Description
- Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 58–71
- Artist: Various
- Format: LP
- Release Date: 9/8/2023
- LABEL: Smithsonian Folkways
- VENDOR: Smithsonian Folkways Recording
- DISTRIBUTOR: AMPED
- NUMBER OF DISCS: 6
- UPC: 093074026014
- GENRE: Blues
DESCRIPTION
In the 1950s and 60s, the blues was the dominant form of Black vernacular music throughout Texas and
the surrounding areas. In segregated neighborhoods, community members gathered in saloons, dancehalls, and each other's homes to hear their neighbors sing their stories of sorrow, heartbreak, jubilation, and triumph. Robert "Mack" McCormick, an academically untrained but fanatical devotee of the blues, stepped into this world and became one of it's most devout advocates and documentarians. By photographing Black and Latino Texans and their neighborhoods, as well as recording and interviewing musicians-many of whom never stepped foot into a proper recording studio-McCormick endeared and eventually embedded himself into these communities. By the time he died in 2015, McCormick had amassed a collection of 590 reels of sound recordings and 165 boxes of manuscripts, original interviews and research notes, thousands of photographs and negatives, playbills, and posters. Because McCormick never published or released most of these materials, his collection became a thing of legend and intense speculation among scholars, blues aficionados, and musicians alike. Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971 is the first compilation of music drawn from this fabled collection, which indelibly documents a pivotal moment in African American history. It features never-before-heard performances not only from musicians who became icons in their own right-including Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb-but also, crucially, performers whose names may be unfamiliar to even the most devoted blues fans and scholars. Newly mastered recordings and accompanying photographs bring to life many of these forgotten figures: offering insight into their lives and illuminating in new, enlightening ways their joys and anguish, deep social connections, distinctive voices, and cultural networks. The collection spans gospels, ragtime, country blues dirges, the unclassifiable music of George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, and more, showing that no community, no matter how tight knit, is monolithic. Accompanying the music is a 128-page book, which contains breathtaking photographs by McCormick and his associates, as well as contextual essays by producers Jeff Place and John Troutman on McCormick's life, and by musicians Mark Puryear and Dom Flemons on some of the marginalized communities throughout "Greater Texas" to which McCormick devoted his life's work. This release is a partnership with the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Tracklist:
- 1
- Mojo Hand – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 2
- God Moves on the Water – Mance Lipscomb
- 3
- The Clinton – Robert Shaw
- 4
- Sugar Blues – Kid Wiggins
- 5
- St. James Infirmary – Dudley Alexander and Washboard Band
- 6
- Darlin' (You Know I Love You) – Cedell Davis
- 7
- You Gonna Look Like a Monkey – Dennis Gainus
- 8
- One Room Country Shack – Grey Ghost
- 9
- Groceries on My Shelf (Piggly Wiggly) – Edwin "Buster" Pickens
- 10
- 3 O'Clock Blues – Hop Wilson
- 11
- Anything from a Foot Race to a Resting Place – Jealous James Stanchell
- 12
- Salty Dog Rag – James Tisdom
- 13
- Goin' to the River – Gozy Kilpatrick
- 14
- Quills – Joe Patterson
- 15
- Ma Pa Cut the Cake – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 16
- Crazy About Oklahoma – Otis Cook
- 17
- Little Red Rooster – Grey Ghost
- 18
- My Work Will Be Done – the Spiritual Light Gospel Group
- 19
- Steel Guitar Rag – James Tisdom
- 20
- Tall Angel at the Bar – Mance Lipscomb
- 21
- This Whole World's in a Sad Condition – George "Bongo Joe" Coleman
- 22
- World's in a Tangle – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 23
- Someday Baby – Robert Shaw
- 24
- It's Alright – Cedell Davis
- 25
- Cryin' Won't Make Me Stay – R.C. Forest and Gozy Kilpatrick
- 26
- China Tea – Allen Van
- 27
- Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is – George "Bongo Joe" Coleman
- 28
- Tom Moore's Farm – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 29
- Tom Moore's Farm – Mance Lipscomb
- 30
- Don't Do Me No Small Favors (Help the Bear) – Jealous James Stanchell
- 31
- Fox Chase – Billy Bizor
- 32
- Black Widow Spider Blues – R.C. Forest
- 33
- Come and Go with Me to That Land – Hardy Gray
- 34
- Rollin' and Tumblin' – Cedell Davis
- 35
- Train Roll Up – Leroy "Country" Johnson with Edwin "Buster" Pickens
- 36
- Shorty George – Edwin "Buster" Pickens
- 37
- Matchbox Blues – Joel Hopkins
- 38
- It's My Life Baby – Blues Wallace
- 39
- Hello Central, Gimme 209 – Andrew Everett
- 40
- Bad Lee Brown – Jim Wilkie
- 41
- Tin Can Alley Blues – R.C. Forest and Gozy Kilpatrick
- 42
- Medicine Show Pitch – Murl "Doc" Webster
- 43
- So Different Blues – Mance Lipscomb
- 44
- I Feel So Good – James Tisdom
- 45
- Mr. Charlie – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 46
- The Ma Grinder – Edwin "Buster" Pickens
- 47
- Deep Ellum Blues – Paul Elliott
- 48
- K.C. Ain't Nothing But a Rag – Andrew Everett
- 49
- Lonesome Road – Kid Wiggins
- 50
- Old Judge Blues – Dennis Gainus
- 51
- The Slop – Melvin "Jack" Jackson and Lightnin' Hopkins
- 52
- Corrine, Corrina – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 53
- Talking Blues – Jimmy Womack
- 54
- Good Times Here, Better Times Down the Road – Joel Hopkins
- 55
- Put Me in the Alley – Robert Shaw
- 56
- Auctioneer – Walter Britten
- 57
- Runaway – Hardy Gray
- 58
- Broke and Hungry – Hop Wilson
- 59
- Big Road Blues – Mager Johnson
- 60
- Casey Jones – Mance Lipscomb
- 61
- Atomic Energy – Jimmy Womack
- 62
- Natural Born Lover – Long Gone Miles with Lightnin' Hopkins and Love Crazy
- 63
- Swanee River Boogie – E.B. Busby
- 64
- Rock Me Baby – Long Gone Miles
- 65
- Blues Jumped a Rabbit – Lightnin' Hopkins
- 66
- George Coleman for President, Nobody for Vice President – George "Bongo Joe" Coleman
