Mance Lipscomb - Texas Songster, Vol. 2: You Got To Reap What You Sow

Size: 182.8 MB
Time: 77:33
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1993
Styles: Country Blues, Texas Blues
Art: Full

01. Charlie James (3:37)
02. Come Back Baby (4:03)
03. Spanish Flang Dang (2:03)
04. You Got To Reap What You Sow (2:30)
05. Cocaine Done Killed My Baby (1:23)
06. Joe Turner Killed A Man (4:34)
07. Bumble Bee (3:16)
08. Boogie In "A" (2:30)
09. Hattie Green (3:43)
10. Silver City (3:36)
11. The Titanic (3:16)
12. If I Miss The Train (4:08)
13. Lord Thomas (1:40)
14. Tom Moore Blues (5:40)
15. So Different Blues (3:05)
16. Tall Angel At The Bar (2:42)
17. Mama, Don't Dog Me (4:12)
18. Long Way To Tipperary (2:59)
19. Willie Poor Boy (3:29)
20. You Rascal You (3:41)
21. I Looked Down The Road And I Wondered (3:51)
22. Sentimental Blues (2:42)
23. Police Station Blues (2:40)
24. Missouri Waltz (2:04)

The material on this album was re-released on compact disc in the '90s, with outtakes and whatnot bumping the song catch up to 20 songs. This original vinyl pressing features a baker's dozen tracks, all recorded one spring when the charming Mance Lipscomb was out in California doing the folk revival circuit. Like most of his albums, this one is a good example of his versatility. Just when a listener thinks they have the man's style mentally pigeonholed, then along comes something else quite surprising. It is instructive to hear his "Spanish Flang Dang" in comparison with Elizabeth Cotton. Both are talented fingerpickers, and both are relying on memory to reconstruct a hit instrumental record from the early '30s. The variations are fascinating. The blues material here is also strong, ranging from the tough "Cocaine Done Killed Me Baby" to the light-hearted "Boogie in A." Producer Chris Strachwitz did a great job with the sound, and it is the type of acoustic guitar tone that really sounds better in analog.

Texas Songster, Vol. 2: You Got To Reap What You Sow MP3
Texas Songster, Vol. 2: You Got To Reap What You Sow FLAC

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Various - Blues At Kerrville

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:03
Size: 132.9 MB
Styles: Assorted styles
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[4:10] 1. Dave Van Ronk - Another Time & Place
[9:04] 2. Gatesmouth Brown - Sometimes I Feel Myself Slippin
[2:50] 3. Roy Bookbinder - Kentucky Blues
[4:41] 4. Marcia Ball - My Man Is A Two Timer
[6:18] 5. Josh White Jr. - I Can Be Had
[4:55] 6. Angela Strehli - Telephone Blues
[5:16] 7. Marcia Ball With Band - Under Love's Spell
[4:10] 8. Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan - Honey Bee
[3:25] 9. Mance Lipscomb - Texas Blues
[3:50] 10. Robert Shaw - Put Me In The Alley
[3:30] 11. Juke Boy Bonner - I've Had The Blues
[2:29] 12. Spider John Koerner - Midnight Special
[3:20] 13. Kenneth Threadgill - Mississippi Delta Blues

Interesting cross section of live performances from this Texas blues festival. With performances aboard from Dave Van Ronk, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Juke Boy Bonner, Mance Lipscomb, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, Roy Bookbinder, Kenneth Threadgill, Spider John Koerner, Josh White, Jr., Robert Shaw, and the duo of Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, this is a wide and varied set of performances well played and decently recorded. ~Cub Koda

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Mance Lipscomb - The Best Of Mance Lipscomb

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:59
Size: 160.2 MB
Styles: Country blues
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[2:20] 1. Baby, Don't Lay It On Me
[3:32] 2. Charlie James
[3:01] 3. So Different Blues
[2:38] 4. Long Tall Girl Got Stuck On Me
[4:30] 5. Joe Turner Killed A Man
[3:24] 6. Willie Poor Boy
[2:48] 7. Shake, Shake Mama
[3:11] 8. The Titanic
[4:36] 9. Mance's Blues
[3:37] 10. Tom Moore Blues
[1:56] 11. Rag In G
[3:10] 12. Ain't It Hard
[3:05] 13. Captain, Captain
[2:37] 14. Freddie
[1:53] 15. Take Me Back
[3:59] 16. Jack O'diamonds
[2:01] 17. Sugar Babe
[2:15] 18. Ain't You Sorry
[2:32] 19. Run Sinner Run
[5:14] 20. Angel Child
[3:26] 21. Blues In The Bottle
[4:03] 22. Texas Blues

