Flu," Elder Curry and his Mississippi congregation turn local news -- a deadly outbreak of influenza -- into a galloping lesson on the democracy of God's wrath...
Goodbye, Babylon also disproves the old rock & roll maxim that the devil has the best tunes: God owned many of them first. In "Down on Me," Eddie Head and His Family provide a sanctified 1930 blueprint for Janis Joplin's '67 version; the female street singers Two Gospel Keys fire up the godliness in "You've Got to Move," later covered with more devilish flair by the Rolling Stones. And the Rev. J.M. Gates puts a grim spin on Christmas in his 1926 sermon "Death May Be Your Santa Claus," which became the title of a Mott the Hoople song. God truly works in mysterious ways." — David Fricke, Rolling Stone
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Where Will You Be Christmas Day?
A holiday compilation with a difference, Where Will You Be Christmas Day? assembles a couple dozen Christmas-themed recordings from 1917-1959 that represent roots music of all stripes — blues, gospel, early jazz, early country, Appalachian folk, and even some ethnic sounds of Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Italy, and Ukraine. There are some pretty recognizable names here, like Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, and Lightnin' Hopkins, as well as some artists who are not as famous but still pretty renowned, like Rev. J.M. Gates, Buell Kazee, and the Maddox Brothers & Rose.
Yet as was the case on the Dust-to-Digital label's extraordinary six-CD box set of 1902-1960 spirituals, Goodbye, Babylon, there are a host of names here that will be known almost exclusively to serious old-time music collectors. That in itself makes this a pretty interesting and offbeat Christmas anthology. But even if you care nothing for rare record values, it's certainly rawer, more heartfelt, and just more musically interesting than the vast majority of what you'll find in the holiday bin. It's also a reminder of a time when Christmas discs could be relatively joyful and sincere expressions of religion and merrymaking, rather than just excuses to make a quick buck by cashing in on the time of the season..." — Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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Fonotone Records: Frederick, Maryland (1956-1969)
"These five CDs showcase the music that Joe Bussard recorded (sometimes performed) and hand-cut on his own record label from 1956 to 1969, usually in the basement of his parents' house, in the farm country of Maryland.
Fonotone recordings can be broken up into three categories. First are those by Bussard and his immediate circle... The second set of recordings are by 'authentic' old-time musicians Bussard connected with (often via his radio show)... Perhaps the most fascinating recordings here are those by record collecting musicians. They would come to visit Bussard, hoping to hear some rare blues, country or jazz records, and he would cojole them into recording for him...
Whichever these musical threads you choose to yank, you'll be amply rewarded by the Fonotone box. The sound is great and the documentation superb. And that's not even mentioning the postcards and bottle opener, which are as useful as they are lovely. Why can't every box set be as thoughtful?" — Byron Coley, Wire
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How Low Can You Go?: Anthology of the String Bass (1925-1941)
"How Low Can You Go? offers an idiosyncratic and inspired investigation into the early history of the string bass, beginning with the advent of electrical recording and finishing on the cusp of the modern jazz era. The first two discs of the series are a delightfully scattershot survey, while the third is devoted to the work of seminal New Orleans bassist Bill Johnson.
The string bass was played in pre-jazz dance bands in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century, but recording technology was unable to capture the instrument until the Jazz Age was well under way. That earlier history is implied here with the inclusion of Bill and Jimmy Johnson, who were born in the 1870s and played during the dawn of jazz in New Orleans, both doing stints with the mythical jazz progenitor Buddy Bolden. It's Jimmy Johnson—heard on this set playing Ellingtonian swing in 1936—who appears holding the bull fiddle in the grainy 1905 photograph of Bolden's band.
The personal feel of this project is evident even in the whimsical packaging that recalls the early Victrola era. A 96-page book contains notes on each track and bios and photos of most of the players, as well as short essays on the evolution of the string bass and the life of Bill Johnson... Oddities like the kazoo choir of Dickie Wells' Shim Shammers and the jazzy South Pacific sounds of Andy Iona and His Islanders hold their own against the driving big band jazz of Luis Russell. Alongside the rumble and slap of the upright bass, they all contain the magic spark peculiar to the 78 rpm record, the indefinable phantom thrill that somehow went missing as the music and recording studios became more sophisticated." — David French, Downbeat
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Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music : Soundtrack CD
"This compilation, a soundtrack to the film of the same name, gives a nice sampling both of hardcore delta blues and a window into the passion of the documentary's subject, Fonotone Records founder Joe Bussard.
Bussard was an avid collector of 78s and long a tireless seeker for what he called 'America's real music.' Some classic prophets of that music are represented hear, such as Lonnie Johnson, Son House, Blind Willie McTell, as well as true heavyweights like the Carter Family, Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton.
A collector always is rewarded by great finds the more the digs, and this set includes some obscure but raw and true tracks, like 'Paddlin' Blues' by Gitfiddle Jim and Uncle Bunt Stephens' 'Sail Away Ladies.' Bussard himself contributes a song, the swirling 'Mandolin Blues.'
