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Long before the vinyl “revival” occurred this past decade, which now allows us to take home a band’s newest release in an LP format, the earliest recordings of American music were all on records — the majority being 78s. They came in different sizes, but were typically a 10″, whereas an album on vinyl is usually a 12″(33⅓ rpm) and a single is a 7″(45 rpm). The 78s name was derived by the speed at which it played on the turn table and not its size.

In his 2004 autobiography Chronicles, Bob Dylan said, “I put on the turntable and when the needle dropped, I was stunned — didn’t know whether I was stoned or straight.” This was in reference to hearing a Woody Guthrie record for the first time, probably a 78. Without Guthrie’s piercing words and resounding voice echoing through that record player in Greenwich Village that night we probably never would’ve had Bob Dylan, or at least not the one that we got.

As technology advanced, kids went from gathering around the record player to buying eight-tracks, then cassette tapes, eventually CDs and ultimately just downloading MP3s. Not only was sound quality forfeited for convenience, but a whole culture, because the roots of American music was stranded on vinyl, specifically on 78s.

Thankfully, people have started paying attention, realizing that we could potentially lose our heritage and deny future generations the opportunity to learn about the history of American music.

In 1979, The Grammy Award for Best Historical Album was introduced. Like many other categories at the Grammys, this one flies way under the radar, one reason being that these musicians are already dead. Not to mention, their songs never made it on the Billboard music charts. Those involved in putting these albums together don’t receive any of the glamor or fame that comes with winning a Grammy, but they walk away with something even more important — the satisfaction of knowing that they helped save a forgotten piece of American history.

Recently, I was given a chance to spend time with the 2008 Grammy Award winners for Best Historical Album(The Art Of Field Recording Volume 1), Atlanta-based record label Dust-to-Digital.  My goal was to discuss the roots of American music that not only influenced Bob Dylan, but has inspired generation after generation to continue in the journey of producing quality music that will stand the test of time.

Lance Ledbetter, who started the label while still in college at Georgia State back in ’99 has been on a mission, “to produce high-quality, cultural artifacts, which combine rare, essential recordings with historic images and detailed texts describing the artists and their works.” With that being said, for the last 12 years Dust-to-Digital has been paying tribute to the forefathers of American music.

With each release of Gospel (Goodbye, Babylon), Blues (Desperate Man Blues), Jazz (How Low Can You Go?) and everything in between (Fonotone Records), we get a history lesson of biblical proportions about each genre, its creation and eventual evolution.

Ledbetter, his wife April and Hilary Staff are all that make up Dust-to-Digital. Outside of the collaborators and collectors they work with like Art Rosenbaum and Joe Bussard, they are the heart and soul of the operation, tirelessly working to pay homage to the forgotten music of yesteryear. Six Grammy nominations and one golden gramophone later, Dust-to-Digital has emerged as one of the premier record labels for throwback releases.

Purge: How did you get your start in the Atlanta music scene?

Lance: I originally went to Young Harris College. It was just a two year school then. It’s in northeast Georgia, near North Carolina. I transferred down to Georgia State (in ’96), and I wanted to do two things — one was intern for a record label and the other was to work at a radio station. I think within two weeks I was doing both so it worked out pretty good.

Purge: What record label did you intern with?

Lance: It was an experimental label called Table of the Elements. The way I knew them was through an indie rock band called Gastr del Sol. They were kind of like art rock. It was David Grubbs and Jim O’Rourke, and they were based out of Chicago. They had done some stuff for Drag City and I knew that there was a label here in Atlanta that had put out some of their stuff. So I thought it would be interesting to see how the day-to-day operations are behind the scenes of a record label.

Purge: You were a DJ for Album 88 (88.5FM) from ’96-’99. What radio show did you host?

Lance: Originally, it was one of those terrible over night shows. You have to pay your dues and all that stuff. College radio is basically people learning about music in front of people. The first specialty show that I got was one called “Whisper On A String”. It was experimental music and I think it came on Tuesday nights from midnight until two in the morning.

There was a guy there doing a show called “20th Century Archives” and when he graduated he was going to give up that show. It was around that time that I had really gotten in to the Anthology of American Folk Music. I told the station manager that I would be interested in trying to do that show. They were all up for it because they wanted the show to keep going. I got the slot from nine to eleven on Sunday mornings. I called it Raw Music.

Purge: You started working on Dust-to-Digital’s first release Goodbye, Babylon back in ’99 while you were still in college. Why were you so focused on vintage Gospel music, opposed to Blues, Jazz, Soul or even Country?

Lance: I think it was the time slot (for the radio show) really. Nine to eleven, on a Sunday morning, in the south: a lot of people are either going to church or coming home from church, so a lot of people that listened to the show were asking for more of it. I was looking for it and going around to the shops, and you just couldn’t find it.

I’d say for every ten Blues, Jazz and Country re-issue, there’s like one Gospel. I mean, you just couldn’t find the Gospel. I bought all of the ones that were available. I knew there had to be more, so I started reaching out to the actual record collectors. I started getting tapes from record collectors that were just mind-blowingly good that weren’t available anywhere. That’s when the idea came about to do some type of re-issue.

It just started out as going through a single CD, which became a small idea that grew in to this massive 6-CD box set, a 200 page book and four and a half years of labor.

Purge: Did you have a religious upbringing that influenced your love for the old gospel recordings?

Lance: I grew up in the church so I was exposed to all types of music, and when I was hearing all of the 78s, it was so much stronger, and the performances were unbelievable. So, that’s what initially grabbed me. This was before media fire and torrents and all that. I mean, you really couldn’t find this stuff anywhere.

