steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

I caught up with Lance Ledbetter - creator of Dust-to-Digital Records, whose first release was Goodbye, Babylon - to discuss the project's details and the future of the label.  Below are the results.

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Indieville: "Goodbye, Babylon" is not the type of project you just sit down and decide to work on. What was your motivation for compiling this box set of songs?

Lance Ledbetter: In 1998, I was doing a radio show at WRAS - the college station at Georgia State University. The show was called Raw Musics and its focus was on old timey country, blues, gospel and jazz from the early 1900s. When I was searching for material for the show, I came across a void in gospel music reissues. That led me to write a letter to a collector about whom I'd read on the internet. He lived in Maryland and owned over 25,000 78 rpm records. Over time we developed a nice relationship, and for the next year and a half I listened to all of his religious records. He would make me cassettes of the songs for $.50 a track and I'd get them and listen to them every night on headphones and would have the hair on the back of my neck raised. It was an incredible time!

I: Where did you get all of the songs from? Is there a large collection you culled them from, or was it a different sort of process?

LL: Most of the material comes from Joe Bussard's collection. He is the collector I just mentioned.

I: How long did the project take from start to finish? What were some particular challenges you faced?

LL: The whole thing took 4.5 years to complete. The biggest challenge was money. But having to save the type of money it took to give Goodbye Babylon life forced me to spend a lot more time on the book (that comes with the CDs) - its content and design.

I: Where did you get all of the information for this book? How did you research the songs, and how did you go about getting the essayists to contribute?

LL: Dick Spottswood was the first writer I contacted. He became of champion of the project. He told me about some different versions of songs that I had selected that I'd never heard and that were better. He also turned me on to some songs I'd never heard. He ended up co-editing the book with me.

Once Dick was on board, I decided to try getting in touch with other writers. I targeted writers that were experts in their specific field of gospel. They were all really nice and after hearing about the project wanted to help.

I: How much interest has there been since the box set's release? Are you satisfied with the attention it's been getting? Lots of critics have spoken positively of the collection; have your customers also been giving you their impressions?

LL: The feedback has been positive - the amount of which was completely unexpected. We've received some nice letters and emails from people who received the set as a Christmas gift or bought it for a relative. Those are very nice to get. Also, some of the critics like David Greenberger and David Fricke have written such insightful reviews that make me believe that Goodbye Babylon is really connecting to people.

I: The packaging of "Goodbye, Babylon" is almost as incredible as the music contained inside. How was the concept of the box developed, and how did you get the packaging produced?

LL: I wanted to have the packaging be raw and natural. I drew up the design for the box and found a company in Canada that made custom boxes. As for the book, I wanted each song to have its own page. I felt like these artists deserved it.

I: Are there any particularly special songs on the discs? Any stories regarding either their creation or your discovery of them?

LL: I love all of them, but there's a special place in my heart for Blind Joe Taggart's "Goin' to Rest Where Jesus Is" and all the Sacred Harp material. Taggart's song with the backing vocal and violin is such an anomaly on many levels, but it all makes for an incredible song. The Sacred Harp music is special to me because I started attending local singings in the midst of producing Goodbye Babylon, and I'm getting hooked.

I: Why was the song "Goodbye, Babylon" chosen as the title of this release? Does it hold any special significance?

LL: That record was unissued by Paramount. Dick Spottswood recently obtained the test pressing without a label or listing. We passed it around the scholar community and it was agreed that it was Rev. T. T. Rose. What was great about the record from an audio standpoint is that each version of the song is different. So, I thought what better than to have the two bookend the collection of songs.

I: What was the process like for obtaining the release rights for each of the compilation's one hundred and sixty tracks? Was this difficult?

LL: We received legal and accounting advice on all such matters. There were some things that we could not get.

I: Have you planned anything for Dust-to-Digital's next project? Can you give us any details?

LL: We're planning a pre-war sacred harp box set and a pre-war music of Georgia box set. Also, there will be a few themed one-off CD releases to fill in the gaps between the box sets.

The Dust-to-Digital website is www.dust-digital.com.  Many reviews of Goodbye, Babylon can be perused here.