Mance Lipscomb The Lost Tapes 1965

One evening in 1965 my friend Marc Silber brought Mance Lipscomb whom he had known for years to my home on Manhattan's West 86th Street for dinner and to record a few tunes. Marc had brought along his Gibson 1937 Advanced Jumbo which Mance played for us and reminisced while I recorded him on my Bell reel-to-reel tape recorder. These 15 tracks are the result of that evening's recording session. D**k Abrams Chicago, 2023 00:00 So Different Blues 05:35 Shine On Harvest Moon 07:30 Gotta See Your Mama 11:50 Goin Down Slow 15:40 Baby Please Don't Go 21:05 Stop Time 22:50 Shorty George 25:40 Tell Me, Baby 28:30 I Ain't Got Nobody 30:05 Shake Me, Mama 34:00 It's All Over Now 36:50 Darktown Strutter's Ball 39:00 Night Time is the Right Time 43:50 Nobody's Business 47:00 Ain't It Hard MARC SILBER'S PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF THE SESSION: Soon after I first came to Berkeley in the Summer of 1961 and was learning folk music I discovered Jon and Deirdre Lundberg's Fretted Instrument shop on Dwight Way.  This was a daily hang-out for folkies and instrument lovers.      One day a man came in and said he had started a record company and asked Jon if he would sell the first album he produced. That was Chris Strachwicz and he had discovered Mance Lipscomb on a trip to Texas.       Soon Mance came to the Bay Area and we got to meet him and hear him make music and he was the nicest person and also a very deep person. Mance would appear at Folk Music venues and Folk Festivals and he eventually came to New York City where in November, 1963, I had opened a small Instrument shop in Greenwich Village in the style of Lundberg's, called Fretted Instruments. Mance would hang out there when he came to New York and it was a great blessing for all of us.      On one of these visits I took him to the home of someone immersed in blues and old-timey music and who collected vintage instruments, and that was Richard Abrams.  Richard made a recording of Mance one evening on a reel to reel tape recorder. These recordings have now resurfaced as RIchard is making them available to the Public.  This is a blessing and falls into a category I call RESCUED MUSIC.       I could tell many stories of my time hanging out with Mance Lipscomb and how he was always gentle, positive, very natural, and deep.       Eventually, a film-maker associated with Chris Strachwicz made a 44 min. documentary about Mance called "A Well-Spent Life" (Les Blank, Flower Films, 1971).       I will close with something that was quoted from Mance by a writer who asked him if Mance was his born name.  Mance said no, my born name cause trouble where I lived so we did not use it. And what was that name asked this writer?  EMANCIPATION LIPSCOMB. 1965 1/4" audio tape was digitized, edited, illustrated, and mastered by S.E Winters (wallpapermusique)

Added 15 Jun 2026