Lipscomb was born April 9, 1895 to an ex-slave father from Alabama and a half Native American (Choctaw) 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 many albums of blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a "dead-thumb" finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice. Lipscomb often honed his skills by playing in nearby Brenham, Texas, with a blind musician, Sam Rogers. His debut release was Texas Songster (1960). Lipscomb performed old songs like "Sugar Babe," the first song he ever learned, to pop numbers like "Shine On, Harvest Moon" and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".[4]
Trouble in Mind was recorded in 1961, and released on a major label, Reprise. In May 1963, Lipscomb appeared at the first Monterey Folk Festival in California.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not record in the early blues era, but his life is well documented thanks to his autobiography, I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, narrated to Glen Alyn, which was published posthumously, and also a short 1971 documentary by Les Blank, A Well Spent Life.
He began playing guitar early on and played regularly for years at local gatherings, mostly what he called "Saturday Night Suppers" hosted by someone in the area. These gatherings were hosted regularly for a while by himself and his wife. The majority of his musical activity took place within what he called his "precinct", meaning the local area around Navasota, until around 1960.
Following his "discovery" by McCormick and Strachwitz, Lipscomb became an important figure in the 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 in Los Angeles, CA.
He died in his hometown of Navasota in 1976, two years after suffering a stroke.
A Well Spent Life (1971). Documentary directed by Les Blank and Skip Gerson. El Cerrito, California: Flower Films. Released on video in 1979. ISBN 0-933621-09-4.
He also appeared in Blank's The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1970)
An annual Navasota Blues Festival is held in his honor, and on August 12, 2011, a bronze sculpture of him was unveiled in Mance Lipscomb Park in Navasota. The statue was sculpted by 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 "with" him.
Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976), guitarist and songster, was born to Charles and Jane Lipscomb on April 9, 1895, in the Brazos bottoms near Navasota, Texas, where he lived most of his life as a tenant farmer.
Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues.
Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries. (He likewise took exception when he was labeled a "sharecropper" instead of a "farmer."
Between 1905 and 1956 he lived in an atmosphere of exploitation, farming as a tenant for a number of landlords in and around Grimes County, including the notorious Tom Moore, subject of a local topical ballad. He left Moore's employ abruptly and went into hiding after he struck a foreman for abusing his mother and wife. Lipscomb's own rendition of "Tom Moore's Farm" was taped at his first session in 1960 but released anonymously (Arhoolie LP 1017, Texas Blues, Volume 2), presumably to protect the singer. Between 1956 and 1958 Lipscomb lived in Houston, working for a lumber company during the day and playing at night in bars where he vied for audiences with Texas blues great Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins,qv whom Lipscomb had first met in Galveston in 1938. With compensation from an on-the-job accident, he returned to Navasota and was finally able to buy some land and build a house of his own. He was working as foreman of a highway-mowing crew in Grimes County when blues researchers Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and Mack McCormick of Houston found and recorded him in 1960.
Arhoolie Records (El Cerrito, California) has released seven albums of material by Lipscomb: Mance Lipscomb: Texas Songster and Sharecropper (Arhoolie 1001); Mance Lipscomb Volume 2 (Arhoolie 1023); Mance Lipscomb Volume 3: Texas Songster in a Live Performance (Arhoolie 1026); Mance Lipscomb Volumes 4, 5, and 6 (Arhoolie 1033, 1049, and 1069); and You'll Never Find Another Man Like Mance (Arhoolie 1077). Trouble in Mind was released by Reprise (R-2012). Individual pieces are included in other anthologies.
Tom Moore's Farm
Mance Lipscomb Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ain't but the one thing, see what I done wrong
Moved my my family down on Tom Moore′s farm
Go to work in the morning, don't stop till one o'clock
Go to work in the morning, don′t stop till one o′clock
Hold back on the time Mister Tom, you can't hold back dark
Tom Moore'll tell you, got a smile or grin
Get away from the cemetery boy, keep you from the pen
Want some money, man for Christmas eve
Want some money boys, man for Christmas eve
Ask Tom or Harry, ___ some Mister Steve
Soon in the morning, baby now so soon
Soon in the morning, baby now so soon
Dog me that Mister Tom, let someone have my room
Soon in the morning then you, get your ham and egg
Soon in the morning you will, get your ham and egg
Grin that big bill you better, check that mule′s head
Done the time come you gon', get your bread and beans
Done the time come you gon′, serve your gravy and beans
Ring that bell you better, check that boiling tin
Tom Moore got way, most in a man I like
Tom Moore got way, most in a man I like
Your woman quit you, have her brought right back
The lyrics of Mance Lipscomb's song Tom Moore's Farm revolve around the struggles and hardships of a family that has just moved to Tom Moore's farm. The singer highlights his regret for moving to the farm as he is unable to see anything but the wrong that he has done. He talks about his routine of going to work in the morning and working until one o'clock. He also speaks to Tom Moore, the farm owner, asking him not to hold back on time as darkness sets in too soon.
The singer also talks about the advice Tom gives him, which is to stay away from the cemetery as it may lead him to prison. However, if he needs money, he can approach Tom or Harry or someone named Mister Steve. He also talks about his struggle for getting a room to stay in as Tom is hesitant to provide him with a place to sleep. The song ends on a note of appreciation for Tom Moore, as the singer admires his ability to manage the farm, and suggests that Tom can even bring a woman back to a man who has lost her.
Line by Line Meaning
Ain′t but the one thing, see what I done wrong
I know where I went wrong
Moved my my family down on Tom Moore′s farm
I brought my family to live on Tom Moore's farm
Go to work in the morning, don′t stop till one o′clock
I work hard from morning until one in the afternoon
Hold back on the time Mister Tom, you can't hold back dark
Tom cannot stop time and delay the sunset
Tom Moore'll tell you, got a smile or grin
Tom Moore always smiles or grins
Get away from the cemetery boy, keep you from the pen
Stay away from trouble and the cemetery to stay out of prison
Want some money boys, man for Christmas eve
I need money for Christmas
Ask Tom or Harry, ___ some Mister Steve
Ask Tom or Harry to lend me money from Mister Steve
Soon in the morning, baby now so soon
Morning will come soon
Dog me that Mister Tom, let someone have my room
Ask Tom to give someone else my room
Soon in the morning you will, get your ham and egg
You will get breakfast soon
Grin that big bill you better, check that mule′s head
Check the mule's head before you smile at your paycheck
Done the time come you gon′, serve your gravy and beans
It's time to eat gravy and beans
Ring that bell you better, check that boiling tin
Check the boiling pot before you ring the dinner bell
Tom Moore got way, most in a man I like
Tom Moore is a man I like and admire
Your woman quit you, have her brought right back
If your woman leaves you, bring her back
Writer(s): Mance Lipscomb
Contributed by Caroline T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.