Editing Mance Lipscomb

{{Use American English|date=June 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{use American English|date=March 2024}}
{{Short description|American blues singer and guitarist (1895–1976)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
|name                  = Mance Lipscomb
|image                 = Mance Lipscomb 1960s LOC.jpg
|caption               = Lipscomb in the 1960s
|birth_name            = Beau De Glen Lipscomb
|alias                 = 
|birth_date            = {{birth date|1895|4|9}}
|birth_place           = near [[Navasota, Texas]], U.S.
|death_date            = {{death date and age|1976|1|30|1895|4|9}}
|death_place           = Navasota, Texas, U.S.
|origin                =
|genre                 = {{hlist|[[Blues music|Blues]]|[[Folk music|folk]]}}
|occupation            = Musician
|instruments           = {{hlist|Guitar|vocals}}
|years_active          = 1960–1976
|website               = 
}}
'''Beau De Glen "Mance" Lipscomb'''{{refn|group=nb|The researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc stated that his forenames were recorded as '''Bowdie Glen''', '''Bodyglin''', '''Body G.''', and '''Bodie'''.<ref name="bare">{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger | location= Santa Barbara, California| pages=363 | isbn= 978-0-313-34423-7}}</ref> The discographer Stefan Wirz gives '''Bowdie Glenn''', a derivative of '''Beau de Glenn'''.<ref>[http://www.wirz.de/music/lipscfrm.htm  Mance Lipscomb Discography]. Wirz.de.</ref>}}  (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976)<ref name="oldies">{{cite web|url=http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Mance-Lipscomb.html |title=Mance Lipscomb Biography |publisher=Oldies.com |date=January 30, 1976 |access-date=September 8, 2015}}</ref> was an American [[blues]] singer, guitarist and [[songster]]. 

== Biography ==
Lipscomb was born April 9, 1895, near [[Navasota, Texas]]. His father had been born into slavery in [[Alabama]]; his mother was half African American and half Native American.<ref name="MS">{{cite book |title=Mance Lipscomb|year=2009 |isbn=978-0-306-80610-0|last1=Lipscomb|first1=Marice|publisher=Da Capo Press }}</ref> As a youth, Lipscomb took the name Mance (short for [[Abolitionism in the United States|''emancipation'']]) from a friend of his oldest brother, Charlie. His father left home when he was a child, so he had to leave school after the third grade to work in the fields alongside his mother.  For most of his life, Lipscomb supported himself as a tenant farmer in Texas.  His mother bought him a guitar and he taught himself to play by watching and listening. He became an accomplished performer then and played regularly for years at local gatherings, mostly what he called "Saturday night suppers" hosted by someone in the area. He and his wife regularly hosted such gatherings for a while. Until around 1960, most of his musical activity took place within what he called his "precinct", the area around [[Navasota, Texas]].

He was discovered and recorded by [[Robert "Mack" McCormick|Mack McCormick]] and [[Chris Strachwitz]] in 1960, during a [[Roots revival|revival]] of interest in the country blues. He recorded many albums of [[blues]], ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, and [[folk music]] (most of them released by Strachwitz's [[Arhoolie Records]]),<ref name="oldies" /> singing and accompanying himself on [[acoustic guitar]]. Lipscomb had a "dead-thumb" finger-picking guitar technique and an expressive voice. He honed his skills by playing in nearby [[Brenham, Texas]], with a blind musician, Sam Rogers.

His first release was the album ''Texas Sharecropper and Songster'' (1960). Lipscomb performed songs in a wide range of genres, from old songs such as "Sugar Babe" (the first he ever learned), to pop numbers like "[[Shine On, Harvest Moon]]" and "[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary]]".<ref name="russell">{{cite book
| first= Tony
| last= Russell
| year= 1997
| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
| publisher= Carlton Books
| location= Dubai
| page= 136
| isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref>

