The Birth of Rock and Roll is now available for pre-ordering on Amazon. I received a copy and it turned out beautiful. A coffee table book, and a book about music unlike any you have seen.
My vintage photographs were handled beautifully by the fine folks at the publisher DUST-TO-DIGITAL and the design by award-winning Martin Venezky and his Appetite Engineers shop is fantastic. Historian, essayist and music-writer Joe Bonomo contributes elegant prose.
160 pages and when they are laid open, each is 19" x 12" of striking jumping' and jivin' humanity! I am proud indeed to make a contribution to our understanding of that phenomena we call Rock and Roll, and the folks mentioned above helped it happen.
There will be more about the book soon, but for now it is listed in the art book D.A.P. Catalog (shown here) and Amazon is taking pre-orders. It will soon be available at the Dust-to-Digital Website and other sources.
It may be worth mentioning that my first book with Dust to Digital, Take Me to the Water (which was Grammy-nominated) is now out of print and used copies are trading for over a hundred dollars…
I would like to thank the publisher Stephen Lance Ledbetter for recognizing the potential of this project, and for the magnificent results. A picture does tell a thousand words, and in this case the pictures tell a hundred year story like never before. Thank you!
Those familiar with 20th Century self-taught artists, in particular African-American creators will be interested in the new CD of songs by Lonnie Holley on the Dust to Digital label. Co-produced by Stephen Lance Ledbetter and Matt Arnett. Lance of course co-produced the Grammy-nominated release Take Me to the Water with me several years ago, and Matt is of course from the Souls Grown Deep organization which published the mammoth (and essential) Souls Grown Deep volumes on Southern Black art which grew from the collecting and scholarship of Bill Arnett.
I first met Lonnie Holley 20 years ago, when he was living on (and in) a remarkable sculptural environment he created in Birmingham, Alabama…a massive jumble of rusted objects repurposed into sculpture, visions, lessons and mojo near the Airport. While we spoke (or rather, while Lonnie spun a continuous rap and I listened) he created a hand-sized carving out of foundry sand with a nail file while a handful of his many children played in the nooks and crannies of his yard. I left impressed but suspicious. To this day I have considered Mr. Holly half-spiritual griot and half carnival barker. Both, in my book, are noble and valid. Either way he is a considerable communicator.
I once made a list of all the known and prominent self-taught, or "outsider" artists who also sang or played instruments. (A year ago, when Lance sent me a dub of one song here, I immediately asked in surprise "who is playing the piano" without thinking much. Of course it was Lonnie.) But Sister Gertrude Morgan, Henry Speller, Son Thomas, S. L. Jones, Charles and Noah Kinney, Anderson Johnson, Howard Finster and Jimmy Sudduth all played some music. It goes hand in hand…the creative impulse is cultural after all, and visual arts often come from the same place as musical. They are one and the same in many ways.
Lonnie comes up with a handful of songs in perfect synch with his sculptural creations. A contemporary praise singer of sorts. There is a consistency in his vision which travels to his fingers, back to his eyes and now through his voice. One voice. He may claim he is the voice of his ancestors, or of the earth, but Lonnie is really his own voice built upon deep roots. Musically, the disc is more than anything a pleasing groove, Not quite the deep Alabama blues drone of Junior Kimbrough which came out of the Fat Possum hills, but you WILL hear descending phrases which sound like the bluesman,only here soft and almost jazz-like. The lyrics are moods with repeated phrases as much as poems, and all are what one could be called vintage Lonnie. Consistent with his vision.
There is lovely packaging, of course. Both Souls Grown Deep and Dust to Digital do that like no one else. Holley writes the intro, and there is a ten page insert with splendid examples of his art as well as lyrics. If you collect Dust to Digital releases, and you should, it is recommended. If you are interested in the relationship between the visual and aural traditions of African-American culture, likewise.
Dust to Digital continues to be the most interesting, entertaining and DEEP labels of recorded sound in business. A striking video of Mr. Holley working follows:
Dust to Digital, the Atlanta-based juggernaut label headed by wunderkind Lance Ledbetter continues to continue...and I mean in large southern culture chunks. Just look...FOUR projects now ready for your holiday shopping, and each anxiously awaited here. Yes, there is still Christmas for adults, and this label proves it. Again and again.
