Thousands of rare American songs from the Jazz Age and Great Depression are now available to the public for free, thanks to a collaboration between the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Library and the Dust-to-Digital Foundation. The project aims to preserve and share music that might otherwise have been lost.
The UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections has started uploading music from Dust-to-Digital’s archive of around 50,000 songs to its Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) database. David Seubert, curator of the library’s performing arts collection, said that over 5,000 songs have already been added. “Thousands more are in the pipeline,” he said.
“The Dust-to-Digital Foundation has digitized some of the most significant private collections in the country,” Seubert said. “We are pleased to partner with them to make this rare content accessible.”
Dust-to-Digital was cofounded by Lance Ledbetter in 1999 as a commercial label focused on preserving hard-to-find music and producing detailed releases. In 2010, Lance and his wife April established its nonprofit foundation. Over time, they have worked with collectors to digitize record collections for educational use and public access. April Ledbetter emphasized their motivation: “We share their passion to keep our musical heritage from being forgotten.”
The digitization process involves setting up equipment in collectors’ homes and having technicians record each song individually—a process that can take months or years depending on collection size.
Their work has received industry recognition, including Grammy Awards for Best Historical Album in 2007 (“Art of Field Recording Volume 1: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum”) and in 2019 for both Best Historical Album and Best Liner Notes (“Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris”). “We’ve built our reputation through storytelling,” Lance Ledbetter said.
Seubert described the partnership as mutually beneficial—combining a rich music archive with UCSB’s established digital platform.
Launched in 2008 with partial funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, DAHR documents more than 440,000 master recordings made during the era when records spun at 78 revolutions per minute (rpm), beginning in the late nineteenth century. The archive offers detailed discographical information, artist biographies, high-quality streaming for noncommercial use, and free downloads where permitted by copyright law—all aligned with UCSB Library’s commitment to open access.
“The clarity and sound speaks for itself,” Ledbetter said.
Among recordings released through this effort are two songs by blues guitarist Lane Hardin—“Hard Time Blues” and “California Desert Blues”—originally issued on Bluebird Records in 1936; only a few copies exist today. Other artists represented include Memphis Minnie, Eva Taylor, Reverend J.M. Gates, Fiddlin’ John Carson and his daughter Rosa Lee Carson (Moonshine Kate).
“We felt it was important that this music come out in some fashion,” April Ledbetter said. “DAHR is a great home for music that doesn’t necessarily have a commercial market but is no less valuable to history.”
Much of the newly uploaded material comes from collections amassed by private individuals such as Roger Misiewicz, Frank Mare, Nathan Salsburg—and especially Joe Bussard.
Joe Bussard began collecting records as a child growing up in Frederick, Maryland. He traveled throughout rural areas acquiring old discs from stores or families looking to sell unwanted records. His collection eventually included early country string bands, jazz, bluegrass, cajun and gospel records reflecting regional musical styles largely confined to small communities during the early twentieth century.
A documentary produced by Dust-to-Digital in 2005 portrayed Bussard as an archivist who preserved unique aspects of American culture through his collecting efforts. When he died in 2022 he left behind about 15,000 discs; many were highly sought after by collectors.
“Joe had an exceptional collection that was built at a time when you could actually build something like that,” Seubert said. “You can’t do that anymore. Even if you’re fabulously wealthy, you could never end up with a collection that big and that good.”
Seubert noted Bussard wanted people to enjoy this music: “But you can’t create a culture of enjoyment if they’re all locked in archives… So Dust-to-Digital and UCSB have threaded that needle, making the music accessible to the public for free.”