In 1961 he recorded the album ''[[Trouble in Mind (Mance Lipscomb album)|Trouble in Mind]]'', released by [[Reprise Records]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Koda, Cub|author-link=Cub Koda|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mance-lipscomb-mn0000569856/biography |title=Mance Lipscomb: Biography |publisher=[[AllMusic]].com |date=January 30, 1976 |access-date=September 8, 2015}}</ref> In May 1963, he appeared at the first [[Monterey Folk Festival]], (which later became the [[Monterey Pop Festival]]) alongside other folk artists such as [[Bob Dylan]], and [[Peter, Paul and Mary]] in [[California]].<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">{{cite book
| first= John
| last= Tobler
| year= 1992
| title= NME Rock 'n' Roll Years
| publisher= Reed International Books
| location= London
| page= 120
| id= CN 5585}}</ref>

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lipscomb had not recorded in the early blues era.  [[Michael H. Birnbaum|Michael Birnbaum]] recorded interviews with Mance in 1966 at his home in Navasota about his life and music. These recordings are in the Ethnomusicology library at University of California, Los Angeles. His life is well documented in his [[autobiography]], ''I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman'', narrated to Glen Alyn (published posthumously). He was the subject of a short 1971 [[documentary film]] by [[Les Blank]], called ''A Well Spent Life''.<ref name="oldies" />
[[File:Mance Lipscomb WDBF 1970 JT.jpg|alt=Mance Lipscomb at right with students at guitar workshop, Wisconsin Delta Blues Festival, Beloit, Wisconsin, March, 1970. |left|thumb|Mance Lipscomb guitar workshop, Beloit, Wisconsin, 1970]]
Following his discovery by McCormick and Strachwitz, Lipscomb became an important figure in the [[American folk music revival]] of the 1960s. He was a regular performer at folk festivals and folk-blues clubs around the United States, notably the [[Ash Grove (music club)|Ash Grove]] in [[Los Angeles, California]].  He was known not only for his singing and intricate guitar style, but also as a storyteller and country "sage".

[[File:Grabstein von Mance Lipscomb.jpg|thumb|Tombstone of Mance Lipscomb in the Oakland Cemetery of Navasota]]
He died in [[Navasota, Texas]], in 1976, two years after suffering a [[stroke]]. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Navasota.<ref name="Early">{{Cite web|url=http://earlyblues.org/resting-places/|title=Resting Places|website=Earlybues.org|access-date=March 1, 2021}}</ref>

== Film ==
*''A Well Spent Life'' (1971). Documentary directed by [[Les Blank]] and Skip Gerson. El Cerrito, California: Flower Films. Released on videotape in 1979. {{ISBN|0-933621-09-4}}.
*''The Blues Accordin' to [[Lightnin' Hopkins]]'' (1970). Directed by Les Blank.

== Honors ==
[[File:Skulptur von Mance Lipscomb (2011).jpg|thumb|Sculpture of Mance Lipscomb (2011)]]
* An annual Navasota Blues Festival is held in his honor.
* On August 12, 2011, a bronze sculpture of him was unveiled in Mance Lipscomb Park in Navasota. The statue was sculpted by the artist Sid Henderson of California and weighs almost 300 pounds. It portrays Lipscomb playing his guitar whilst seated on a bench, with room for fans to sit beside him and play their own guitars at his side.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2011-11-04/day-trips/|title=Day Trips: Brilliant Texas bluesman Mance Lipscomb gets due respect in Navasota|last1=McLeod|first1=Gerald E.|website=www.austinchronicle.com|language=en-US|access-date=March 25, 2020|date=November 4, 2011}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[List of blues musicians]]
*[[List of country blues musicians]]
*[[List of guitarists by genre]]
*[[List of people from Texas]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.wirz.de/music/lipscomb.htm Illustrated Mance Lipscomb Discography]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20001207221400/http://www.famoustexans.com/Mance_Lipscomb.htm Lipscomb at Famoustexans.com]}}
* [http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/mance/ Photos of Lipscomb with Michael H. Birnbaum and of a handwritten fragment of Mance's autobiography]

== Further reading ==
Lipscomb, Mance. ''I Say for Me a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Songster''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.  {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipscomb, Mance}}
[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:American blues guitarists]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:American blues singers]]
[[Category:Country blues singers]]
[[Category:Songster musicians]]
[[Category:People from Navasota, Texas]]
[[Category:Singers from Texas]]
[[Category:Texas blues musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Texas]]
[[Category:Arhoolie Records artists]]
[[Category:African-American guitarists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]