We know about Alan Lomax, John Hammond, and of a few others who spent most of their life in record stores, bars and dives looking for the artists who told their story and the story of America in the same line. Joe Bussard belongs among those archeologists of the heart. 10/10" — Mike Wood, Foxy Digitalis
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Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music : DVD
"The DVD edition of Desperate Man Blues, issued by the archivists at Dust-to-Digital, makes some welcome concessions to modern media. It includes not only the original 2003 documentary, but also 40 minutes of additional footage, a full-length performance of Son House singing "Death Letter Blues," and a new short that goes into greater details about Joe's life. The latter extra is particularly entertaining, as it features tales of Bussard's adventures while running the last 78 label in the country, Fonotone, and operating a pirate radio station out of his house as a teen.
And the music? Impeccable. Whenever Bussard drops the needle on a shellac platter, he bops and dances and rattles off anecdotes. Fortunately, Dust-to-Digital has also issued a companion soundtrack, featuring 19 tracks by Blind Willie McTell, the Carter Family, Charley Patton, Uncle Dave Macon, and many more. Any able-bodied soul who doesn't spring into a jig upon hearing the giddy string-band hoedown "Indian War Whoop" deserves to have their legs chopped off.
Bussard comes across as a cantankerous cuss; he dismisses rock as a "cancer." But roots-music devotees owe him a huge debt of gratitude, and thanks to the DVD of Desperate Man Blues, now you can welcome Joe into your home any time... without fear of him sneering at your Uncle Tupelo albums." — Kurt B. Reighley, The Stranger
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I Belong to This Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings
"I Belong to This Band follows the practice of shape-note singing from 1922 through to the present, offering 30 distinct cuts, spanning a mess of geographies, years, and intentions. Shape-note singing, a church-based southern song system based in four notes (sung as fa, sol, la, and mi), was initially designed as an all-inclusive, participatory choral tradition — it's not necessary to know how to read music to sing shape notes, most songs are transposed a capella, and each piece is specifically engineered for swarms of singers, meaning the whole always trumps the parts. Although there are several shape note songbooks, The Sacred Harp is the most celebrated collection (published in 1844, by Benjamin Franklin Wright and Elisha J. King, it contains over 250 songs), and somewhere along the way, it became the movement's lone manifesto and remains tucked under the pillows of dedicated shape-note singers everywhere — appropriately, each track included here was born from The Sacred Harp.
Maybe the very best thing about shape-note singing is the croaky, full-body hollers the form demands; because the end result is one voice, shape-note singers don't worry so much about tone and pitch, bellowing and shouting with big, unabashed confidence. I Belong to This Band coughs up some appropriately stellar performances..." — Amanda Petrusich, Pitchfork Media
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Art of Field Recording: Sampler CD for Forthcoming Box Sets
"Even after 50 years of combing town and country for sounds to feed his tape deck, songcatcher Art Rosenbaum's heart must still pump adrenaline with each new knock on a screen door. It's a natural response to the flood of anticipation generated at what blues, folk, old-time, or gospel discovery might await on the other side. And as Art of Field Recording shows, his onsite recording sweeps have yielded an absolute bounty of American traditional music in the raw. So much so that the 24 one-of-a-kind moments here represent only the very tip of the iceberg, a tasty sampler of the complete mother lode due later this year. Courtesy of that roaming tape deck, you're right there last spring in the front parlor as 'Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down' explodes from a piano zapped by the 93-year old hands of Sister Fleeta Mitchell and the clap-and -clatter of Rev. Willie Mae Eberhard's tambourine shaking in your face. You're there on a summer's eve in 'Doc' Barnes' backyard, while he and Henry Grady Terrell sink pickaxes deep into the Georgia soil as the sole beat to 'Old John Henry Died On The Mountain.' You're there as the McIntosh County Shouters shake the rafters with a primordial slave 'ring shout.' And you're there back in 1956, as Mexican farm workers belted out a guitar corrido toasting the Winchester 30-30 rifle..." — Dennis Rozanski, Blues Rag
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Art of Field Recording Volume I: 50 Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum
"The 4-CD set is organized into "Survey," "Religious," "Blues" and "Instrumental and Dance" disks. Every tune is accompanied by detailed notes in the booklet, including who the performers are, how Rosenbaum went about finding them, and items of interest about the pieces themselves. Each of these entries is also usually accompanied by a photograph of the performers (taken by Rosenbaum’s wife Margo Newmark Rosenbaum). The entire box set - from cover, to CD jackets, to booklet – is decorated with Art Rosenbaum’s unique paintings and sketches depicting the people he spent a lifetime recording...
