Take Me Back and Goin' Down Slow by Mance Lipscomb:

[@tiomono]

I played the guitar with this genius in 1973 while I was going to school in Brenham, Texas. He didn't have anybody to play with and I was available even though I wasn't a good guitar player but he taught me how to strum the guitar and we did it so well. He was a beautiful human being.

[@howlingsandy]

I played drums with him in 1969. He knew 3000 songs.

[@JayPFrancis]

He had the best shirts. We’d go shopping in little Texas towns for what we called Mance Lipscomb shirts.

[@captainhowdy8885]

I thought I was the only one that felt this way lol. The man always had firme style. RIP Mance

[@JCSAXON]

You’re cracking me up because whenever I think of him, I recall his fly shirts. I wish I had ‘em to this day

[@dennymk6454]

Mance was one of the last, if not the last, true Texas Songsters from the old days. Big repertoire of songs, and amazing ability. Great to hear this wonderful performance.

[@michaelfromaustin]

Saw him a half dozen times. Talked to him twice. He was a sweet, gentle person. My great uncle and grandpa went away to fight the Kaiser in the same local draft as Mance. Mance sings "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" on one of his albums.

[@StanIsbell]

Mance played a set or two back in 1964 when I was a middle school teen at Iola, Tx. It was a talent show in a small Tx town school. I played in a Kingston Trio group with two friends. I was so blown away by Mance's fretworks!!

[@richardcarlson2798]

It was my pleasure to be introduced to Mance in his sharecropper’s shack where he lived in the backcountry of Texas. This was in 1973, and John Lomax Jr., with whom I worked, took me there, bringing along a gift for Mance. He complained that his songs were stolen by white performers without giving him credit or cash. This is true. His birthday today.

[@57stratkat]

I met a guitar player in Austin many years ago who played a Guild 12 string. He told me that when he was a teenager, he sought out Lipscomb and played for him on his front porch. The guy said he crammed every lick he had ever learned into a hurried blur, thinking it was all about playing fast. When he finished, Mance sat there for a minute, then said, "well.......that was a whole lotta notes!" The guy ( I wish I could remember his name) said he learned a valuable lesson that day - slow down and choose your notes ie. sometimes less is more.

[@kurt5127]

And it was the beginning of an amazing friendship in which Mance patiently taught me his music and the importance of being the best that I can be. As he put it, "When you play your own music, you the best in the world at it." When I replied that his music was better than my music, he laughed and proceeded to teach me over several years how to play his...with feeling. I loved him so much.

[@buckeichler1]

what talent! Such a small crowd. I once went into a bar late on a Sunday night called Jack & Jills Inferno in East Portland. Think it was 1972. There weren't even 10 people there. I looked at the singer. Couldn't believe it. Big Mama Thornton.

[@DriftinDoug]

East Portland, what state?

[@DannyBoyPhelan]

It is hard to find a video with 182 likes and 0 dislikes. This is proof that you are listening to something with substance.

[@loonyranger]

The 'Texas Songster'. .......an absolute legend.

[@juiellineau]

I really love his vocal ability. one of the best I've ever heard, always bang on the right note. Always hits the sweet note.

[@indiegemsthatjam3986]

He works those simple inflections as if he's bending strings ... I've really hooked into and appreciated his vocal style on Shake, Shake Mama

[@jamesderoc6717]

brilliant in every way, his playing is spot on too.

[@reddwing4368]

The old High n lonesome

[@antonmikofsky2073]

I had the privilege of attending a full concert by Mance at Oberlin.

[@patemmert2672]

That stiff audience! Bless his sweet heart and gifted soul.

[@SirCoughsalot]

They do seem a bit stiff, but I've been in situations where the "stiff" crowd is just listening.

[@lindaparker3492]

Related to him. So happy to find out we are family. Probably a distant cousin. But still family

[@glenrobinson916]

Yes, vocal and guitar both, he’s got it, so nice to hear.

[@CliftonHicksbanjo]

I would like to see Mance play in a smokey dance hall full of black folks who'd had a few drinks!

[@jesterruth1238]

Exactly

[@CrossBonesAlex]

One of the very first Country Blues Guitarists I have heard - and sure one of the very best

[@billzl1326]

Wow he was great. I wish he was around now, we need that music back.

