Mance Lipscomb 'Navasota'

A new Mance Lipscomb album is now available at Classic Rock Coffee Co. in Navasota. Sunset Blvd. Records released the live recordings of Texas song stylist Mance Lipscomb called “Navasota.” Mance was born just outside there on April 9, 1895. He played blues classics throughout his life, and was the first signing, in June 1960 by the Legendary Roots music label, Arhoolie Records. This was also the first recorded music from Mance, who was celebrating his 65th year.

Mance represented one of the last remnants of the 19th century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues. Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the south, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin’ the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs.

Mance 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. This album represents three previously unreleased performances from 1963, ’64 and ’72.

Bill Wahl for Sunset Blvd noted that Mance’s performances included “finger-picked guitar technique provided vivid and irresistible accompaniment for his supremely atmospheric vocals” of repertoire than encompassed Tin Pan Alley ditties, along with slide-soaked gospel pieces, reels, breakdowns, patriotic themes—each and every one rendered in his own inimitable style” which was rooted in blues.

Disc 1 1972 Harvard University includes hits: Texas Blues, Alabama Jubilee, See See Rider, Baby Please Don’t Go, I Ain’t Got Nobody, Done Had My Fun, Rock Me Baby, Keep On Trucking, Key To The Highway, Shine On Harvest Moon, All Night Long, True Religion, When The Saints Go Marching In.

Disc 2 Texas ’63/’64 includes: Rock Me Mama, So Different Blues, Shorty George Cut Down, Long Way From Tipperary, Trouble In Mind, Night Time Is The Right Time, Mama Don’t Allow, Careless Love, When Death Comes Creepin’ In Your Door (Run Sinner Run), Motherless Children, Blues In G, Bumble Bee Blues, Rag In F, Diddy Wah Diddy, Little Brown Jug, Ella Speed, Big Black Mule To Ride, You Don’t Have To Go, Late Hour Blues and Nobody Cares For Me.

From each album sold, $1 will be donated to Knowledge-First.org, Houston, Texas.