Every tune in Art of Field Recording is a gem, and shine all the brighter because Rosenbaum’s love of music – and the people who do it – takes the listener on a journey into out-of-the-way American places where traditions are still created, re-created, and passed on down the line. People and the contexts in which they live their lives are a central focus in this collection, and that makes it different from other traditional music compilations. This collection is a worthy companion to Harry Smith’s classic set, and judging by this first installment, the two that will soon follow (Volume II in 2008 and Volume III in 2009) will be as well." — Anthony Guest-Scott, Black Grooves
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Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva
"With origins in the shamanic paradigms of an ancient sheep-herding culture, the throat singing of Tuva is a powerful – and living – musical tradition that utilizes fully the rich overtone possibilities of the human voice. Imitating the sounds of the natural world (animals, birds, insects; wind and waters) to tell stories and express a sense of place, Tuvan khoomei singers can generate low drones, rhythmic pulses, and whistling, ringing countermelodies – all at the same time. Melodii Tuvi presents some remarkable recordings originally released in Russia in 1969, offering a rare opportunity to hear what some of this music – along with a sampling of hypnotic and powerful instrumental pieces – sounded like before the world music boom of the 1980s and ’90s brought it to a wider world of movie soundtracks and cross-cultural collaborations...
Beyond the quality of the music itself, the collection has much to recommend it. The period (late-’60s) quality of the recording is thick, robust, and very present, keeping, it seems, with the very best techniques for recording European classical music extant during the golden age of analog. The liner notes are clear and informative, offering biographical information, cultural and geographical contexts for the music, and even an analysis of the physiology behind overtone singing. As a whole, Melodii Tuvi reflects nicely the ideals that the Dust-to-Digital label brings to most of their field- recorded collections, making for yet another anthology that creates an engaging sense of intimacy between music and listener." — Kevin Macneil Brown, Dusted
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Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics
"In the 21st century world of the Internet and digital downloads, the notion that recorded music can be an actual object as well as an auditory moment in time is rapidly becoming a quaint concept, and it changes to some extent the way recorded music travels through this world. These days, of course, it's stored on servers and portable handheld devices, gazillions of bytes of ones and zeros that are transferred mysteriously and sight unseen from one digital realm to another. But it wasn't always so. This wonderful, quirky, and fascinating anthology was compiled by Baltimore record shop owner Ian Nagoski from his personal collection of old 78s, brittle black discs made of ground stone, shellac and carbon that he found stacked and tucked away in countless thrift shops and attics. The 78s collected here were recorded all over the planet, from Bali to Scotland, and had somehow found their way into a stack of records in some dusty corner of a darkened attic, black mirrors, if you will, of their time in the world. That glorious feel of random and wondrous discovery is all over this set, and the music here is strange, beautiful, and rare in a way that will soon be impossible to replicate... Track after track on Black Mirror startles and delights, and the accumulation of all of it makes one wonder what other lost treasures, what other black mirrors of times and places and distant lives are stacked in the back of that old junk shop on the corner, for these pieces, in addition to being pleasures to listen to, are objects that have traveled and touched people along the way. That concept, that one can actually hand another a piece of music, a living, breathing piece of music created and captured in another time and place, and that that music can move from hand to hand and place to place until it is all but lost and half forgotten until someone like Nagoski rediscovers it, is fast slipping from our lives. Oh yeah, you can get on the web and do a virtual search, but this collection is for those who understand that virtual isn't exactly real. It is, by definition, only almost real. The selections on Black Mirror are real. They've traveled. They've been lost. They've been found. They live again and still as very real objects in this very real world." — Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
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Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days
"The obsessive record collectors Rob Millis and Jefferey Taylor have done all the hard work for fans of oddball early recordings, rare world music, '20s jazz, blues and old time. Millis and Taylor, of the experimental Seattle band Climax Golden Twins, have collected thousands of unusual old 78 r.p.m. records from around the world, and a sampling from their troves is now available in a lovely and beguiling two-disc set called Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days. The set mixes popular recordings of recognizable American artists like Roy Smeck, Don Redman, the Tennessee Ramblers and Blind Boy Fuller with more esoteric and arcane audio postcard-like tracks from around the world, like the startling recordings of Burmese popular songs with electric guitar accompaniment from the 1950s, or the other-worldly croaking reed music from Thailand, or a lovely track of solo Korean bamboo flute. The set is something like a cross between the ever-relevant Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by Harry Smith, and the equally astounding series of collections called The Secret Museum of Mankind, issued on the Yazoo label in the 1990s and based, in part, on a radio show on the pioneering freeform radio station WFMU out of the New York City area.
The music is amazing, but so too is the packaging, which dispenses with lengthy book-like liner notes in favor of a more artistic, fetishized-artifact quality, with pictures of old record labels and sleeves from 78s from around the world. You can almost feel the brittle, crumbling paper and the hefty weight of the shiny shellac discs. Like Smith's Anthology, this set does away with the idea of organizing the music by style, race or region. As a result, it's only the most terminally eclectic listeners who will be able to stay with the swing of things as the tracks flow from the nasally playing of Bismallah Khan on the Indian shenai to the bumping big-band blues of Noble Sissle and his Orchestra, or on the journey elsewhere from Japan to South Africa to India." — John Adamian, Hartford Advocate