Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950

Atlanta’s Dust-to-Digital imprint has long since established their bona fides in the field of American Gospel. Goodbye Babylon, Dust-to-Digital’s monumental compilation of early- American religious music, won several GRAMMY nods. Dust-to-Digital returned to American religious music with 2009’s Take Me To The Water, but whereas Goodbye Babylon provided the listener with a sprawling survey of Gospel music, Take Me to the Water’s scope is much narrower. Its 25 selections all directly address the intensely communal baptism ceremonies characteristic of early-20th-century holiness churches. Though this theme may be narrow, Take Me to the Water possesses remarkable stylistic depth. Selections by African-American jubilee groups such as the Southern Wonders Quartet and the Birmingham Jubilee Singers feature complex harmonies that anticipate the highly polished quartet styles popularized by the Soul Stirrers in the ‘50s, while the staunchly traditional old-time styles of J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers and the Carter Family would serve as foundational influences on the development of modern country music.