Let's face it...you can't open a download Christmas morning. Put your hands on something! At Dust to Digital physical objects of artistic beauty and quality persist...and now is a particularly rich and fertile time to consider their projects. All are affordable and all will be appreciated by anyone you purchase them for. Buy Now. Simple as that. Seriously.
Let Your Feet Do The Talkin’ tells the story of 70-year-old buckdancing legend Thomas Maupin and examines music’s ability to form and to strengthen relationships and to lift us above our circumstances. Baby, How Can It Be? is a three-CD set from the 78 rpm record collection of John Heneghan with liner notes by Nick Tosches and a centerfold illustration by R. Crumb. The discs are organized by theme: Love, Lust and Contempt. The Hurricane that Hit Atlanta is a two-CD collection of archival recordings from Rev. Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones. Culled from more than 1,000 tapes going back to 1957, every track on this set is available to the public for the very first time. Ten Thousand Points of Light is a documentary film that should be added to everyone's annual holiday playlist. The wry, understated and terrifically funny look at the Townsends, a suburban Atlanta family who, every holiday season for eight years, transformed their Stone Mountain area brick ranch house into a meteoric blaze of Christmas lights is available on DVD for the first time.
The LP cover was the perfect medium for a visual artist. A 12" x 12" square one could fill with anything. It had a good run. Some of the images are so ingrained, I carry them upstairs all the time, though haven't owned an LP or record player for years. Sticky Fingers by Warhol. Talking Heads by Rauschenberg. The Richard Pettibon covers for Black Flag and the Minutemen. "What makes a man start fires" indeed.
Susan Archie is one artist who has been able to bring both classic and innovative esthetics to the music package. Despite dropping sales and the invisible format of the download, she has designed some of the most beautiful artistic objects you can imagine, and they often come in a 5" x 5" size! I once thought the CD was too small for art..I was wrong. I'll be wrong about the 2" x 2" screen of a handheld one day too.
Here are examples of Susan's work from the last few years. They are usually thick and juicy as well, a richness I can not show with a scanner... she specializes in packages, not just covers, and the damn feel of her product (a word I hesitate to use as they are so beautiful) makes everything she does just about the least expensive piece of serious art one can buy. It is difficult to be both pure and lush, her work manages to be both. She will jam in content and information, but still present a minimal beauty that is capable of creating awe. I have not asked Susan or the labels who have hired her for permission to use these images, nor do I have the time to list all their details. I am sure she would choose others, since she also manages to be prolific, thankfully...but if there is a way to search her name you can purchase ANYTHING and I do not exaggerate. I grabbed a few here, ignore the wear. They are among the most played discs in the house.
Is the CD gone? Actually this is the glory days. I'll let you all in on a little secret too...for collectors, the most rare and valuable items are always produced in the last days of a format change. As many of the small presses and labels Ms. Archie chooses to work with press in small quantities, there won't be enough to go around in the future...and believe me, she will have a museum show one day. These images from my rack don't even BEGIN to show what she has done and what she is capable of. The music too is above reproach, she has taste AND taste!
Susan's WEBSITE is here, She should crow louder than she does. I am linking as well to her testimonial page here so you can see some of her achievements. I don't know where there is a complete discography of her work, but the one HERE will give you an indication (and buying list) Her work is consistently beautiful and that she chooses to work in a small format is no indication of her giant talent, plus when I think of her I always smile.
Many years ago a good friend told me the art world works slow. It does indeed. I started collecting antique photographs of folks being washed and saved many years ago. With each one I found and acquired, my desire to share them with others increased. All good things come to he who waits. I was fortunate indeed to find Lance and April Ledbetter at Dust to Digital, they brought a professionalism and respect to the material I could have not have even imagined. Master designers John Hubbard and Rob Millis have recreated my delight finding the photos with every turn of the page. Luc Sante, who has a remarkable acuity for translating visions into text generously provided words I am incapable of. Many others were involved, Lance thanks them in the credits. I am pleased the originals have been accepted into the permanent collection of the International Center of Photography, where, unlike many of the things I have assembled over the years, they will be kept together for all to enjoy. Today, anyone can leave a footprint...all it takes is the ability to hit "send" or "upload"...but to have a physical object as beautiful as the book and CD my friends have produced is a wonderful thing.
So, on to the next. I have shoe boxes full and ideas plenty.
"Baptism on the Ohio River, near Cincinnati, Ohio" Azo Real Photo Post Card circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman
