Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism Jim Linderman Lance Ledbetter Luc Sante Book CD
Dust-To-Digital releases Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950. Photographs from the Jim Linderman collection with a CD of historic early recordings. Produced by Steven Lance Ledbetter. Essays by Jim Linderman, Luc Sante.
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 DTD-13 / One CD / 96 Page Hardback Book Release Date: available from Amazon May 26, 2009
04 November 2009 Take Me To The Water Review from Lucindaville I have a profound love of "B" things: baking, Jane Bowles, books, Balenciaga, bees, Cecil Beaton, Bunnys (both Mellon and Williams) and baptism. Growing up in the South, people often wear their religion on their sleeves, and being surrounded by it on a constant level tends to leave you either repulsed or fascinated. I have a profound fascination. I love street preachers, snake handlers, prophetic painters, church architecture, and baptism. As a child, my family lived in a series of houses beside a lake. My great-uncle Knox, named for the theologian John Knox, would often allow the small country churches in the area to bring their congregations to the lake to preform immersion baptisms. I would stand in the window of my house and watch as preacher and congregants waded into the water and were pushed below the surface to be born again. I regret that I have no photographs of those baptisms.
If you read my blogs you may also realize that I love music. Recently, Dust-to -Digital produced a book/CD that was made for me. Take Me To The Water features a collection of immersion baptism photographs from the collection of Jim Linderman and a CD of rare folk and gospel recordings from 1924-1940, recorded from original 78 rpm records. Dust-to Digital is the recording label from the rabidly tenacious and encyclopedic mind of Lance Ledbetter.
Ledbetter spent 5 years searching for old gospel recordings before compiling his first collection, Goodbye Babylon, a six-CD set that became a must have for anyone interested in religion, early music or Southern heritage. The CD were packed in a wooden crate complete with a 200-page book and bit of raw cotton
No only is Dust-to-Digital concerned with the preservation of music that may soon be lost to us, but their sense of design is impeccable. While the old-fashioned music of the Deep South might not be to your liking, check out the offering of Dust-to-Digital for their sheer brilliance of design.
If you want to feel a bit washed in the blood, listen to Reverend Nathan Smith's Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils sing Baptism At Burning Bush.
And please, please, purchase something, anything from the Dust-to-Digital. This is one small business that makes the world a better place. Since the holiday season is approaching, might I recommend Where Will You Be Christmas Day?
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950
It just came out, published by Dust-to-Digital press, an Atlanta-based imprint responsible for some of the best history-music fusion products I've seen recently, including "The Art of Field Recording," a multi-volume set that collects folk and traditional American music from an impressively long time ago, from all over the country, with a Smithsonian-level care for historical accuracy and preservation. Bob Dylan recently gave the set to Neil Young as a gift, if that says anything. This new book, though, especially interests me, it compiles vintage photos of immersion baptism-- think that scene in O Brother Where Art Thou-- and recordings of fire and brimstone preaching from radio stations of the time, gospel, and country folk. I got a chance to look through the book while fact-checking a review of it for Paste, and was blown away by both the review and the book itself-- Jubera's article is still the best description I can offer of what this book brings to the table. Seeing these photos is truly incredible-- the racial barriers and commonalities, the leap-of-faith aspect, the river itself, the concept of seeing how something so marginal and stigmatized was actually so prevalent-- it's just a fascinating thing to sink your culturally-interested teeth into. The ritual itself is both haunting and intriguing, and this book really brings that to light. I strongly recommend checking it out. Here's a photo from Jim Linderman's blog (the editor/compiler of these photos):
Take Me to the Water review by Bradley Novicoff Dangerous Minds October 15, 2009
Dismissed at the time as a lightweight Coen Brothers effort, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, for me, grows in significance with each passing year. In its ‘00 depiction of ‘30s America at a literal and metaphoric crossroads, there’s something moving and elegiac about it—even subversive. Where else in American cinema has anything, everything felt so wonderfully possible?
Recording a hit song, taking down the Klan and crooked politicians, having your sins washed away in a nearby river, it’s all a matter of course in O Brother’s vision of America. And while I know that’s probably not an authentic vision for how things were back then, it still feels like an excellent vision for how things should be.
Whether through flooding or baptism, O Brother equates water with the possibility of transformation. So, too, does Kevin Coultas in his notes on Dust-To-Digital‘s new, carefully authentic release, Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music And Photography:
The Christian sacrament of baptism has its ritualistic origins in the Jewish mikvah (or collection) in which one is purified, typically in a ‘collection’ of living water (river, lake, ocean, etc.). New Testament prophet John the Baptist adopted this tradition and used the River Jordan to cleanse sinners so that they might enter a new life of repentance.
Based on the clip below, Take Me To The Water looks like quite a package. Assembled by collector Jim Linderman, it puts together 75 American baptism photos from 1890 - 1950 with a 25-track disc of early 20th-Century music from the likes of The Carter Family, Washington Philips, and The Jubilee Singers.
As Luc Sante writes of the photos in an accompanying essay, “One is reminded of the commonality of the human experience when viewing a collection of this ilk and there is nothing wrong with that.”
They’re dunked in wide rivers and lazy farm ponds. Some are dropped down holes sawed through winter ice, the better to cool—as Memphis preacher E.D. Campbell once sermonized—that “fire burning in my soul.”
They’re submerged alone and by the dozen, in white robes and their Sunday best. Crowds gather on grassy banks as if for a picnic or fair or game of rounders. Some tote umbrellas, some carry children, some have smiles as broad and beatific as the river Jordan, which these scenes are meant to replicate.
They’re all part of the photographs and recordings that make up Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950, the latest small miracle from Grammy-winning Atlanta-based imprint Dust-to-Digital. The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting.
Bound in hardback with an accompanying CD of rustic gospel and recorded preachifying, Linderman’s sepia-toned images are transformative—even the unholiest among us would be hard-pressed to witness these anonymously snapped pictures without feeling a tug toward the Glory Land. The ritual submersions kindle the human quests for rebirth, purification and a moment of blessed suspension. They’re at once old-timey and timeless—and a little dangerous, too. That backward dive is the ultimate trust fall. When you see the coatless preacher holding an unseen congregate underwater with both hands, you can only hope the sinner is being saved and not drowned.
Observe the pair in dark clothing—down-creek from one camera’s lens, past the overhanging tree limbs—who wade into a long finger of bright sunlight that seems to lead up into infinity. Or the girl in the pond with folded arms from whom waves radiate in ever-widening circles, finally rippling off the bottom of the page and up through your fingertips.
Linderman writes about the connection between the visual and the aural—a specialty of Dust-to-Digital and Lance Ledbetter, the label’s founder and chief obsessive. Dust-to-Digital debuted in 2003 with Goodbye, Babylon, a six-CD set of vintage religious music and a 200-page book, all packed with raw cotton in a simple wooden box. The label won a Grammy this year with Art of Field Recording Volume I, and released Volume II in January. Take Me to the Water isn’t as far-reaching as those sets, but its thoroughness and focus have a rare effect. Beautifully packaged and meticulously curated, the songs and sermons provide their own kind of baptism into this other time and place. The 25 tracks range from Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers to Rev. Nathan Smith’s Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils.
They all hew to a single theme, put best by Elder J.E. Burch during a 1927 sermon recorded in Atlanta. His words could serve as this project’s mission statement. “The subject is wash,” he begins. “You wash ladies understand that it’s essential that you want your garments clean. And in the same like mind, our God almighty wants His garments clean. And He tells you to wash… Wash away your guilty conscience. Wash away every evil thought. And you don’t wash, glory to God, with the natural water, but you wash with the word of God.”
Those of you who enjoyed (or will enjoy) Take Me to the Water will certainly be interested in the new daily blog "old time religion" which exhibits material from the same collection used in the book. "Vernacular religious detritus from the Jim Linderman collection of photography and ephemera. Jesus is my jet plane and I have the Lord on speed dial. Old Time Religion is a natural line extension from Dull Tool Dim Bulb, where posts of this nature occur every Saturday night while the rest of you are sinning. Wake up, it is Sunday morning! Praise the Lord and Click to Enlarge" old time religion
Heartbreak Trail Review September 2009 Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950
(Dust-To-Digital/Forced Exposure, 2009)
Just as a passing knowledge of scripture is necessary to understand literature, much of the best work by the great modern singer/songwriters cannot be fully appreciated without a familiarity with gospel music. Take Me To The Water, like the acclaimed Goodbye, Babylon box set that preceded it, is as good a place to start as any.
But although it is an exemplary compilation of early religious-themed country and blues recordings focusing specifically on the baptism ritual, it is also so much more. The CD’s accompanying hardbound book is an equally thrilling experience, presenting a collection of photographs from noted archivist Jim Linderman depicting public baptisms in every conceivable form.
The sepia-tinged images showing riverbanks lined with sometimes hundreds of people, are steeped in humility and serenity, and are the perfect visual representation of the music. Old time country fans will first latch onto songs by the Carter Family, the Carolina Tarheels, and J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers, but the most powerful tracks are the several sermons that actually put you at the riverside.
The connection with rock and roll is clearly illuminated on these magnetic performances, but it is the overall pristine sound and attention to detail that places Take Me To The Water among rarified company within the reissue genre.
Take Me to the Water Brenda Nelson-Strauss Black Grooves August 2009
Dust-to-Digital has done it again. The company that produced Goodbye Babylon, a wonderful historical CD set of early gospel recordings lovingly tucked into a wooden crate packed with genuine southern cotton, has followed up with another unique gospel offering. Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 is half picture book, half liner notes in the form of a hardcover book with an accompanying CD affixed inside the back cover.
The bulk of the 96-page book features beautifully reproduced sepia-toned photographs of “immersion baptism” from the collection of Jim Linderman; that is, out-of-doors full body immersion in lakes and rivers, often en masse. Included are some extremely rare, early images of African American baptisms such as the panorama stretching across the back and front covers labeled “Black Billy Sunday, Indianapolis, Aug. 3, 1919, Baptising at Fall Creek” (one of the few images with such a complete identification). A brief essay by Luc Sante provides the context necessary to understand the images, including a general history of baptism, an overview of the featured denominations, and a description of the settings and emotionally charged states of the participants.
Now, on to the music. The 25 “Songs and Sermons” on the accompanying CD are “derived from extremely rare records” from the collections of Steven Lance Ledbetter (Dust-to-Digital’s owner/producer) and legendary record collector Joe Bussard, among others, and ” have been remastered to produce the best possible sound.” Ledbetter also wrote the accompanying liner notes, included at the end of the book. The tracks, of course, all have a baptism/water theme, including various renditions of “Wade in the Water” (a few also appeared on Goodbye Babylon). Selections range from such African American heavyweights as the Rev. J. M. Gates (his singing sermon “Baptize Me” from 1926) to lesser known artists such as Moses Mason (”Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream’) and Rev. E. D. Campbell (”Take Me to the Water”). White southern gospel artists include the Carter Family (”On My Way to Canaan’s Land”), the Carolina Tar Heels (”I’ll Be Washed”), and Ernest Stoneman’s Dixie Mountaineers (”Down to Jordan and Be Saved”).
Together, the photographs and music make a stunning package. As Sante states in his essay, “Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water.”
Blogcritics Music Review by Lou Novacheck August 13, 2009
Dust-to-Digital continues to publish some of the best “old-timey” CDs, records, and books in this otherwise moribund genre of music. There’s not much out there new these days, mainly because there isn’t much left in existence that hasn’t been previously published. However, Dust-to-Digital has succeeded again in scaring up enough obscure material for still another meaty issue. They do for obscure, quality music in the 21st century what Joe Bussard did in the last century (and still occasionally does today, including his contribution on this project).
Take Me to the Water is a 96-page hardback book with 75 vintage photographs, that all comes with a 25-cut CD. The bedrock of this quite interesting collection is that it began as a labor of love by collector Jim Linderman.
One of the more irritating things about many companies releasing very old material is the lack of information accompanying the releases. Fortunately, releasing at least a small book or booklet with historic recordings is, so far, standing operating procedure for Dust-to-Digital. Let’s hope the trend continues. The majority of people interested in this type of music (and by the way, they’re the same people who generally make up the majority of attendees at the scholarly symposia, meetings, and performances around the world connected with “old-timey” American music) far outnumber those who would buy this music simply for the music. (How tough can that be, marketing geniuses? If a person is buying historical music, you think they just might possibly be interested in some of the history that goes with the music?) Take a lesson from Dust-to-Digital and do it right.
As the small hardbound book accompanying this CD says, “Without the vision and passion of collectors, a great deal of our auditory and visual heritage would not exist. Thankfully, private collectors are often willing to share their finds …”
We’ve all walked into at least one antique shop in our lives only to spot a box of old, black-and-white photographs with no written notes on the reverse. It would be easier to count the times that we didn’t spot one. Think of the stories missing from these photos. Some person went to the trouble of spending, what was then, at least a fair chunk of time and money to obtain a photograph; just think how much a paragraph or two would add to it?
The events that are recorded were, at that time, important to the person taking the photograph, right? So why aren’t there at least a few words scribbled on them? There isn’t much text among the pages of photographs, and some photos are scarred or folded or otherwise mistreated. But in the few pages of text available, Dust-to-Digital includes those important things. It gives us a broad overview, with a nice selection of photographs with little or no description, allowing your thoughts free rein to fill in the missing information.
The people participating in the presented immersion baptisms were by and large working class people, many of whom had never owned a camera. They are participating in one of the high points in their lives, and of course they have to get a photo. You can see and hear the absolute emotional watershed event of these people’s lives in every photo, as well as on the CD. You can practically feel their excitement and joy.
You hardly see this sort of thing any longer, but they were a mainstay a few times every summer when “tent revival” would come to smaller towns and rural areas. These were always good entertainment, even if one wasn’t religiously inclined. They’d often get two or three otherwise unemployed musicians who wouldn’t mind riding around the country playing music and get paid for it. They’d climb into the truck and come to your town, combining a carnival atmosphere with country blues and country folk music, played by genuine country people who grew up surrounded by the music. Add a generous helping of a generic Christian religious aura and some gospel songs, and they had something for practically everybody, especially in areas without a movie theater; not a restaurant, not a club within an hour’s drive in any direction. You think people wouldn't come? You couldn’t keep them away.
Before the heyday of the radio beginning in the 1920s, people often had only each other to rely on for news and entertainment, mostly other settlers. And from that, came this music: a plain, simple melody, just enough to form a background for the singing. Many of the songs were religious in nature, and quite old, having first been played by traveling troubadours in medieval times; not much has changed since. The African-American songs were influenced by parts of Africa from whence they came, but were also representative of where they originated or where they were learned, most likely on the plantations of the South. They were then handed down.
Several minutes of the preachers’ solicitation to the crowd are also included, as you hear them asking the audience members if they wanted to be baptized. The congregations on these recordings are typically as hyper-charged as the preachers when the call goes out.
Once you get into the “feel” of this recording, that’s the appropriate time to pick up the book and begin studying the photos. And then, once you’re surrounded with the emotion and excitement of these events, listen closely to the participants, their amens, hallelujahs and other exhortations. You’ll understand, and if you’re lucky you’ll feel, the gravity and joy that overcame many of those who were baptized. You’ll even hear Washington Phillips doing his 1927 recording of “Denomination Blues,” the Carter Family, and the Tennessee Mountaineers. Dock Walsh’s version of “Bathe In That Beautiful Pool” is another ear-catcher. Rounding out the better know musicians are the Empire Jubilee Quartet, Bill Boyd and his Cowboy Rambliers, and Ernest Stoneman’s Dixie Mountaineers. Many of the other musicians and speakers are unknown to me, and will probably be to you as well, since many are obscure. Their names, however, are not as important as the content, the fervor and the dedication that this collection imparts. All the content is related to religion or baptism in particular. And even if this type of music doesn’t usually ring your bells, I’m confident this collection will move you.
I can see Dust-to-Digital picking up another Grammy for this collection. Don’t miss it. Those waiting to buy, for whatever reason, often find themselves out of luck. Dust-to-Digital releases are often on the Most Wanted lists, and sell out quickly. And be sure to catch what the company calls its Listening Room.
You can listen to samples of any of their many releases, and as a buyer of nearly everything they’ve released, I can vouch for the quality and integrity of the company.
Saved!Take Me to the Water searches the strange depths of full immersion baptism in song and imageBY MAX GOLDBERGSan Francisco Bay Guardian (Expanded)Wednesday August 5, 2009God's eye view?One of my favorite objects of the summer is Take Me to the Water, another remarkable excavation from Dust-to-Digital. Where Goodbye, Babylon is monumental, the present book/cd acts is more intimately shuddered, and a remarkable manifestation of the memorial function of photography. My review ran in this week’s Guardian, but only after I sheared a couple hundred words. Here’s the original copy:Take Me to the Water (Dust-to-Digital, 96 pages, $32.50) is both a labor of love and a portal to the past. The elegant volume comprises both book (75 weathered sepia photograph reproductions of full immersion baptism scenes performed in lakes, ponds, rivers, and the occasional pool) and accompanying CD (a baptism-themed tour of sermons, blues, spirituals and other sanctified 78s). Like Dust-to-Digital’s earlier ark of covenants, Goodbye, Babylon (2003), the new set is under the bewildering sign of Harry Smith’s epochal Anthology of American Folk Music jigsaw. As collections collaged into experiential texts, they are all eccentric archives.Smith’s set teaches us to listen again in blurring context by subjective association. Something similar happens with Take Me to the Water. The book doesn’t present a transparent window on bygone baptism rites; its object, rather, is the peculiar beauty of baptism’s representation in music and photography. The book’s thesis is that these records do more than merely provide documentation, but are somehow transfigured by their subject.The images were made at a time when photography was reserved for occasion (one shudders to think of the contemporaneous lineage of lynching scenes). A photograph, like a baptism, was something you dressed up for. In his perceptive introduction, Luc Sante mentions the historic scarcity of photographs of worship, and it’s not hard to see why this might be so: participants often seem conflicted as to whether to look at the minister or the photographer. Some images are staged as group portraits, while others are action shots. Most are busy with life, but not all. One haunting image looks as if it were shot under cover of trees: we peer through shrubs at a minister and convert, rippling the water alone.There is always a danger of mystifying the past with such gorgeous ephemeral evidence, but it would be foolhardy to think that these photographs’ invocatory power is purely the invention of contemporary eyes—if anything, the images restore the spiritual sense in which photography was first labeled a medium. The believers follow God’s light, the photograph the world’s.The cameraperson typically shoots from an opposite bank, emphasizing the public nature of the ritual; the crowds are in the dozens, if not hundreds, draping bridges and packing every jut of land. The principle pictorial advantage of this framing is that it places as much emphasis on the water’s reflection as any other feature of the landscape. This reverse image coasting the water’s surface rhymes with the one produced by the camera’s lens. More immediately, the water’s reflection gives the impression of ghosts. Sante makes the point that many of these sites were repeatedly used for baptisms, and therefore “accrued layers of association and sentiment.” Ghosts were to be expected.This is one resonance of the reflected bodies. Another is that baptism represents a point of contact with one’s destiny in another world, the hereafter. This is conveyed, breathtakingly, in images. Since the photographers justly wanted the full scope of the ritual, large sections of their compositions are often blurred. The surrounding space and faces buckle to the distant baptism’s sharp focus; time itself seems to bend around this point of clarity and calm. Since the person being baptized is most deeply submerged, theirs is the clearest reflection. Much of what the photographs communicate, then, is the way these baptisms were both public events and private passages. The individual is both a part of and apart from the community, in the same way death is to life.Nearly all those pictured in Take Me to the Water have since crossed to the other side—the passage of time is everywhere apparent in splotches, creases and other markers of material age. The poignancy of these imperfections is that they remind us that these photographs belonged to people. In one image, a pen marking indicates one of many figures in the water—someone’s relation. Beauty balancing the ordinary and sublime is a strange gift indeed. The wonder isn’t that these photographs survived but that they existed in the first place.
Discogs Review 7/2009Various - Take Me To The Water - 11-Jul-09 08:13 AMIf you ever heard "Take Me To The River" by the Talking Heads, then you already have gotten a taste of what this release is all about: getting wet, getting cleansed, gloriously, in the water. Now step back a hundred years or more to hear recordings made in the day when mass immersions were the norm. A lot of music groups created gospel music to celebrate public baptisms in the river, and the early records sold in the tens of thousands. There are sermons and songs, choirs and folk tunes. There's a book containing almost a hundred precious sepia toned photographs collected by historian Jim Linderman, along with an annotated essay by Luc Sante. If you liked looking at grandma's scrapbooks, then all of the great historical photography that accompanies these precious recordings will be a treat. Excellent mastering techniques lend these sonic gems of the past a clear "you are there" sound. The great book design work of John Hubbard adds to the immersion experience. The fun types of extras, clippings and captions that made Victrola Favorites such a success are employed here as well.
Strange HorsesAugust 9, 2009The awesome Dust To Digital label, has just released a collection of Jim Linderman's photographs of Protestant 'immersion baptism' from 1850s onwards and an accompanying CD of 25 rare gospel recordings from the 1920s and 30s.Take Me to the Water from Dust-to-Digital on Vimeo.There have been a lot of really good gospel releases in the last few years on Yazoo, Revenant, Rounder and Mississippi labels as well as Dust to Digital. People have said that many of these primitive gospel recordings sound weirder and wilder than contemporary non-religious recordings.In his 'American Quick Fix Religion' essay, John Fahey argued that the strangeness of a lot of primitive gospel music came from the development of Protestant theology in America. He said it reflected the primacy given in the Protestant traditions, to the preaching of the 'word' over the 'administration of the sacraments.' Luther's 'priesthood of all believers' led eventually to the communication of truth and christian witness, through performance and 'hot ecstatic enthusiasm' - the tambourine players and guitar screamers.Linderman's photographs seem to tell a different story - the mysterious drama and spiritual significance which apparently remained attached to baptism ceremonies among Protestant congregations.
Review Vol. 1 BrooklynJuly 8, 2009Baptism never lookeed so beautifulWhen Dust-to-Digital released the box set Goodbye Babylon in 2004, Critics, the people that put out those Grammy Award things, and Neil Young took notice of one of the most visually stunning and most incredibly put together collections of gospel and early Americana that has ever been produced. My own personal discovery of the set has not only given me a continuing playlist of some of the most incredible songs ever put to record, but also gained an appreciation for pretty much everything Dust-to-Digital has produced since then.Their newest release, Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890–1950 continues the tear the label has been on, as the book of photographs from late 19th to mid 20th century America is pretty much one of the greatest things I currently own.Take Me to the Water from Dust-to-Digital on Vimeo.Posted by Jason Diamond at 10:34 AM 0 commentsLabels: americana, baptism, dust to digital, gospel, jim lindermanWednesday, July 8, 2009
Review by Bob Marovich The Black Gospel Blog June 30, 2009Collectors who have salivated over the Grammy-nominated Goodbye Babylon from Lance Ledbetter’s Dust-to-Digital imprint, take heart: Take Me to the Water, a compilation advertised as “what could easily be seen as the seventh part of the acclaimed…box set,” is the next best thing.In truth, this handsome hardcover coffee-table tome has its own soul. It is resplendent with ancient sepia-toned photographs of countryside baptism ceremonies. Like opening a stranger’s scrapbook, the reader is excused if he feels an admixture of wonder and religious voyeurism while peering at the aged photographs of men and women dressed in white, standing waist-deep in ponds, lakes and rivers, waiting for the moment of immersion signifying holy conversion. Equally fascinating are the faces of the congregation, sometimes just a few and other times dozens, crowded on the riverside.While most of the 75 vintage photographs are of anonymous crowds, one dated August 20, 1945 captures the enigmatic Daddy Grace performing a mass baptism of more than 200 in Philadelphia.Dust-to-Digital’s 25-track companion CD is a splendid soundtrack to the captivating photographs. It contains quality sound reproductions of pre-war 78 rpm recordings by black and white artists performing folk songs and folk sermons on the subject of baptism. Of particular interest is the mournful lining hymn singing accompanying Rev. R.M. Massey’s 1928 two-sided disc for Paramount, entitled “Old Time Baptism.” On the opposite end of the spectrum is Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers’1937 western swing recounting of the baptism of “Sister Lucy Lee” that, with its vaudeville delivery, is wryly erotic.As one might imagine, the CD contains plenty of variants on the spiritual “Wade in the Water,” but it never gets tiresome. The Carter Family’s “On My Way to Canaan’s Land” and J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers’ “Goin’ Down to the River of Jordan” will be familiar to African American listeners who have heard countless jubilee quartets performing these exact arrangements back in the day.Speaking of jubilee and spiritual quartets, the companion CD features the work of several top-notch and rhythmic but rarely anthologized quartets and singing groups, including the Southern Wonders Quartet, Empire Jubilee Quartet and Rev. Nathan Smith’s Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils.Offering the Holiness argument is Elder J.E. Burch, who in his 1927 “Baptism by Water, and Baptism by the Holy Ghost” sermonizes how baptism by the Holy Ghost trumps baptism by water, followed by vigorous singing by the studio congregation.It’s hard to see how Dust-to-Digital could have selected a more perfect blend of recordings to accompany Take Me to the Water. If nothing else, the reader and listener will finish the book with a sense of how Christian religious ceremonies and sacred singing by black and white congregations in segregated America had more in common than not.Five of Five Stars
Review by Ryan Galloway Yellow Hammer Press June 2009The Water is FineTake Me to the Water from Dust-to-Digital on Vimeo.Take Me to the Water is, above all else, a book about spectatorship. Largely without text, the photographs are without any sort of context and are in no certain order. After all, you’re looking at photos that, as collector Jim Linderman says, were “found in flea markets, auctions, antique shows, and such.” That the baptismal participants, each undergoing a potentially life-altering event, are nameless and without history can make the book frustrating. The baptisms in Take Me to Water are dynamic things, full of characters and action, and seem hardly content to be confined to a static photograph. These were people who believed actively, whose religious faith was inextricably tied to the land they lived on, and whose belief spilled out of the primitive wooden-frame buildings in which they likely worshiped into the land around them.The lookers-on, present in almost all the photographs in numbers ranging from twos and threes to seemingly hundreds, are engaging in a sort of voyeurism — they are watching the baptismal candidates experience a formative moment in their lives, one that many recall as equal to marriage or the birth of a child.Take Me to the WaterBut they’re not just watching — there’s an air of solemnity, almost as though the spectators are supervising this ritual. After all, being baptized in the old Protestant tradition is often accompanied by the act of formally “joining” a church, the moment where an individual signs a document and the members hold a vote on whether to accept said individual into their church (these votes are almost always merely symbolic). The lookers-on in this case are witnessing the induction of a new member into their community, and if the crowd size is any indication, the communities range from tiny backwoods churches to large urban congregations.Luc Sante’s essay, one of only two sizable pieces of text in the book, centers around his own voyeurism of the baptismal moment. As what a friend of mine refers to as a “casual Catholic,” Sante seems to feel cheated that he didn’t get to participate in such a baptism, and laments that his own took place at an age before he could really remember it. He offers, in the simplest of terms, a brief explanation of what exactly a baptism is, as though the reader is primarily curious as to why all these people wanted to get their clothes all wet.Take Me to the Water2The accompanying CD, along with Lance Ledbetter’s notes on each track, is a real treasure. If you’re familiar with Ledbetter’s Athens-based label Dust to Digital, you’ll probably recognize several of the artists like Washington Phillips and his odd homemade harp. The CD works as a kind of soundtrack to the book itself, but it’s also a good introduction to early recording and American primitive music (I know, I know — the term rankles). Ledbetter’s first work and certainly his masterpiece so far, Goodbye Babylon, explores this music in exhaustive detail and is well worth the $100 price tag (it’s hand packed in a cedar box with raw Georgia cotton — sometimes I take it out just to smell it).Take Me to the Water is wonderfully primitive and jagged. The photos are mostly amateurish, the participants mostly rough and rural, and the book itself is without order or context. (Linderman does, however, try to offer clues where available — the back of one photo reads: “Baptism at Rockville, W.VA;” another: “Baptising in the Schoharie River near Sloansville, 1917″). It’s a frustrating thing, but invaluable as a collection of moments from America’s rural past. You can find it here.
Other Music NewsletterMay 2009Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950(Dust-to-Digital)The Christian sacrament of baptism has its ritualistic origins in the Jewish mikvah (or collection) in which one is purified, typically in a "collection" of living water (river, lake, ocean, etc.). New Testament prophet John the Baptist adopted this tradition and used the River Jordan to cleanse sinners so that they might enter a new life of repentance. Many biblical scholars would agree that the phrase "immersion baptism" is redundant, but as with many rituals carried out in mainline and not so mainline denominations in Christianity, tidiness has often won out over tradition. Whether or not to baptize as adults or as infants is a theological argument well beyond the Other Music Update, but the transformation from one thing to another is the hallmark of all baptisms. It is this profoundly transformative experience that is the subject of the 75 photographs collected by Jim Linderman and compiled for this release by the incomparable (and Grammy winning) Dust-to-Digital label.As Luc Sante writes in his excellent accompanying essay, "You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." I would add that the variations on the theme of baptism contained in these photos are also incredibly compelling; there are white and black baptisms, large and small baptisms, poor and rich baptisms, cold (!) and warm baptisms, etc. One is reminded of the commonality of the human experience when viewing a collection of this ilk and there is nothing wrong with that.Then there is the music; a 25-track disc accompanies the book comprised of sermons and songs on the topic of, you guessed it, Baptism! Many of the heavy hitters of early 20th century sacred and secular music are represented (the Carter Family, Washington Philips, Rev. J.M. Gates, and Clarence Ashley and the Carolina Tar Heels), as are lesser known, but no less rousing sides by Rev. R.M. Massey, Moses Mason, and the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers. I have always been most deeply affected by sacred music from the religions of the world, but I think the music contained here (and on DTD's Goodbye Babylon box set) is my favorite. I can put it on any time and immediately feel a sense of renewal and relief.It also brings to mind the very question posed by Jim Linderman in his introduction to this collection: "Did the performers recorded here reach for a higher standard when they played their gospel songs?" While I'm not sure if they were consciously reaching for a higher standard, I am convinced that these performers and preachers have no doubt about what they are singing and preaching. It is this unwavering certainty depicted in both the photographs and songs/sermons that most interests me, particularly where art and faith intersect, and there is nothing wrong with that either. [KC] Other Music Newsletter May 28, 2009
Exclaim Various ArtistsTake Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950By Jason SchneiderJust as a passing knowledge of scripture is necessary to understand literature much of the best work by the great modern singer-songwriters cannot be fully appreciated without a familiarity with gospel music. Take Me To The Water, like the acclaimed Goodbye, Babylon box set that preceded it, is as good a place to start as any. But although it is an exemplary compilation of early religious-themed country and blues recordings focusing specifically on the baptism ritual it is also so much more. The CD's accompanying hardbound book is an equally thrilling experience, presenting a collection of photographs from noted archivist Jim Linderman depicting public baptisms in every conceivable form. The sepia-tinged images showing riverbanks lined with sometimes hundreds of people are steeped in humility and serenity, and are the perfect visual representation of the music. Old time country fans will first latch onto songs by the Carter Family, the Carolina Tarheels and J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers, but the most powerful tracks are the several sermons that actually put you at the riverside. The connection with rock'n'roll is clearly illuminated on these magnetic performances but it's the overall pristine sound and attention to detail that places Take Me To The Water amongst rarefied company within the reissue genre. (Dust-to-Digital)
CyberGrass Review June 2009Take Me to the WaterIn 2006, folk art collector and connoisseur Jim Linderman contacted Lance Ledbetter of Dust-to-Digital with the following email: "I've been collecting antique photographic images (originals) of people being baptised. That is, dunked. In the late 19th and early 20th century, as you can imagine, the whole town turned out to watch. I have well over a hundred, they range in size from 4 feet (yes) to snapshots. Each has someone, either an individual or a large group being prepared to get saved. The collection is unique, quite extraordinary and I've never shown them to anyone. Interested?" Thus was born Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950.Of course Dust-to-Digital was interested -- very interested! After viewing several of the incredible images that Linderman sent, Ledbetter saw the potential for a release focusing on a theme that had not been addressed on Goodbye, Babylon -- the act of baptism. Two and a half years later -- with Linderman supplying the imagery, Ledbetter compiling the audio, and writer Luc Sante providing a beautiful essay to contextualize it all -- the result is a 96 page hardcover book with a 25 track CD tucked into the back (click here for audio samples).Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 is Linderman’s first book. The 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) has 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950 and is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78-RPM records (1924-1940). It features recordings of artists like Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and lesser known and rare groups like the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers, a vocal quartet in 1939. Included as well are rare vocal recordings of sermons and preaching which highlight the fervor leading up to the moment of cleansing one’s soul in immersion baptism." -- John Foster, Accidental Mysteries
A little while ago, I noted on the blog a newly published collection of beautifully real and worn photographs of baptismal scenes from the earlier twentieth century, along with an accompanying CD, Take Me To the Water. This book comes from the collector Jim Linderman, who blogs about his own work on this particular project here, and reflects more broadly on free lance collecting, folk art, ephemera, and curiosities at Dull Tool Dim Bulb.
The combination of photographs, capturing emotional experience in unselfconscious ways, and the CD soundtrack bring alive a world of religious ritual in ways that the writer Luc Sante briefly suggests in his preface to the book. Below is an interview I've conducted with Linderman, in which he talks about this work, his feeling for these baptismal photographs, and his philosophy of collecting and presenting his work.
1) First, Jim, you are a collector of everything from toy plows to homemade dolls to old recordings, and have been for quite a long time. I'm not a collector; I always want to get rid of/throw out stuff. So, explain the collecting impulse to me -- what drives you in that direction? And, where do you find room for all your stuff?
Editing is the secret. What I've assembled has always been manageable. Other than a few pieces of folk art furniture, virtually everything fits in a few shoe boxes. That's one beauty of photographs...for a small flat object, they pack a large visual punch. I lived for decades in a small, narrow, four room railroad apartment near Times Square and never had a problem squeezing things in. Andy Rooney, who I worked with while at CBS News long ago, once told me to take out an old book from the house every time I brought a new one in. That's the key...weeding and upgrading.
Collecting comes naturally to me. Not only do I enjoy looking for things which have been neglected or passed over, the hunt wakes me up in the morning. When I was healthy and young, a 500 mile drive for a flea market was nothing...now I use the web. Everyone should collect something, even if only interesting rocks. Everything looks better in groups of three or more.
2) Most people who are into collections of folk religious stuff fall in love with the documents and recordings of religion. But you are not driven by a religious impulse to collect this material, but something else. What is that? What fed your passion for old baptismal photographs and recordings?
I had originally conceived the project as a response to Jimmy Allen's book Without Sanctuary, which documents through antique photographs African-Americans being lynched. It was a controversial but most successful project of considerable historical value. Jimmy's book was a model for future photographic projects. He presented the photos, many which were crumpled and torn, as historical documents as much as images. There was no embellishment, cropping or cleaning up. More importantly the pictures often had participants identified by pen marks or notes on the reverse. Photographs have age and wear like any other object, and over time, important ones gain legitimacy through the aging process. As you might imagine, original images of people being murdered are not easy to find, but Mr. Allen was fearless and he managed to ferret them out. Many of the photographs were what are known as "real photo post cards" which are actually "limited editions" of a sort, printed by a cameraman in quantities of a dozen or a hundred, depending on what he perceived as a market...possibly one copy for each attendee. As frightening as the photos were, the faces of the participants scared Jimmy the most, they often smiled into the camera seemingly not even affected by the horrible event taking place behind them.
I had seen a photograph by W.P.A photographer Doris Ulmann depicting a river baptism, thought it exceptionally beautiful and collected a few similar images when I could find them. When I saw Allen's book, I realized there was a need to assemble and preserve other events of a vernacular nature and that there might even be a market for them. At the least, the collection would be a contribution to our shared culture. I didn't initially recognize the collection as a spiritual antidote to Allen's collection, but the feel of the event, the spectacle and the participants had a similar feel with a more positive appeal. I was also on a sort of mission to convince photography collectors that condition matters far less than the "feel" of a photo...paper has texture, form and age...and I found photography folks were far too concerned with pristine condition. I like wear.
3) Your material has been put out by Dust to Digital, the remarkable Atlanta outfit best known probably for their collection Goodbye Babylon, for my money the greatest compilation of American religious music ever assembled. How did you hook up with them, and describe the experience of putting out a book along with a CD?
I've always prided myself at sorting through the commercial fluff and finding some authenticity. Early recordings, in particular blues, started interesting me as young as junior high...and while my older sister listened to Dylan, I was listening to the Harry Smith Anthology of American Music from my local public library. I pursue music vigorously, and had always held gospel in reserve as the last area to explore. Goodbye Babylon did it for me. I admired their work very much. Lance Ledbetter is a genius who has an amazing ability to actually produce solid, physical results from his passions. The design of Susan Archie was also incredible, and I not only recognized them as kindred souls, but had the notion of pushing them toward book publishing in addition to their sound recording projects. It certainly was a natural fit. I wrote them, sent some images and flew down with a huge file of photos. On my first visit, I left them in their hands.
4) The well-known writer Luc Sante has prepared a preface and short introduction to your book. How did he become involved, and describe what you think drew him to this particular work?
The project began long before Luc was involved. I had initially thought a prominent religious figure should do the introduction and essay and didn't anticipate having trouble finding one. One day I showed the collection of original photos to Brian Wallis, the bright and innovative director of the International Center of Photography in New York, and he immediately recognized their historical value. He put my donation of the originals to the collection into motion. Later, he happened to ask if I had seen "Luc's show" which was an exhibit of ephemera and photos he found interesting, and apparently it contained a few baptism scenes.
I was familiar with Sante's music essays and reporting, and had read his landmark book Low Life. I knew Luc was a wonderful writer, then learned he was a professor of photography at Bard College....AND that Lance Ledbetter at Dust to Digital had sold him previous releases, including Goodbye Babylon. The fit was kismet.
5) When people went to "wade in the water," what do you think they were experiencing? How do your photographs capture (or not capture) that? What about the participants standing on the banks, or on the bridge overpasses overlooking the water?
As I mention is the book, I have always felt performers and artists work harder when they are working for the Lord. Years ago, when I was meeting and encouraging folk artists and primitive painters, they would ask "what should I paint" and I always suggested something from the Bible. Everyone knows the stories and everyone immediately visualizes their favorite scene the minute you suggest it.
I grew up next to Lake Michigan. Living close to a body of water is in itself a deep, moving experience. Like a turtle you place on the ground, I always sense the direction of the nearest lake. Add a touch of spiritual cleansing and you've got a highly personal AND public event. All the senses are at work...the individual feels it physically and emotionally at the exact same time. They are nervous, anticipatory, shocked and relieved. The viewers senses are also working...they share the passion, they feel the sun, they hear the splash, the preacher's powerful words, the crying out, the shout. What I admire most about the production of Take Me To The Water is how Lance was able to PERFECTLY combine an aural melding of the events with the visual. It is uncanny and not only a testament to his skill, but I think never done as well with a physical book.
6) When I first blogged about this book, a skeptic in the comments section wrote the following: "Can someone help me out with the theology here? These are churches that don't believe in baptismal regeneration and that one "chooses" Jesus, making them far outside the mainstream of historic Christianity. If the baptism effectively "means" nothing, why is it so important that immersion be used? --Clueless Lutheran stuck in the Bible Belt" How would you answer that query?
One should look at the images. Can anyone look at the faces of those emerging from the water here and say it means nothing? I believe at the moment captured in each photo, it means EVERYTHING.
7) How would you suggest first-time viewers/listeners approach the CD of music included with the volume? I ask because I'm an fan of these recordings, but those who aren't coming with that kind of knowledge may find them strange, distant, and primitive (as do my students). What would you saw as part of a "listening guide" to your photographs?
Pictures strike one immediately. Eyes being our first line of defense, an image is immediate. Music takes a bit longer. One has to reach a certain level of familiarity to experience it...part of the reason music works is that on repeated listenings we can anticipate the sounds we heard before. Even I like the selections here the more I listen to them. I guarantee after a few listenings, "Sister Lucy Lee" will make all the sense in the world, and if the quiver in Washington Phillips voice as he describes the differences between denominations doesn't reach you... just give it another play. As for a guide, the track listings and notes Lance wrote are astounding. Many of these performers are today genuine cyphers...but he finds them. We truly did create a little world there. The music stands alone on many levels, the photographs stand alone on many levels...but together the become even greater.
8) Speaking on this blog specifically to those interested in American religious history, explain what you think is most important about your work, and how perhaps classroom teachers might be able to use your work.
As I hope to do a few lectures and presentations, I am actually trying to figure that out now!
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 by Jim Linderman, Luc Sante
Dust-to-Digital
May 2009 By Justin Brooks PopMatters
“You been baptized?” “Just on the head.” “Just on the head, he says.” “That ain’t no good. It wont take if you dont get total nursin. That old sprinklin’ business won’t get it, buddy boy.”
—Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy (1979)
“I stood waist deep in the muddy brown waters of the Big Coal River with my Presbyterian father on one side of me and a Baptist preacher on the other. I remembered the deep breath I took just before they dipped me down into the river, but more than that I remembered how it felt when I came up again. Even though the water was muddy I felt clean, felt as though all my sins had been washed away.”
—Dr. Jim Somerville. First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia (2009)
Lance Ledbetter is a genius. He isn’t making music like the famous blues musician that his surname evokes. He’s not a music writer like Greil Marcus, who digs into the “old, weird America” as far as possible and comes out with something entirely new and downright cerebral. Ledbetter is however, an artist in his own right.
He is the founder of Atlanta-based record label Dust-to-Digital , and he’s quite simply the most important living music archivist that we have. Following in the tradition of Harry Smith and John Fahey, he has devoted his time to preserving and issuing old folk, blues and gospel music. I’ve only corresponded with Ledbetter via e-mail, but from what I can tell, he doesn’t seem to have the-for lack of a better term-crazy streak that ran through those two gentlemen.
What he does share with them is the pedantic, scholarly nature that this type of work necessitates, combined with a genuine love of the music. I mean, Bob Dylan was giving out copies of their Grammy-nominated Goodbye, Babylon set for Christmas! Isn’t that alone enough to make you want to follow the company’s output?
More than any of DTD’s other releases to date, Take Me to the Water is a multimedia experience. I’m not sure if Mr. Ledbetter and the Dust-to-Digital team would necessarily prefer that term, as it evokes shiny, digital technology and not scratchy old 78s, but that’s what it is. So take the disc out (carefully) and put it on your hi-fi. Turn it up loud enough for the neighbors to hear the surface noise from those old recordings and for them to wonder what in the world that bohemian fellow over in the next apartment is up to now. Has he gotten that old time religion or is he merely being ironic? Now, sit back and enjoy the photographs. Later, read Sante’s wonderful (albeit brief) essay.
Absolutely none of these cuts should be familiar to the average person. All apologies to my distant relatives The Carter Family, but “Denomination Blues, Part 1” by Washington Phillips is the only track on this compilation that I’d ever actually heard before. A good deal of the artists were familiar to me by way of my immersion (sorry, couldn’t help myself) in Dust-to-Digital’s staggering Goodbye, Babylon box. Evoking that former release, the compilers make no effort to segregate the music in any way: string bands and hillbilly hollers jostle grittier blues and folk numbers for breathing room.
Unlike Babylon though, the sermons included here are interspersed throughout, making for a slightly more diverse listening experience. While we are on the subject, this reviewer sees Take Me to the Water as-among other thing-a beautifully packaged addendum to the already splendid Goodbye, Babylon.
There are 25 tracks on the disc that accompanies this set and quite frankly, most of them are jewels. As with any compilation or proper album, a certain song may strike you just the right way on a particular day, so with material of this quality, the best cuts ultimately depend on the listener.
Washington Phillips, a ‘jack-leg preacher’ of the first degree, is represented here with “Denomination Blues Part 1”, in which his delicate vocal is accompanied by a strange zither-esque “novelty instrument.” This cut may be the catchiest pre-war gospel/blues since Skip James’ “Jesus is a Mighty Good Leader.” Now that may mean a little or a lot, depending on how far down the rabbit-hole of this kind of music you want to go.
By far the most popular artist represented here is The Carter Family, whose “On My Way to Canaan’s Land” may just be an artistic representation of Mother Maybelle’s actual baptism. Classic call and response of the hillbilly variety is accounted for too with the Carolina Tar Heels’ “I’ll Be Washed”. The intermingling of the sermon fragments—which often break out in song—with the tunes is a sly move on the part of the compilers, as the preachers’ intonations always take on a rhythmic quality and the fiery intensity helps move these pieces, and the set itself, forward.
The meat of this book is of course the gorgeous set of black and white photographs culled from the personal archives of collector Jim Linderman. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was expecting a yuppie coffee-table book where these old photographs made for interesting conversation (and obscure one-upmanship, sure), albeit with a stunning disc of accompanying tunes (this is Dust-to-Digital after all). What I found, after reading Linderman’s introduction and Luc Sante’s brief essays were incredibly moving photographs of true spiritual experiences culled from America’s not-too-distant past.
One gets the feeling that, with the men in their Sunday finery and the women in their hats, the people in white robes standing in the river, this specific type of Sunday morning may be long gone. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. These people’s spiritual experiences no doubt never left their hearts and now, thanks to the painstaking work of collectors and archivists like Linderman and Ledbetter, the feelings these eerie and beautiful photographs can evoke are there for anyone who wants or needs them.
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 DTD-13 / One CD / 96 Page Hardback Book Release Date: 2009 With essays by photograph collector Jim Linderman Luc Sante and detailed notes by Steven Lance Ledbetter.
Available from Dust-To-Digital the Grammy award winning label and from Amazon. Follow"Dull Tool Dim Bulb" a daily blog about art, photography, authenticity and culture in the digital age.
