Mance Lipscomb – Texas Songster / Arhoolie CD-306

Description

CD 306 Mance Lipscomb “Texas Songster”

“Texas Sharecropper and Songster” (album)— Mance Lipscomb (1960) has been added to the Library of Congress 2013 National Recording Registry. Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 the Librarian … is tasked with annually selecting 25 recordings that are “culturally historically or aesthetically significant…”

From the Library of Congress 2013 National Recording Registry: Mance Lipscomb was born in 1895 in Navasota Texas. His father was a former slave who took up the fiddle after the Civil War his mother a half-Choctaw gospel singer. Lipscomb played guitar and wrote songs beginning in his teens but never recorded until this 1960 session which was done in his kitchen. The resulting album was the first LP released by Arhoolie Records. A proud man Lipscomb disliked the term “sharecropper” preferring to think of himself simply as a farmer and the word was later dropped from the title of CD reissues. Although he was influenced by such artists as Blind Willie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson Lipscomb didn’t consider himself a blues musician and preferred the term “songster” which better conveyed his wide-ranging repertoire of over 300 songs. After the success of this album Lipscomb became a regular on the folk-festival circuit. On this album Lipscomb plays fingerstyle guitar except when he uses a jackknife to play slide guitar on Jefferson’s “Jack O’ Diamonds.”

Mance Lipscomb – vocals & guitar.

Recorded 1960-64. Includes the original notes by Mack McCormick (All of ARH LP 1001 – the very first Arhoolie LP – & much of LP 1026.)

1. Sugar Babe
2. Going Down Slow
3. Freddie
4. Jack O’ Diamonds
5. Baby Please Don’t Go
6. One Thin Dime
7. Shake Shake Mama
8. Ella Speed
9. Mama Don’t Allow
10. Ain’t It Hard
11. ‘Bout A Spoonful
12. Take Me Back Babe
13. Rag In G
14. Big Boss Man
15. You Gonna Quit Me
16. Blues In G
17. Mama Don’t Dog Me
18. Willie Poor Boy
19. Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night
20. Knocking Down Windows
21. Nobody’s Fault But Mine
22. Motherless Children

REVIEW

“Mance Lipscomb a Texas sharecropper for most of his life was born in 1895. When not farming in his hometown of Navasota he assumed the role of local entertainer and songstera versatile singer/musician who could handle a hardened blues just as easily as a soft children’s song. Although Lipscomb didn’t begin recording until he was nearly 65 he left behind a remarkably rich catalog of Texas blues before he died in 1976.

Country blues that sparse mostly raw and rootsy form directly linked to slave worksongs and field hollerswas his specialty. Equipped with a voice that could convey a range of emotions Lipscomb was also an impressive guitarist as this anthology reveals. Most of the 22 songs on ‘Texas Songster’ are originals the best being ‘Sugar Babe’ an obscure ditty written by Lipscomb when he was a teen; ‘Ella Speed’ a bluesy ballad that remains one of his better-known numbers; and ‘Bout a Spoonful’ a clever song about sex.

Lipscomb never quite achieved the popularity in mainstream blues circles as another Texas bluesman Sam `Lightning’ Hopkins. But it wasn’t because he didn’t deserve the recognition. Listen to this disc read the excellent liner notes by Chris Strachwitz (the folklorist who discovered him) and Mack McCormick and you’ll agree that Lipscomb is one of the music form’s great unsung heroes.”

(Robert Santelli — CD Review)