Did You Know?
Navasota is the Official Blues Capital of Texas and home of the annual Navasota Blues Festival held every summer to honor Navasota blues legend, Mance Lipscomb.
Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. 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.
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 quite a few albums of blues and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a fine finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice well suited to his material.
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 brilliant country blues version of "Shine On, Harvest Moon".
Unlike many of his contemporaries like Blind Blake and Blind Willie McTell, Lipscomb's life is well documented and he appeared in several films including the 1971 documentary A Well Spent Life. His autobiography, I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, narrated by Glen Alyn, was published posthumously.
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