Crib Notes

Atlanta gospel preacher Rev. Johnny L. “Hurricane” Jones, has assembled a band of young musicians from the Atlanta rock community including Bradley Bailey (drums), Cameron Stuart (guitar) and Dan Beauregard (stand-up bass) to play a free show at Park Grounds in Reynoldstown on Thurs., Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. Those Kids (DJs Jacob Blaisdell and Josh Feigert) will be spinning rare gospel records before and after the show.

Jones has been the minister at The Second Mt. Olive Baptist Church for 53 years and hosts a radio show on WYZE-AM (1480) on the first and third Saturdays each month.

Jones has been recording his sermons every week since 1960, and on Dec. 8  Dust-to-Digital will release the first of two projected LPs of Jones’ sermons, called Jesus Christ from A to Z.

Rev. Johnny L. “Hurricane” Jones “One More Time” mp3

Park Grounds is located at 142 Flat Shoals Ave. 678-528-9901.

Bookmark to:

Au Clair de la Lune from Dust-to-Digital on Vimeo.

This week Parlortone Records, the vinyl imprint of Dust-to-Digital debuted with the release of “Au Clair de la Lune” a one-sided 7-inch that features a 20-second recording of what the label calls the earliest intelligible recording of the human voice. The record captures a recording made in France on April 9, 1860 — 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.

To celebrate Dust-to-Digital is hosting a release party at The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center tonight as part of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center’s monthly Avant Garden series.

The recording was captured by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, who invented a very strange process by which a tuning fork was affixed to a piece of paper that was suspended over an oil lamp. Vibrations on the paper recorded patterns in the smoke which were then turned into sound.

It’s a gorgeous and noisy record that clouds the haunting voice of a young woman singing somewhere beneath a din of dust, crackle and hiss — it’s not unlike listening to the voice of a ghost.

The Contemporary Arts Center will have a camera set up and will be asking people “if their voice was going to be the first thing ever recorded, what would they say?”

FREE. 6 p.m. First listening of the record starts at 6:30 p.m. Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. 535 Means St. 404.688.1970.

Bookmark to:

To celebrate CL’s annual music issue we asked a random mix of Atlanta tastemakers, critics and promoters to share their greatest playlists.

Lance Ledbetter, founder of Dust-to-Digital

1. Rev. Johnny L. Jones “God Specializes”
2. Omar Souleyman “Leh Jani”
3. Chubby Parker “Bib-a-Lollie-Boo”
4. Andy Iona and His Islanders “Ta-hu-wa-hu-wa-i”
5. Cecil Barfield “Georgia Blues”
6. Brother Claude Ely “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”
7. Chrissy Zebby Tembo and Ngozi Family “Trouble Maker”
8. Marika Papagika “Smyrneiko Minore”
9. Group Bombino “Imuhar”
10. John Fahey “Desperate Man Blues”

My favorite Atlanta-based artists is Rev. Johnny L. Jones of Second Mount Olive Baptist Church. His nickname is the Hurricane, and after you hear some of his songs and sermons you’ll know why. The music is supplied by organ and tambourine with the congregation backing Johnny, and the result is some of the most ecstatic sounds I’ve ever heard. Check him out on WYZE 1480AM every other Saturday at 11a.m.

Check out Mixtape Love: CL Music Issue ‘09

(Photo by Chad Radford)

Bookmark to:

Last night (Thurs., Feb. 12th) April and Steven Lance Ledbetter, the duo behind the Atlanta-based re-issue label Dust-to-Digital, celebrated receiving their first GRAMMY® award at The Kirkwood Ballers Club at the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge.

This year the label received a GRAMMY® for Best Historical Album, for Art Of Field Recording Volume I: Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum.

According to Dust-to-Digital’s site…

Art of Field Recording Volume I is a four disc set with a 96 page book that contains essays and annotations by Art and over 100 illustrations and photographs by Art and his wife Margo. Art took a similar approach to Harry Smith in assembling the music: the discs are divided into Blues, Instrumental and Dance, Sacred, and a Survey disc that has a little bit of everything.

The Art of Field Recording… was also nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Album Notes, but that award went to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition .

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” says Lance. “When the trophy shows up, and it’s engraved with our name on it I’ll face the facts, but as of right now I still feel the same as before the ceremony.”

(Photo by Chad Radford)

Bookmark to:

Seems like there was more action behind-the-scenes than onstage, despite the 20-plus performances at this year’s Grammy Awards.

Chris Brown reportedly got gangsta with his girlfriend Rihanna, causing them both to cancel their performances. The alleged reason behind the smackdown should bring a whole new meaning to their upcoming collabo, “Bad Girl,” produced by Atlantan Polow da Don for the Confessions of a Shopaholic soundtrack. Meanwhile the real “gangstas,” Lil Wayne and T.I., delivered upstanding, redemptive performances — neither of which required NARAS President Neil Portnow to excuse their inclusion in the program, the way he had to when Eminem performed to the chagrin of gay rights activists in 2001.

Of course, the Recording Academy continued this year with the ultra-lame generational mashup theme that made for some of the oddest pairings ever.

Surely, Stevie Wonder would’ve been insulted if only he could’ve seen how silly he looked on stage with the Jonas Brothers. The Al Green/Justin Timberlake pairing was quite a yawner, but perhaps we should be thankful that Timberlake didn’t attempt to rip Green’s shirt off for a grand finale. And did we really need to see B.B. King and John Mayer trade ugly guitar faces for the second year in a row?

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Atlanta-based record label Dust-to-Digital does it right. They don’t release a lot of discs, but what they do put out is so consistently good that it’s always worth buying.

Take The Art of Field Recording Volume I for example — when that box set came out in 2007 it got two GRAMMY nominations and glowing praise from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and pretty much everyone else who heard it.

So listen up, the second volume of The Art of Field Recording is just starting to hit shelves now and Dust to Digital are throwing a shin-dig in Athens on Saturday to celebrate. Performers will include the blind, nonagenarian Sister Fleeta Mitchell, Ed Teague who “is perhaps the only tradition-schooled two-finger banjo picker still actively playing in north Georgia,” and a good number of other artists recorded over the years by folklorist Art Rosenbaum. More details can be found at Dust to Digital.

Bookmark to: