Our weekly KWTF show is about a label whose chief purpose is the resurrection of that curious mix of ephemera, folklore, ancestry, and musicianship that reveals itself as folk music: whether it be pre-Monroe bluegrass, gospel, blues, or early pop. The label I speak of is Dust-To-Digital and we’ll scratch the surface of some of the great work that they’ve issued since 1999, the year Lance Ledbetter and his wife April open shop in Atlanta, Georgia.Their mission is the same as it was then: to produce high quality cultural artifacts.
Pitchfork magazine put it this way: “Although the folklorists lugging around tape recorders (and the performers carrying on ancient traditions) are worthy of much heralding, it’s equally astounding how essential Lance Ledbetter’s work at Dust-to-Digital has been to the preservation of traditional American folksong. It’s easy to buy and appreciate these sets without realizing that the bulk of the material might have been lost — or, at the very least, tethered to archives, readily accessible only to curious faculty, paper-writing students, and bespectacled researchers — without Ledbetter’s interference.”
| No. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artist | Title | Album | Buy |
| 2 | Jimmy Murphy | We Live A Long Time To Get Old | Desperate Man Blues |  |
| 3 | Tennesee Messarounds | Mandolin Blues | Desperate Man Blues | |
| 4 | Lonnie Johnson | Death Valley is Just Half Way To My Home | Desperate Man Blues | |
| 5 | Chubby Parker | Bib-a-lollie-boo | …I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces | |
| 6 | Ernest Thompson | In the Baggage Coach Ahead | …I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces | |
| 7 | Roy Smeck Trio | Reaching for the Moon | …I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces | |
| 8 | Lew Childre | It Don't Do Nothing but Rain | …I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces | |
| 9 | Sara Martin & Sylvester Weaver | I've Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind | …I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces | |
| 10 | Sister O.M. Terrell | The Bible's Right | Goodbye, Babylon – Deliverance Will Come [Disc 2] | |
| 11 | Mahalia Jackson | God's Gonna Separate The Wheat From The Tares | Goodbye, Babylon – Introduction [Disc 1] | |
| 12 | The North Carolina Cooper Boys | Daniel In The Den Of Lions | Goodbye, Babylon – Deliverance Will Come [Disc 2] | |
| 13 | Moses Williams | The Train | Drop On Down in Florida [Disc 1] | |
| 14 | Emmett Murray | She's a Fool, She Ain't Got No Sense | Drop On Down in Florida [Disc 1] | |
| 15 | Rev. Johnny L. Jones | Huff Construction Company (Radio Commercial) | The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta | |
| 16 | Rev. Johnny L. Jones | I Love the Lord | The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta | |
| 17 | Dorothy Lee | You Got to Give an Account (feat. Norma Jean, Shirley Marie Johnson & Robert nighthawk Johnson) | Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Religious Black Music | |
| 18 | Babe Stovall | When the Circle Be Unbroken | Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Religious Black Music | |
| 19 | Robert nighthawk Johnson | Cant No Grave Hold My Body Down | Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Religious Black Music | |
| 20 | Henagar Union Sacred Harp Convention | Save, Lord, or We Perish 224 | I Belong to This Band: Eight-Five Years of Sacred Harp Recordings | |
| 21 | Denson's Sacred Harp Singers of Arley, Alabama | Ninety-Fifth 36B | I Belong to This Band: Eight-Five Years of Sacred Harp Recordings | |
| 22 | Brother Claude Ely | Send Down The Rain | Satan Get Back | |
| 23 | Uncle Eck Dunford and Ernest Stoneman | Barney McCoy | Lead Kindly Light | |
| 24 | The Allen Brothers | Skipping and Flying | Lead Kindly Light | |
| 25 | Georgia Yellow Hammers | Mary Don't You Weep | Lead Kindly Light | |
| 26 | Charlie Parker and Mack Woolbright | Man Who Wrote the Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man | Lead Kindly Light | |
| 27 | Loveless Twins Quartet | Lead Kindly Light | Lead Kindly Light | |
| 28 | The Morrison Twin Brothers String Band | Ozark Waltz | Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers | |
| 29 | Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers | Just Give Me the Leavings | Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers | |
| 30 | Wonder State Harmonists | Turnip Greens | Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers | |
| 31 | Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers | Jaw Bone | Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers | |
| 32 | Clarence Alexander | Disability Boogie Woogie | Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 19471959 | |
| 33 | 22 & Group | The Prettiest Train I Ever Saw | Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 19471959 | |
| 34 | Henry Ratcliff | Look For Me In Louisiana | Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 19471959 | |
| 35 | Willie Washington | My Jack Dont Drink No Water | Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 19471959 | |
| 36 | The David Thom Band | Windy City | That Old Familiar | |