The latest release from Grammy Award-winning reissue label Dust-to-Digital gives music fans another reason to rejoice. A stunning 96-page hardcover book of historic baptism photographs, taken between 1890 and 1950 and compiled from the collection of noted folk art collector Jim Linderman, is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78 RPM records (1924-1940), featuring artists Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and more. Produced by the 2009 Grammy winner for "Best Historical Album," Steven Lance Ledbetter. The CD could easily be seen as the seventh disc of Goodbye, Babylon (DTD 001CD), Dust-to-Digital's critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated box set from 2003. Original 78 RPM records came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. "Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." --From the introduction by Luc Sante. 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) with 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950; CD includes 25 songs and sermons from 1924-1940.
Review by Kristin Anderson Record-A-Day Spring 2009
VA: Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music And Photography 1890-1950 BOOK/CD DUST-TO-DIGITAL / DTD 013CD Release Date: 5/26/2009 Fascinating book of vintage photographs taken of baptism scenes and it is accompanied by a CD of collected folk and gospel recordings and sermons. The photos and recordings are not restored; rather, they are presented in the form that they have survived. A small tear or a pencil mark or the hiss of the original 78 is a revered artifact that Dust-to-Digital choses to honor, rather than disguise. The sepia tone photos are absolutely gorgeous. My favorite photos are taken of still water, where surreal ghostly reflections add to the divine nature of the act. And it's astonishing that these churches were releasing their sermons and songs on 78 rpm vinyl. You can hear a sincere quality of abandon and a summoning of the spirit. Truly remarkable!! Sales notes from the record label: The latest release from Grammy Award-winning reissue label Dust-to-Digital gives music fans another reason to rejoice. A stunning 96-page hardcover book of historic baptism photographs, taken between 1890 and 1950 and compiled from the collection of noted folk art collector Jim Linderman, is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78 RPM records (1924-1940), featuring artists Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and more. Produced by the 2009 Grammy winner for "Best Historical Album," Steven Lance Ledbetter. The CD could easily be seen as the seventh disc of Goodbye, Babylon (DTD 001CD), Dust-to-Digital's critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated box set from 2003. Original 78 RPM records came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. "Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." --From the introduction by Luc Sante. 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) with 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950; CD includes 25 songs and sermons from 1924-1940.
Review by John Foster, Accidental Mysteries, April 2009
FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things—unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues— Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain— his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten—the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn’t for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman— so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference.
TAKE ME TO THE WATER: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890 – 1950 is Linderman’s first book. The 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) has 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950 and is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78-RPM records (1924-1940). It features recordings of artists like Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and lesser known and rare groups like the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers, a vocal quartet in 1939. Included as well are rare vocal recordings of sermons and preaching which highlight the fervor leading up to the moment of cleansing one’s soul in immersion baptism. Certainly, allowing oneself to lie backwards into deep river water for the washing away of sin would be a powerful moment in anyone’s life.
TAKE ME TO THE WATER is another gem in the renowned publishing record of Dust-to-Digital, the brainchild and passion of 2009 Grammy winner Lance Ledbetter, who is an expert in music of American vernacular musical field recordings, specifically bluegrass, gospel and Delta blues. Linderman’s collection of immersion baptism photographs is extensive and was recently gifted to the International Center of Photography in New York. The original 78-RPM records from which this CD was made came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. As a bonus, the book is beautifully designed and art directed by John Hubbard and Rob Millis.
Writer Luc Sante wrote this in the introduction, which I think sums up my feelings quite well: “Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled.”
I firmly believe that this will be one of those rare books that, in a few years, you end up saying to yourself: “I wish I had bought that.” If you are interested in vernacular photography, history, sociology, religion, great authentic gospel music or just great books, this book/CD compilation is a must for your collection. Buy it while you can.
Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday. Check it out! Take Me to the Water will be released May 26, 2009, and you can pre-order it now on Amazon. Just click above!
And, for you audiophiles, here are the track listings on the CD:
1. Baptize Me (Rev. J. M. Gates)2. Denomination Blues part 1 (Washington Phillips)3. John the Baptist (Rev. Moses Mason)4. Bathe in That Beautiful Pool (Dock Walsh)5. On My Way to Canaan’s Land (Carter Family)6. Old Time Baptism part I (Rev. R. M. Massey)7. Old Time Baptism part II (Rev. R. M. Massey)8. Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (Southern Wonders Quartet)9. I’ll Be Washed (Carolina Tar Heels)10. Wash You, Make You Clean (Elder J. E. Burch)11. Baptist Shout (Frank Jenkins of Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters)12. At The River (Tennessee Mountaineers)13. Wade in de Water (Empire Jubilee Quartet)14. Baptism at Burning Bush (Rev. Nathan Smith's Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils)15. Sister Lucy Lee (Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers)16. Wade in the Water and Be Baptized (Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers)17. I’m Going Down to Jordan (Ernest Thompson)18. Go Wash in Jordan Seven Times (Rev. J. C. Burnett)19. Wade in the Water (Birmingham Jubilee Singers)20. Goin’ Down to the River of Jordan (J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineers)21. Baptism by Water, and Baptism by the Holy Ghost (Elder J. E. Burch)22. Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (Moses Mason)23. Wade in the Water (Sunset Four Jubilee Singers)24. Down To Jordan (Ernest Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers)25. Take Me to the Water (Rev. E. D. Campbell)
Many readers of this blog will no doubt be familiar with Jim Linderman, collector, historian, blogger and now, author. His new book, "Take Me to The Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950" is scheduled for release on May 26th and will instantly become the definitive volume on the subject. It features 75 reproductions of old photographs collected by Linderman as well as being accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings that make for a terrific backdrop as you read this book.
The book continues a tradition of archiving the culture of old America, the one that exists now mostly through old 78 rpm recordings and vintage photographs.
Special mention has to be made to the publisher of this book, Dust-to-Digital, whose other titles include "I Belong to This Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings" and "Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva" (you gotta love these guys!). Their artistic approach to the production of these sets make them much more like cultural artifacts rather than simple books and CDs. They are THAT good!
Review Other Music Newsletter May 28, 2009
Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 (Dust-to-Digital)
The Christian sacrament of baptism has its ritualistic origins in the Jewish mikvah (or collection) in which one is purified, typically in a "collection" of living water (river, lake, ocean, etc.). New Testament prophet John the Baptist adopted this tradition and used the River Jordan to cleanse sinners so that they might enter a new life of repentance. Many biblical scholars would agree that the phrase "immersion baptism" is redundant, but as with many rituals carried out in mainline and not so mainline denominations in Christianity, tidiness has often won out over tradition. Whether or not to baptize as adults or as infants is a theological argument well beyond the Other Music Update, but the transformation from one thing to another is the hallmark of all baptisms. It is this profoundly transformative experience that is the subject of the 75 photographs collected by Jim Linderman and compiled for this release by the incomparable (and Grammy winning) Dust-to-Digital label.
As Luc Sante writes in his excellent accompanying essay, "You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." I would add that the variations on the theme of baptism contained in these photos are also incredibly compelling; there are white and black baptisms, large and small baptisms, poor and rich baptisms, cold (!) and warm baptisms, etc. One is reminded of the commonality of the human experience when viewing a collection of this ilk and there is nothing wrong with that.
Then there is the music; a 25-track disc accompanies the book comprised of sermons and songs on the topic of, you guessed it, Baptism! Many of the heavy hitters of early 20th century sacred and secular music are represented (the Carter Family, Washington Philips, Rev. J.M. Gates, and Clarence Ashley and the Carolina Tar Heels), as are lesser known, but no less rousing sides by Rev. R.M. Massey, Moses Mason, and the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers. I have always been most deeply affected by sacred music from the religions of the world, but I think the music contained here (and on DTD's Goodbye Babylon box set) is my favorite. I can put it on any time and immediately feel a sense of renewal and relief.