[@tfdybala]

Nice stuff. I just met the mother of this man's grandson. She says he likes to sing, too.

[@loveandpees]

Completely agree Gonzotoo. This was the 60s after all. Listening quietly was what you did and, if you go into any acoustic folk/blues club today, that's exactly what they're still doing. Nothing wrong with that..

[@BlindWillieJackson]

started listening to Mance when I was 19 (in 1986). It began when I bought Exile on Main Street when i was 17 & started working my way backwards to the blues. I moved to Dallas after college and immersed myself into Texas Blues. Good times! My favorite Mance song is "Tom Moore Blues". It's kind of autobiographical. Also, check out Jimmie Vaughan's "Little Son, Big Son". His playing has a heavy Mance influence. Both are on KZbin and my channel.

[@TheBluesmanBlue]

Texas Blues Man mr. Mance Lipscomb the best at Country Blues 👏👏👏👏👏

[@alanoffer]

A friend of mine just went through the town mance was born in in Texas, and they have a statue to him ,I can imagine his fathers wry smile if he came back to life and saw it

[@paulkersey1007]

The Texas dead thumb style of play died when Mance passed on. No one plays like him and no one ever will again.

[@jeeperforlife]

Hot damn. I cant even imagine what itd feel like to sit and watch Mance play

[@jimvardaman6850]

It has been a while, but as I remember, Kenny was going to take Mance back home to Navasota from Bryan, and some of us gathered at Kenny's house before Mance was taken home. I sat on the floor in the livingroom. The guitar "sings" when someone like him plays it. You really notice a difference. It is alive. I think it was the Fall of 1973 or possibly early 1974. Ed

[@jmacbops]

I appreciate that the audience pays attention and listens rather than blabbing the whole time. The applause suggests they like him. But I don't understand why they look like they had just been told there was a mandatory body cavity search before they could leave. Is there a tax on smiling there? What a treat to see Mance in a setting like that.

[@ennbee2051]

LOL. Tax on smiling! Stop it! You're killing me!!🤣🤣

[@ryangunwitch-black]

I can’t believe nobody has their phone out. 😂

[@knowmusicman157]

piedmont style. pure Texas blues man.

[@doggeds]

you can buy the dvd online from amazon or stefan grossman's guitar workshop , " mance lipscomb in concert". I love mance. shame there isn't more footage of him though

[@friendofbeaver6636]

Thanks GtrWorkShp! I haven't seen this before. Mance's guitar accompanies his expressive vocals perfectly.

Bravo Monsieur Mance Lipscomb! Bravo également au caméraman qui à saisi ces clichés et ces moments dans le public! Bravo au monteur, qui nous fait partager ce moment avec un regard aiguisé! Michel (France)

[@SaumBodhi]

What a lively bunch in the crowd. Good times!

[@robertbarrett6267]

Yeah - bunch of zombies

[@Yeehaw019]

Man, what an awesome song * 🎶

[@ELVIS4221]

Would love to hear, "I'm looking for my Jesus". Best song he ever did.

[@Birdman6569]

I also love Mance... I had a similar experience. I presented a short play I wrote and directed to acclaim elsewhere to a class I took (for credit). It was 8:00 Am and we got the same response. God I wish I were there... I would have been yelling and clapping!

[@johnbishop3370]

Truly one of the Blues Masters

[@howlingsandy]

I played drums for Mance Lipscomb in Oakland CA in 1968, or maybe early 1969, just us playing a lot of songs. In the audience (and on the bill, were Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, who I had also played drums for, earlier, and then later. Mance asked me to stay on stage to back him on drums. In the small club, the audience included those I've mentioned plus KC Douglas, who Brownie noticed, saying "Hey, There's K.C.!" then him up to do about eight songs. The guy who'd been putting on the Berkeley Folk Festival came up to ask me who K.C. was. When I told him, he said he was going to ask him to take part in the upcoming event (though I don't think KC played that, I'm not sure). Later, outside, Mance and I discussed the possibility of my moving to Navasota TX where he'd teach me guitar. He mentioned that it was so small a town "you can stand in the center and piss in any direction and have it land outside the city limits." ~sgs©

[@antonmikofsky2073]

Love your reminiscence. I met him at the Oberlin concert.

