Sunday, April 8, 2012

Mance Lipscomb singer; guitarist born on April 9, 1895

Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976)

Guitarist and songster, was born  on April 9, 1895, in the Brazos bottoms near Navasota, Texas, where he lived most of his life as a tenant farmer...


Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries. (He likewise took exception when he was labeled a "sharecropper" instead of a "farmer.")…


Lipscomb's own rendition of "Tom Moore's Farm" was taped at his first session in 1960 but released anonymously (Arhoolie LP 1017, Texas Blues, Volume 2), presumably to protect the singer... Here’s the tune off his album Texan Songster…


Between 1956 and 1958 Lipscomb lived in Houston, working for a lumber company during the day and playing at night in bars where he vied for audiences with Texas blues great Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins,

whom Lipscomb had first met in Galveston in 1938…

 With compensation from an on-the-job accident, he returned to Navasota and was finally able to buy some land and build a house of his own. He was working as foreman of a highway-mowing crew in Grimes County when blues researchers Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and Mack McCormick of Houston found and recorded him in 1960…His debut release was Texas Songster (1960)…

Trouble in Mind was recorded in 1961, and released on a Reprise…This was a cover of his buudy, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ tune…


In May 1963, Lipscombe appeared at the first Monterey Folk Festival in California.

R.I.P.
"Mance"
Emancipation
Lipscomb
Mance Lipscomb singer; guitarist born on April 9, 1895, in Navasota, TX; died on January 30, 1976, of heart disease in Navasota, TX two years after suffering a stroke…..



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