It also brings to mind the very question posed by Jim Linderman in his introduction to this collection: "Did the performers recorded here reach for a higher standard when they played their gospel songs?" While I'm not sure if they were consciously reaching for a higher standard, I am convinced that these performers and preachers have no doubt about what they are singing and preaching. It is this unwavering certainty depicted in both the photographs and songs/sermons that most interests me, particularly where art and faith intersect, and there is nothing wrong with that either. [KC]
Other Music Newsletter May 28, 2009
Weird at My School: Take Me To The Water KEXP Blog DJ El Toro Review June 2009
I’ve often joked that nothing good ever happens in songs set by a river. Seriously. You go down to the river, and the next thing you know innocents are being deflowered, or someone’s getting shot (Neil Young’s “Down by the River”) or bludgeoned with a rock (Nick Cave’s “Where the Wild Roses Grow”), or a dead body is being disposed of (Jim White’s “The Wound That Never Heals”). Joni Mitchell’s “River” makes celebrating Christmas sound like as much fun as eating cold porridge.
But there is a whole other subset of river songs (a tributary, if you will) that radiate joy and ecstasy: “Take Me To the River,” “Wade In the Water.” And you’ll find a slew them in the CD tucked in back of the new book Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890 - 1950. These vintage country and gospel sides are full of singing and shouting and sermonizing, the sound of the spirit moving through the Carter Family, the mysterious Washington Phillips, and 23 additional souls of righteousness.
Published by Dust-to-Digital, the musical archivists responsible for the Grammy-nominated Goodbye Babylon box set, Take Me To The Water showcases photographs from the collection of Jim Linderman. In the introduction, he writes of collecting these fragile artifacts with a passion that recalls roots music aficionado Joe Bussard and the documentary Desperate Man Blues. Yet that enthusiasm pales compared to the raw, unvarnished emotion that leaps out from these tattered and torn, sepia-toned images.
These are not tots being lightly drizzled with holy water from a font by some kindly parson, but rather congregations of full-grown adults — often attired in their Sunday best — washing their sins away in the depths of lakes, swimming holes and, yes, rivers. You want to talk about faith? About truly wanting salvation? In two different pictures, folks are getting dunked in bodies of water that are frozen over; the ice has been chopped through to make a baptismal pool.
As Luc Sante observes in his opening essay, “Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, where you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: The excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the winds and the water.” Amen, brother. Whatever your beliefs, you’d have to be made of ice yourself not to be moved by the spirit coursing through the images and music of Take Me To The Water.
Review from The Southernist June 2, 2009 Anne Kristoff
I finally have this book in hand and it's just wonderful. Reading it feels invasive, like you've stumbled upon a forgotten box of family photos hidden in a mildewed corner of the basement.
Dusted Review June 2009
The sea change in music consumption from public event to private pastime colors each of the selections on Dust-to-Digital’s new collection, Take Me To the Water. What was essentially community expression at its point of creation in the early parts of the 20th century becomes in the 21st a largely private listening experience shorn from its communal moorings. Even with the potential for housing in countless portable mp3 players or disseminated globally over the web, the odds of anyone hearing this stuff piped through mushroom speakers at the local outlet mall remain next to nil. An element of melancholy accompanies this endgame of isolation, but it’s one leavened by the passion and candor of performances that endure as potent tokens of time and place.
Topical focus for the set remains relatively narrow, hinging on the cultural and religious particulars of Immersion Baptism across various faiths. Even so, there’s a striking amount of stylistic diversity in the selections. A capella choirs alternate with old-timey string bands. Sermons intersperse with songs. Dock Walsh’s chiming slide banjo reconditions “Bathe In That Beautiful Pool” as a slow waltz. There’s even a slice of proto-Western swing in Billy Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers’ gently mocking novelty piece “Sister Lucy Lee.” Washington Phillips’ “Denomination Blues, part 1” works well as a primer for immersion in practice. The lilting strains of his zither-like dolceola bracket a sung summary of the variances in immersion protocols while asserting a common denominator in the refrain, “But you better have Jesus, I tell you that’s all.” Essayist Luc Sante limns a far more detailed taxonomy of faith-specific traits and, coupled with the content of the sermons themselves, a layperson’s understanding is easily earned.
Twenty-five selections include multiple versions of several songs that underscore the edifying differences between them. “Wade in the Water” appears in four iterations ranging from the rough-hewn harmonies of the Empire Jubilee Quartet to the more reverential approach adopted by the Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers. Mose Mason, an obscure songster whose repertoire straddled secular and sacred fare, fashions a take on “Go Wash In the Beautiful Stream,” his simple guitar accompaniment framing loosely recited scripture. The Southern Wonders Quartet takes another stab at the song, their lush barbershop harmonies and vocal effects contrasting with the more quotidian cast of Mason’s version. Heavy surface static clouds the Reverend R.M. Massey’s impassioned queries to Baptismal candidates in his congregation on “Old Time Baptism, parts 1 & 2,” but the gist of his oratory comes through. Frank Jenkins’ ringing claw hammer banjo instrumental “Baptist Shout” communicates comparable devotion through highly divergent sound.
The set sits comfortably apart from past compilations not only in its topical concentration but also in the gorgeous visual component of a hardbound book containing 75 sepia photographs of immersion events collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments. From the wraparound jacket cover forward, the community complexity and spirit at the heart of baptismal occasions is on bold display. Annotations are periodically hand-etched into the imagery, but most are devoid of definitive provenance. There’s tranquility to many of the compositions, even those documenting large assemblies of participants. The placidity of the water in places reflects the congregants with a clarity that almost seems doctored in a few of the photos. Elsewhere, the surfaces take on milky hues, unconsciously suggesting the presence of shed sin mixed with the mud displaced by the baptized’s feet.
Faith isn’t a requisite for finding the power in either the visual or aural representations of this tradition. The transportive properties are immediate and lasting.
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 DTD-13 / One CD / 96 Page Hardback Book Release Date: 2009 With essays by photograph collector Jim Linderman Luc Sante and detailed notes by Steven Lance Ledbetter.
Available from Dust-To-Digital the Grammy award winning label and from Amazon. Follow"Dull Tool Dim Bulb" a daily blog about art, photography, authenticity and culture in the digital age.
The latest release from Grammy Award-winning reissue label Dust-to-Digital gives music fans another reason to rejoice. A stunning 96-page hardcover book of historic baptism photographs, taken between 1890 and 1950 and compiled from the collection of noted folk art collector Jim Linderman, is accompanied by a CD of rare gospel and folk recordings from original 78 RPM records (1924-1940), featuring artists Washington Phillips, Carter Family, Tennessee Mountaineers, and more. Produced by the 2009 Grammy winner for "Best Historical Album," Steven Lance Ledbetter. The CD could easily be seen as the seventh disc of Goodbye, Babylon (DTD 001CD), Dust-to-Digital's critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated box set from 2003. Original 78 RPM records came from the collections of Joe Bussard, Steven Lance Ledbetter, Frank Mare and Roger Misiewicz. "Whether you have ever actually experienced a baptism or not, whether you are a believer or not, these pictures and the music that accompanies them transmit all the emotional information: the excitement and the serenity, the fellowship and the warmth, the wind and the water ... You would have to have a heart of tin not to recognize this as one of the happiest collections of archival photographs ever assembled." --From the introduction by Luc Sante. 96-page hardcover book (8.75 x 6 inches) with 75 sepia photograph reproductions from 1890-1950; CD includes 25 songs and sermons from 1924-1940.
http://www.dulltooldimbulb.com/
My first book was published 2009 by Dust to Digital "Take me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950" and is available from Amazon or direct from the publisher. My second book "The Painted Backdrop" will be published in 2010. I maintain an active network of art, photography and ephemera sites all based on a common thread of authenticity.
