16 Facts About Mance Lipscomb

Beau De Glen "Mance" Lipscomb was an American blues singer, guitarist and songster.

Mance Lipscomb's father had been born into slavery in Alabama; his mother was half African American and half Native American.

Mance Lipscomb's 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.

Mance Lipscomb's mother bought him a guitar and he taught himself to play by watching and listening.

Mance Lipscomb 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.

Mance Lipscomb was discovered and recorded by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960, during a revival of interest in the country blues.

Mance Lipscomb recorded many albums of blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, and folk music, singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.

Mance Lipscomb had a "dead-thumb" finger-picking guitar technique and an expressive voice.

Mance Lipscomb honed his skills by playing in nearby Brenham, Texas, with a blind musician, Sam Rogers.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Mance Lipscomb had not recorded in the early blues era.

Mance Lipscomb's 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.

Mance Lipscomb was the subject of a short 1971 documentary film by Les Blank, called A Well Spent Life.

Mance Lipscomb was a regular performer at folk festivals and folk-blues clubs around the United States, notably the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, California.

Mance Lipscomb was known not only for his singing and intricate guitar style, but as a storyteller and country "sage".

Mance Lipscomb died in Navasota, Texas, in 1976, two years after suffering a stroke.