The music that is on Goodbye, Babylon is coming from a point of dealing with life, struggles, sin and death and all of these heavy topics. Now you listen to it (gospel) and it’s happy, cheerful, glowing, smiling, “we’ll meet again in heaven” and all this. It is more of a reaction to less struggle.

Purge: Technology has changed the music industry in terms of people being able to download music that was once impossible to find. How has that affected how Dust-to-Digital operates?

Lance: The Internet has connected a lot of people. Nowadays a lot of the music from the old 78s is out there. Here we are, 12 years later, and a lot has changed. What we do now is more specific conceptually.

This guy came to us with old baptism photographs that he had collected. We did a very specific concept with a hardback book with vintage baptism photos with a CD with just music from that period — songs from the 20s, 30s and 40s that related to baptism. That’s one thing that we’ve done that is a little different.

The second is that we’ve found people who make recordings like Art Rosenbaum. Their material sits in an archive and we have those people coming to us saying, “We want you to put it out.” That’s changed a lot too because that’s music that has never been heard outside of institutions like the Library of Congress or university archives.

Purge: How do you decide what your next album or theme is going to be for the compilations?

Lance: Goodbye, Babylon has 135 songs and 25 sermons. Well, that’s boiled down from 300. We did a Christmas album the next year of all obscure Christmas music and that was 90% done when I was putting together tracks for Goodbye, Babylon. I just started making a little pile thinking it would be a killer Christmas record with all of these weird and obscure Christmas songs.

Purge: How many albums has Dust-to-Digital released?

Lance: We’ve done 18, technically 19 because one is a sound track CD. Then we’ve done four pieces of vinyl and a mix of 19 CDs, DVDs and box sets. All but one are still in print. Our third release is called Fonotone Records. It was a five disc CD set. We pressed 4,000, and it was extremely expensive and had very intricate packaging. We have a great demand for the box set, but to press 4,000 again would be insane.

Purge: What do you think is your most important release in terms of preserving the history of an era?

Lance: I’d probably have to say Goodbye, Babylon. Just because, at least in my mind, it was such a large gap that needed to be plugged. I feel like it did what I intended for it to do. From a historical stand point I think it would probably be our biggest achievement.

Purge: Tell me about the feedback that Goodbye, Babylon received.

Lance: The first review it ever got was in The New York Times. It just took off from there. Entertainment Weekly and all of these places kept focusing on this set. It was shocking to us how big it got. It got nominated for two Grammys that it didn’t win. We went out there in early ’05 and it came out in October of ’03. So I thought that was the peak.

Then later in ’05, Neil Young was on Weekend Edition saying that Bob Dylan gave him a copy. That actually freaked me out more than the Grammys. I almost fell on the floor.

In 2010, there we were seven years later (after its release) and Brian Eno names it his album of the year. He’s like, “It’s all I’m listening to these days.” Paul Simon just sampled a sermon on it for his new Christmas single. It just keeps going. I thought we were going to press 1,000 and sell 50 a year for the next ten years.

Purge: Goodbye, Babylon being your first release and having received so much critical acclaim, do you think it’s hard to live up to?

Lance: It is for sure. We had a lot of people ask us how we were going to top this. [Yesterday] April and I were watching that show Treme by David Simon who made The Wire. It’s like how do you follow up to The Wire? It’s always going to get compared to it.

I’m glad [the album] came out when it did, because it was at the end of an era where people were still buying lots and lots of music.

Purge: Dust-to-Digital pays a lot of homage to African American music and culture. Was that intentional or just something that came naturally because of the music that you’ve released?

Lance: People ask us what the mission statement is for Dust-to-Digital. I always tell people that we’re put in the spotlight on things that we feel like should have the spotlight on it. Things that are underrepresented or not represented at all in record shops, Amazon.com or wherever.

It’s a lot of this type of music that gets released and doesn’t get a lot of attention. We’ve been fortunate with the success of Goodbye, Babylon [so that] we now have people coming to us from archives who feel the same way that we do. They have work of their own, their family’s work or a person’s work that is dead that hasn’t gotten the recognition even close to what it deserves. Maybe that’s the reason why there’s been so much focus on African American music.

We’ve actually just started working with our first living artist. He’s an African American visual artist from Birmingham, Alabama. We’re doing a record with him. His name is Lonnie Holley. I think what he does is connect a lot of the past with the present.

Purge: Where do you see Dust-to-Digital going in the next few years?

Lance: The good and the bad thing about having success with Goodbye, Babylon and different releases is that now we have so many people coming to us with incredible ideas and music for projects. I feel like we’re a funnel that has a small drip. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of critical acclaim that comes with it, but not a lot of money. We’re unable to have a staff of 50 and have each person work on their project. It’s more of people helping us out and doing different collaborations.

We’re always trying to figure out what medium it’s going to be because it’s always changing. Do we do everything on vinyl, or vinyl and CD, or vinyl, CD and mp3? Once we get all of that figured out we’re probably going to do more limited edition releases so we have more of a steady output.

What we’re working on doing now is establishing a non-profit. It would be a separate entity from Dust-to-Digital. The goal is to connect it all. You digitally archive the audio. Then you take all of the research and connect it all in to a database. Someone who is doing a search on an artist or a song would get a lot of rich information coming back: bios, photos, articles, discographies — basically a wealth of information for people who just want to know about old music.

A lot of people are looking to us now to hear things that they’ve never heard and to me that’s why we do what we do.

“I recently got a gift from Bob Dylan, a good old friend of mine. He gave me a gospel collection of great old American music and early country roots from old 78s. It’s the original wealth of our recorded music; it’s the cream of the crop and has the history of each recording. It’s a great old set called Goodbye, Babylon, and it’s incredible. It’s in a wooden box and everything, and it’s just so beautiful.”

~Neil Young

Photo Credit: Ryan James