A self-described "sharecropper and songster," Texas singer and guitarist Mance Lipscomb didn't just play the blues, although he was well acquainted with both the realities and cultural myths of the genre. He also played ballads, reels, rags, waltzes, children's songs, and spirituals, and was even known to tackle a foxtrot or polka when the situation called for it. This 22-track compilation collects some of the key recordings from the five LPs the songster issued with Chris Strachwitz's Arhoolie Records, including fine versions of "Jack O'Diamonds," "Sugar Babe," and "Tom Moore's Farm," and Lipscomb's warm, unassuming, and gentle approach shines through even when he dips into the darker regions of the blues. ~Steve Leggett

The Best Of Mance Lipscomb

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Mance Lipscomb : Texas Songster / Captain, Captain! / Pure Texas Country Blues

Album: Texas Songster
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1960/1989
Styles: Blues
Time: 61:19
Size: 141,7 MB
Covers: Full

(2:06) 1. Sugar Babe
(3:07) 2. Goin' Down Slow
(2:42) 3. Freddie
(4:05) 4. Jack O'Diamonds
(1:47) 5. Baby Please Don't Go
(2:59) 6. One Thin Dime
(2:54) 7. Shake, Shake Mama
(2:36) 8. Ella Speed
(2:26) 9. Mama Don't Allow
(3:16) 10. Ain't It Hard
(3:27) 11. 'Bout a Spoonful
(1:59) 12. Take Me Back
(2:02) 13. Rag in "G"
(3:09) 14. Big Boss Man
(2:38) 15. You Gonna Quit Me, Baby
(4:11) 16. Blues in G
(3:23) 17. Mama, Don't Dog Me
(3:01) 18. Willie Poor Boy
(2:48) 19. Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night
(2:25) 20. Knocking Down Windows
(1:26) 21. Nobody's Fault But Mine
(2:40) 22. Motherless Children

Mance Lipscomb (born 1895,Navasota, Texas) played guitar and wrote songs beginning in his teens, but never recorded until this 1960 session, which was done in his kitchen. 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." The raw, clear production on this album perfectly captures the emotive and rhythmic qualities of the Songster's "Texas dead-thumb" style and laid-back, yet powerful vocals.

Texas Songster
Texas Songster artwork

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Album: Captain, Captain!
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1960/1966/1998
Styles: Blues
Time: 68:19
Size: 157,8 MB
Covers: Full

(3:10) 1. Captain, Captain
(2:20) 2. Ain't You Sorry
(4:00) 3. Night Time Is the Right Time
(2:07) 4. Mr. Tom's Rag
(2:34) 5. I Want to Do Something for You
(2:43) 6. Long Tall Girl Got Stuck on Me
(1:27) 7. Rag in "A"
(4:01) 8. Goin' Up North to See My Pony Run
(3:10) 9. Santa Fe Blues
(1:50) 10. Frankie and Albert
(3:04) 11. Sentimental Piece in "G"
(3:49) 12. Farewell Blues
(2:41) 13. Shorty George Cut Down
(3:37) 14. Angel Child
(2:14) 15. Black Rat
(3:30) 16. Tom Moore's Farm
(3:12) 17. Foggy Bottom Blues
(1:42) 18. Heel and Toe Polka
(2:07) 19. Going Back to Georgia
(3:09) 20. Easy Rider Blues
(3:09) 21. Why Did You Leave Me?
(2:40) 22. Me and My Baby
(2:05) 23. Mance's Talking Blues
(3:49) 24. Segregation Done Past

Mance Lipscomb influenced many folk artists like Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, etc. during the 1960's & 70's when he appeared with many of the stars at folk festivals. He called himself a "Songster" and mastered an extraordinarily large and varied repertoire reflecting the full range of rural Texas African-American culture as well as many pop songs and fiddle tunes. The 24 tracks are from two different sessions. Since two-thirds of it is previously unissued, blues fans won't need prodding, but this release could also serve as an excellent introduction to this still-underrated figure.”

