Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings CD

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.

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