Wrapping Up 2023
The 20th Year of Dust-to-Digital
Looking Back
As the 20th year of Dust-to-Digital comes to an end, we look back with gratitude for everyone has helped us along the way. There is no way two people could have accomplished all that we have without assistance. We are thankful for the artists who continue to share their musical expressions with the world. We are grateful for everyone who sends us performances and the contexts surrounding them, as well as scholars and colleagues who propose projects. The individuals in the comments sections and the emailers who contribute their knowledge and experience from around the world are also very appreciated.
Looking Ahead
Thank you for unarchiving this performance. This is actually one of those clips that really inspires me creatively. 🫶🏿 — paix_kid on Instagram
On a recent post of a historic performance, we noticed the intriguing comment above. Since its inception in 2012, our non-profit, the Dust-to-Digital Foundation, has focused much of its work on the preservation of historic audio. We are very excited to share several developments in the coming year that we have been working of for some time. We will begin to layout our plans for increasing access to the foundation’s vast digital archive.
Donation Giveaways
As a reminder, we are continuing to ship copies of the following products to Dust-to-Digital Foundation donors. Here are the tiers we are offering through the end of the year:
Any donation of $50 or more will receive our latest release “Bolinus Brandaris: Flamenco from the Bay of Cadiz.”
Any donation of $100 or more will receive the multi-Grammy-winning box set “Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris.”
Any donation of $200 or more will receive the deluxe anthology “Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music.”
A Raffle Contest
Also ongoing, all donations made through the end of the year will be entered into a raffle to receive our complete digital discography. All of our paid subscribers on Substack will be entered automatically, and the winner will be notified by email.
Tax-deductible donations can be made here via our Donorbox page.
A Recap of Our Presentation at The Whitney
Earlier this year we were invited by our colleague and friend Andrew Lampert to present as part of the Whitney’s educational weekend events around the current Harry Smith exhibition. We were excited to have an opportunity to be a part of this historic event. Harry Smith remains an inspiration and guidepost for our work.
This was unique opportunity to share some of the research we’ve conducted concerning Harry Smith that never materialized as a Dust-to-Digital release. We decided to let that be the starting point. Lance created a visual slideshow and edited an interview that that we conducted with John Cohen back in 2016. The images we reference are photos that we had taken at various archives over a two-year span, 2016-17. The audio was John recollecting on his experiences and impressions of Harry.
Our presentation was on December 9th at noon on a cold and rainy New York day. I think the Whitney being so close to the Hudson River made it feel that much colder. Regardless, we had a good crowd in attendance. After the audio/visual presentation, Lance and I had a conversation on stage with Andrew. He asked us about our work with Dust-to-Digital and our collaborations with people like John Cohen. This was an opportunity for Lance and me to get out of our normal channel of communication and be conversational in a public setting. Thanks to Andrew and the director of public programming at the Whitney, Megan Heuer for inviting us to be a part of the weekend-long conversation that was My Harry.
We will be making the audio interview with John Cohen that was presented for the first time ever at The Whitney available below for our Substack paid subscribers.
Happy New Year to you all, and we leave you with this recording made by Alan Lomax that was included on our first release Goodbye, Babylon.
