Mance Lipscomb

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Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976[1]) was an influential blues singer, guitarist and songster. Born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas, he as a youth took the name of 'Mance' from a friend of his oldest brother Charlie (Mance short for emancipation). Lipscomb was the son of an ex-slave from Alabama and a half Choctaw Indian mother.

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[edit] Life and career

Lipscomb spent most of his life working as a tenant farmer in Texas and was "discovered" and recorded by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960 during the country blues revival. He released a few albums of blues and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label[1]), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a fine finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice well suited to his material. His debut release, Texas Songster (1960) revealed how broad and catholic his repertoire was, and further sets for Arhoolie made that point in greater detail, Lipscomb happily turning from a blues number to "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".[2]

Lipscomb's song "Baby, Let Me Lay It On You" was picked up and reworked into "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" by urban folksingers Eric Von Schmidt and Bob Dylan after a New York performance. One of his best songs, "Sugar Babe", was the first song he learned on guitar. Lipscomb performed and recorded a country blues version of "Shine On, Harvest Moon".

Trouble in Mind was recorded in 1970, and released on a major label, Reprise.[3]

Unlike many of his contemporaries like Blind Blake and Blind Willie McTell his life is well documented and he appeared in several films, including the 1971 documentary, A Well Spent Life[1]. His autobiography, I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, narrated to Glen Alyn, was published posthumously.

Despite his fame in the 1960s and early 1970s he died poor in his hometown of Navasota in 1976, two years after suffering a stroke.

[edit] Film

  • A Well Spent Life (1971). Directed by Les Blank and Skip Gerson. El Cerrito, California: Flower Films. Released on video in 1979. ISBN 0-933621-09-4.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Oldies.com biography - accessed January 2008
  2. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited, p. 136. ISBN 1-85868-255-X. 
  3. ^ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008

[edit] External links