Mance Lipscomb

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Mance Lipscomb , actually Bowdie Glenn Lipscomb (born April 9, 1895 in Navasota , Texas , † January 30, 1976 in Navasota, Texas), was an influential blues singer and guitarist.

Life

Mance Lipscomb's life, unlike that of many of his contemporaries such as Blind Blake and Blind Willie McTell , is very well documented. Lipscomb has worked on a number of blues documentaries, including the 1970 film A Well Spent Life , a film dedicated to him .

Born as the son of an ex-slave from Alabama and a mother of half Indian descent, Lipscomb gave himself the name "Mance" (after the friend of his eldest brother Charlie), which is an abbreviation for " emancipation " (from Latin emancipare = releasing a slave or adult son into independence) is to be understood.

Mance Lipscomb grew up in a musical environment; his father was a fiddler, an uncle played the banjo and his brothers guitar. At the age of eleven he was given a guitar himself and soon went with his father. Later he performed alone as an entertainment musician. As a result, he had contact with famous musicians such as the blues interpreters Blind Lemon Jefferson , Blind Willie Johnson and the country singer Jimmy Rodgers . Still, he never took an opportunity to make music recordings himself.

Lipscomb has made almost non-stop living as a sharecropper in Texas since he was a teenager . 1905–1956 he worked for various landowners in the area of ​​his homeland. 1956-1958 he lived in Houston , where he worked in a timber company. Here he also played with the blues musician Lightnin 'Hopkins . After an accident at work, Lipscomb returned to his home region, where he was able to buy his own house and some land. In 1960 he was 'discovered' by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz during the then country blues revival and used the opportunity to record. As a result, he also appeared in front of larger audiences, for example at the Berkeley Folk Festival in 1961 in front of over 40,000 spectators.

Despite his notoriety in the 1960s and early 1970s, Mance Lipscomb died poorly in his hometown of Navasota in 1976, two years after a severe stroke. Mance Lipscomb and his wife Elnora had a birth son, Mance Lipscomb Jr., and three adopted children.

plant

Mance Lipscomb is considered a representative of the country blues . He stood in the tradition of the popular singers of the 19th century, who had a wide range of musical styles and interpreted not only blues but also folk , ragtime , gospel and music from other black and white musical genres. Lipscomb had such a repertoire, consisting of around 350 songs from two centuries, and he therefore insisted that he should be perceived as a "songster" and not as a blues singer or guitarist.

Lipscomb's music can be heard on a variety of LPs and CDs, most notably on Strachwitz's label Arhoolie Records . Since Lipscomb had practiced his voice and guitar playing all his life in addition to his actual occupation as a farmer, he had mastered the complicated fingerpicking guitar technique even in old age ; his expressive voice also went perfectly with his song material, which consisted of both blues and traditionals from the pre-blues era.

His song Baby, Let Me Lay It On You was picked up by folk singers Eric Von Schmidt and Bob Dylan after a performance by Lipscomb in New York and reinterpreted as Baby, Let Me Follow You Down . One of Lipscomb's best songs, Sugar Babe , was the first song he learned to play on guitar. Lipscomb's repertoire also included country blues versions of the hits Shine On, Harvest Moon and It's a Long Way to Tipperary, as well as numerous evergreens from the blues genre.

Lipscomb was known for his extensive recollections and explanations on the subject of "Music and Life". Recordings of this exist, both on tape and in writing, and are documented in the Mance Lipscomb - Glenn Myers collection at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin .

Honors

In 2005, the state of Texas named Lipscomb's hometown of Navasota The Blues Capital of Texas in honor of her late son .

Discography

  • 1960: Mance Lipscomb: Texas Songster and Sharecropper
  • 1961: Trouble in Mind
  • 1964: Mance Lipscomb Texas Songster Volume 2
  • 1965: Mance Lipscomb Volume 3: Texas Songster in a Live Performance
  • 1967: Mance Lipscomb Volume 4
  • 1970: Mance Lipscomb Volume 5
  • 1974: Mance Lipscomb Volume 6
  • 1978: You'll Never Find Another Man Like Mance

In addition, individual titles appeared on blues anthologies. New editions in different compositions and with partly previously unpublished recordings are:

  • 1993: So Different Blues
  • 1993: You Got To Reap What You Sow
  • 1994: Texas Blues Guitar
  • 1996: Mama Don't Allow
  • 1998: Live! at The Cabale. Texas Songster Vol. 4
  • 1999: Captain Captain! Texas Songster Vol. 3
  • 2000: Trouble in Mind
  • 2002: Texas Country Blues Volume 5
  • 2003: American Folk Song Traditionalist Sings Trouble In Mind
  • 2009: The Best of Mance Lipscomb

literature

  • A Well Spent Life (1971), film, 44 min., Directed by Les Blank and Skip Gerson. Flower Films, El Cerrito CA, ISBN 0-933621-09-4 . Released as video in 1979 and later on DVD.
  • I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, as told to and compiled by Glen Alyn . Da Capo Press, New York 1994, ISBN 0-306-80610-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The information on the year of origin differs in the individual sources. The years 1970, 1971 and 1972 are given.
personal data
SURNAME Lipscomb, Mance
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lipscomb, Beau De Glen (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues singer and guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH near Navasota , Texas
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1976
Place of death Navasota , Texas