Black &White: Recorded in the Field by Art Rosenbaum

In 2007 and 2009, Dust to D igital released volumes one and two of Art of the Field Recording by American roots music chronicler Art Rosenbaum. Both compilations received worldwide acclaim for the extraordinary quality of the music (the first winning a Grammy in 2008 for Best Historical Album) and the comprehensively informative supporting materials in each four-CD set The French label Dixiefrog has culled 24 tracks from them and packaged them up into a nifty sampler. Black &White: Recorded in the Field by Art Rosenbaum includes enthralling renditions of traditional blues, gospel, bluegrass, string band, folk ballads and work-camp songs. Copious notes and evocative artwork, courtesy of Rosenbaum, along with a six-minute video, illuminate the motives and methodology behind the project.

These recordings, taken in living rooms, on back porches and under shady sweetgum trees across the Deep South, are historical reflecting pools, richly infused with voices carrying the legacies of generations of Americans of every hue and stripe. Whether you’re stomping your feet along to the McIntosh County Shouters (sole remaining practitioners of the oldest African performance tradition in North America), slapping your knees to a trio of diversely different interpretations of ‘Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad, or playing air slide-guitar along with Cecil Barfield on ‘Georgia Bottleneck Blues’, you’ll be swept along by what Rosenbaum describes as ‘streams of tradition that not only flow, but ebb and re-circle in endlessly beautiful and complex ways.’