Captain Captain
Captain Captain artwork

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Album: Pure Texas Country Blues
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1968/1969/1973/2002
Styles: Blues
Time: 67:52
Size: 156,5 MB
Covers: Full

(4:07) 1. Texas Blues
(3:50) 2. Black Gal
(4:24) 3. Oh, Baby! (You Don't Have to Go)
(4:17) 4. Whiskey Blues
(2:52) 5. Haunted House Blues
(4:38) 6. Mance's Blues
(4:36) 7. Does She Ever Think of Me
(2:11) 8. I Just Hang Down My Head and I Cry
(2:32) 9. Rag in F
(3:04) 10. Wonder Where My Easy Rider Gone
(5:59) 11. Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night
(2:46) 12. Corrine, Corrina
(2:48) 13. Evil Blues
(2:15) 14. Mama, Let Me Lay It on You
(4:25) 15. Louise
(4:12) 16. Sometimes I Feel Like
(3:30) 17. Blues in the Bottle
(5:16) 18. Angel Child

Mance Lipscomb referred to himsef as a songster who could render almost any song or instrumental music known in his community which was mainly the black, rural population in and around his hometown. Although he eked out a living as a sharecropper of farm hand for most of his life, Mance would play on weekends at house parties, country suppers, picnics and dances. His wide ranging repertoire included ballads, popular songs, reels, rags, breakdowns, children's songs, cakewalks, church songs and blues. This collection focuses on his talent as a moving blues singer and superb guitarist.

Pure Texas Country Blues
Pure Texas Country Blues artwork

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Mance Lipscomb - Live! At The Cabale

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 69:17
Size: 158.6 MB
Styles: Texas blues, Acoustic blues
Year: 1999
Art: Front

[ 2:20] 1. Baby Don't You Lay It On Me
[ 2:33] 2. Meet Me In The Bottom
[ 2:47] 3. You Gonna Miss Me
[ 1:51] 4. Keep On Truckin'
[ 2:50] 5. Trouble In Mind
[ 3:37] 6. Tom Moore Blues
[ 3:38] 7. Mance's Short Haired Woman
[ 2:24] 8. Tra-La-Ra-La Doodle All Day
[ 2:20] 9. Shine On Harvest Moon
[ 2:33] 10. Run Sinner, Run
[ 3:21] 11. Key To The Highway
[ 3:37] 12. Rock Me Mama
[ 2:35] 13. Wonder Where My Easy Rider Done Gone
[ 5:12] 14. Late Night Blues & Boogie Woogie
[11:05] 15. Early Days Back Home
[ 2:24] 16. Cocaine Done Killed My Baby
[ 4:42] 17. I Wonder Why
[ 2:20] 18. It Ain't Gonna Rain No More
[ 2:29] 19. You Gonna Quit Me Baby
[ 2:16] 20. When The Saints Go Marching In
[ 2:12] 21. Mother Had A Sick Child

All but three of the 21 tracks on Live! At the Cabale were previously unreleased; all but two of them recorded live at the Cabale in Berkeley in 1964 (the other two were done live in Sacramento in 1972). Mance Lipscomb made many albums, and it was a wise decision on compiler Chris Strachwitz's part to focus on songs that were not available on previous CDs by the singer. Repertoire aside, this is very much of a piece with the "songster" style Lipscomb projects on other recordings: good-natured acoustic tunes that draw from boogie, ragtime, and folk, with a warm vocal delivery and accomplished guitar picking. Some of the songs, in fact, will be pretty familiar to most blues fans, if not always duplicated by Lipscomb on other CDs: "Meet Me in the Bottom," "Trouble in Mind," "Key to the Highway," "Rock Me Mama," and "Baby Don't You Lay It on Me" (which sounds close to the folk standard "Baby Let Me Follow You Down"). One of the tracks, incidentally, is largely a 12-minute spoken story, "Early Days Back Home." ~Richie Unterberger

Tracks 1-19 recorded at The Cabale, Berkeley, California, 1964. Tracks 20 & 21 recorded in Sacramento, California, 1972.

All performances previously unreleased, except track 8 & 9 which were issued on Arhoolie LP #1026 and track 10 on Arhoolie LP #1033.

