Various - Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 58–71

In the 1950s and 60s, the blues was the dominant form of Black vernacular music throughout Texas andthe 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 ofthe 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 andinterviewing musicians-many of whom never stepped foot into a proper recording studio-McCormickendeared 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 thingof 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 isthe first compilation of music drawn from this fabled collection, which indelibly documents a pivotalmoment in African American history. It features never-before-heard performances not only frommusicians who became icons in their own right-including Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb-butalso, crucially, performers whose names may be unfamiliar to even the most devoted blues fans andscholars. Newly mastered recordings and accompanying photographs bring to life many of theseforgotten figures: offering insight into their lives and illuminating in new, enlightening ways their joysand anguish, deep social connections, distinctive voices, and cultural networks. The collection spansgospels, ragtime, country blues dirges, the unclassifiable music of George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, andmore, showing that no community, no matter how tight knit, is monolithic.Accompanying the music is a 128-page book, which contains breathtaking photographs by McCormickand his associates, as well as contextual essays by producers Jeff Place and John Troutman onMcCormick's life, and by musicians Mark Puryear and Dom Flemons on some of the marginalizedcommunities throughout "Greater Texas" to which McCormick devoted his life's work. This release is apartnership with the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Track List:

Disc: 1

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