[@texasgina]

Awesome! I'm in San Antonio. Lots of great musicians come from Texas. I grew up in Southern California and I went to the clubs in Hollywood. I miss being young

[@texasgina]

Thanks for your story. Sounds like you had some great times with Mance

[@QB1phs71]

Great story to be able to share. Thanks!]

[@eX.Myzery]

mance is and was amazing.

[@Thunderwoods12]

awesome time capsule, I love the audiance.. Daddy Mance.. Texas County Blues.. sweet!

[@mikeglinsky1356]

Amazing.!! The sound he gets out of that old Harmony is amazing!!!

[@timothylewis2450]

I received a Stella Harmony for my 11th birthday in 1972. Though my playing isn’t much better now, I still have that guitar. 😊

[@johnmitchelljr]

If you had a heart you loved Mr. Lipscomb. We can't always pick our audiences, good comments. Thank you very much.

[@nico19611]

his warm sound is unique

[@kinghendrixx]

it's so good .I like the Lightnin' Hopkins version too.

[@BrainDamageComedy]

greatness

[@TheElsadogge]

I am proud to be a fellow Texan!

[@rockancestor]

sweet sweet blues. you should upload the full concert

[@youmaus]

Among this man's claims to fame, when he was in his early teens he was the buggy driver of Frank "Poncho" Hames the legendary Texas Ranger that hunted down Bonney and Clyde...Frank loved his music and encouraged him to perform in public more often.

[@akosmetatos8106]

The Rangers was Hamer pronounced (Haymer) a very famous Texas Ranger was was friends with Zane Grey and many think Frank was the model for the Lone Ranger.

[@Samrockon]

leur face sont épic!!!!!

[@khalidswadi8197]

❤from IRAQ

[@fletchsrv]

Think they should have opened up the bar for free drinks to liven up this crowd of stuffed zombies - seen happier faces being dragged to the gallows

[@dylanhaleyyou]

well put! ha ha.

[@jpljpl2791]

that's Austin PBS (KLRU) 1969...academic hippy marxists are a barrel of laughs

[@catdaddy3302]

Typical white blues scholars. 😹😹

[@danielm4114]

@@catdaddy3302 Too busy studyin' the blues to live 'em...shame

[@paulkersey1007]

So this was a crowd in England. Unlike fans in the United States, they don't go crazy. The crowd back then will respectfully let the artist play and then react.

[@DriftinDoug]

Closest style to Miss. John I've ever heard. Both these guys' styles are mysteriously completely different from other Mississippi or Texas singers'.

[@captain_unnameable]

awesome

[@ricktemmen6272]

When they panned to the audience I thought I was watching a hostage tape. Great Blues though. 👍

[@nathanielrossi9659]

I laughed too hard at your comment

[@malachijames]

Dw, they're just high

[@rikantony6571]

if you look close colonel saunders is in the audience

[@homedepot20car]

He was so so so fucking good!!!!

[@juniormcfadden]

Anyone got a recording of Mance Lipscombe playing 'Blues in G' ? It's a great guitar number.

[@antonmikofsky2073]

One of the squares is smoking a cigarette in the middle of "Going Down Slow." (!!) If that isn't enough, Mance coughed!

[@chirfu]

Hey at 4:27 Kernal Saunders is in the audience... Great songs.

[@Enternology]

what i wouldn't give for a look at his hands while he's playing that first song...

[@sm1164]

The audience is amazingly blank. I think they really felt the presence of the camera -- self-consciousness.

[@CKANE1952]

Mance Lipscomb: Live from Madame Tussaud's

[@kieselsteinchen9795]

yeah ;)

[@11spike7]

The audience be hip-mo-tized!!!

[@tonyfreeman1339]

One of the few songs Duane Allman sang

[@BrainDamageComedy]

👍

[@OdySlim]

If I was only have as good

[@mandomonica]

Geez liven up people! It would have been hard to play for an audience of stones.

[@innocentoctave]

TV performance from 1969. Mance Lipscomb is 74 here. He would die five years later. The audience is a typical one for 'rediscovered' black blues artists at the time: all white, and excessively respectful - almost frightened to breathe.

[@qrptedmac]

These 60's directors were stoned also. I mean could we see him play for Christ sake

[@EquiNoxM]

Ted Mac yeah dude on a lightning Hopkins show they just zoomed in on his gold teeth lol.

[@andrebalian]

Yes, thank you for saying it. FFS, let me see both his hands playing the goddamn guitar already.

[@1975gtb]

Mr. Lipscomb's cough at 3:14 shows his appreciation for that white boy's smoking. I bet that boy felt bad that he might've caused this musician (who was singing and playing for him) to cough!

[@thomasostman8589]

if i sat there he would go free...

[@jeeperforlife]

Damnit...i keep hittin the wrong thumb...sry man im with you. I would not tolerate anyone disturbing me during Mances performance

[@issac503]

only two songs?

[@thomasostman8589]

looks like hes playin for the witnesses for his execution or something......Great though,

[@mikeglinsky1356]

HAHAHA! I was thinking the same thing!

[@tripp8833]

I know. I would be rocking out if I were them...

[@Bruno-ti3fe]

minute 1:18 ...

[@NevadaPic]

Local sheriffs must have been standing outside of camera range with loaded shotguns. What a bizarre spectacle! I would have been jumpin' and shoutin'...

[@dirklongest]

the crowed is fantastic... dwl

[@ennbee2051]

1:17 who let the serial killer in? And is that Mark Chapman sat behind him?

[@scottw7606]

1:17

[@stoelefj]

Ps I like the shirt! (And like all blues men, he cough in the middle of a song! =))

[@willstone7451]

Those weird mannequins look like they are going to interview him for a janitor job.

[@LeadHopkins]

What's frustrating about videos like this is seeing the empty chairs.

[@raymondabella2289]

6 dislikes from 6 joe bonamassa, so called hardcore blues fans.

[@cooloutac]

the audience gives me nightmares. I think manson is in the front row.

[@JBurrows15]

1:17 'We don't take kindly to your types around here...'

[@nathanielrossi9659]

BROOO hahaha

[@APPAREIL365]

3:10 Too much smoke in the room... makes you cough.

[@oconnor1951]

I swear that there are some arschlochs who live on the Death Star as it travels through the Black Holes in the Dark Web that just cruise YT to rage with thumbs down on anything that others like. I could just spit!

[@MrLeadbelly]

fuck me Mance is wearing my dads pyjamas!!! also the audience only applause when he has finshed!

[@herveallaire1570]

up to the level of Big Bill to the least !

[@indiegemsthatjam3986]

My two favorites ...

[@christaylor2070]

Mance is every bit as good as Rev Gary Davis or Mississippi John Hurt but never quite achieved that 'legendary guitar picker' status. I don't know why that is.😉

[@snicky58]

I have this video, and I can hardly stand to watch it because of the bizarre, Night of the Living Dead-looking audience. WTF was wrong with them? Wish I could have been in that audience.

[@etheangel2220]

at 1:17 is the serial killer who killed all those audience members

[@jeeperforlife]

Yea I wouldve just been sitting there trying to figure out how the hell he does that...as usual

[@qrptedmac]

Audience looks stoned

[@joshshuffman]

it had to have freaked him out to have those people out there like zombies. he was used to playing in whorehouses for the drunk and disorderly. that was my first impression... it's dance music-what's the matter with these people?

[@NormanMac]

@sheilapatrick1 Yes I thought they were intently into it. All the more interssting that it seems a white audience

[@svidrigajlov]

whats up with those guys at 1:02 ? ? ? looks like they are dead

[@seedogreed]

Jesus, yes, terrible ! But then again, it's been long time ago, people change

[@meekhokum]

Tough crowd tonight...

[@brucebenjamin630]

Put out that goddam cigarette, man...

[@murf751]

@mojokiss why are u hatin on his fans? gheez man knock it off. The only racism is from you!

[@thomasostman8589]

the parole-board possibly..

[@murf751]

@belikewater001 This is like 1960. Excuse the audience for not being black enough or cool enough. Maybe... just maybe they were fans of Manse, and you are hatin on them. What a crock!

[@vjacksstacks5150]

"..television concert recorded in Texas for KLRU TV in 1969."