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Various - Blues With A Message

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 72:01
Size: 164.9 MB
Styles: Assorted blues
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[2:46] 1. Sam Chatman - I Have To Paint My Face
[3:50] 2. John Jackson - John Henry
[3:04] 3. Mercy Dee - Walked Down So Many Turn Rows
[3:37] 4. Mance Lipscomb - Tom Moore's Farm
[4:55] 5. Lightnin' Hopkins - Tom Moore's Blues
[5:13] 6. Lowell Fulson - River Blues
[5:31] 7. Mississippi Fred Mcdowell - Levee Camp Blues
[3:58] 8. Essie Jenkins - The 1919 Influenza Blues
[5:55] 9. Willie Eason - Why I Like Roosevelt
[2:59] 10. Doctor Ross - Little Soldier Boy
[5:09] 11. Robert Pete Williams - Prisoner's Talking Blues
[3:11] 12. Johnie Lewis - I Got To Climb A High Mountain
[4:41] 13. Herman E. Johnson - Depression Blues
[3:19] 14. Johnny Young & Big Walter Horton - Stockyard Blues
[3:26] 15. Juke Boy Bonner - What Will I Tell The Children
[2:55] 16. Juke Boy Bonner - It's Enough
[3:06] 17. Bee Houston - Things Gonna Get Better
[4:19] 18. Big Joe Williams - Back Home Blues

Blues With a Message isn't just about lost love and the toils of specific lives, the blues (particularly within the folk-blues traditions) spent some time dealing with sociopolitical issues on the side, primarily before the rise of electric blues. Here, Arhoolie has compiled a set of pieces related to a surprisingly large number of issues. Among them: Minstrel shows, the mechanization of cotton farming, and its related exodus to the North, sharecropping, segregation, the Korean War, the influenza epidemic, the New Deal, civil rights movements, Chicago employment opportunities -- all are given a song or two here. The music quality is roughly equivalent to many of the folk-blues recordings available, though the "big name" artists are largely absent from this one (Lightnin Hopkins does make an appearance singing about sharecropping, however). The songs are deliberately focused on the issues more than the music, but the music can still carry its soul. This one probably won't be on many highest-sales lists in the blues, but it's both historically important and musically enjoyable. ~Adam Greenberg

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Mance Lipscomb - You Got To Reap What You Sow

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 75:48
Size: 173.5 MB
Styles: Acoustic Texas blues
Year: 1993
Art: Front

[3:32] 1. Charlie James
[3:59] 2. Come Back Baby
[1:59] 3. Spanish Flang Dang
[2:26] 4. You Got To Reap What You Sow
[1:19] 5. Cocaine Done Killed My Baby
[4:30] 6. Joe Turner Killed A Man
[3:12] 7. Bumble Bee
[2:26] 8. Boogie In A
[3:39] 9. Hattie Green
[3:32] 10. Silver City
[3:11] 11. The Titanic
[4:03] 12. If I Miss The Train
[1:36] 13. Lord Thomas
[5:36] 14. Tom Moore Blues
[3:01] 15. So Different Blues
[2:37] 16. Tall Angel At The Bar
[4:07] 17. Mama, Don't Dog Me
[2:55] 18. Long Way To Tipperary
[3:24] 19. Willie Poor Boy
[3:37] 20. You Rascal You
[3:47] 21. I Looked Down The Road And I Wondered
[2:37] 22. Sentimental Blues
[2:31] 23. Police Station Blues
[2:03] 24. Missouri Waltz

“The late Mance Lipscomb was a major discovery by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz. 'You Got to Reap What You Sow' is a new Arhoolie compact disc of his music. The subtitle 'Texas Songster Volume 2,' says it all. Mance Lipscomb wasn't a blues performer, but rather was a songster who played all sorts of songs for his family and friends. Once he was discovered and started playing concerts, he perhaps skewed his repertoire to the blues, but it was the depth of his repertoire that is invaluable The 24 songs give a sense of the depth of his repertoire, and include versions of Texas blues themes like 'Hattie Green'; blues recordings like Walter Davis' 'Come Back Baby' and Memphis Minnie's 'Bumble Bee'; ballads like 'Joe Turner Killed a Man,' and 'The Titanic'; and popular songs like 'Long Way to Tipperary' and `You Rascal You.' Mance was a wonderful guitarist and a warm singer. Reflecting the country house parties that he would play for most of his life, his performing style is simple and direct, devoid of gimmicks. This is an expanded version of the original album, which was his second Arhoolie release, and includes 13 previously unissued songs, including a rendition of 'Tom Moore Blues,' a blues about a Washington County, Texas landowner.” ~Ron Weinstock

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