Customer Reviews

Masters of the Country Blues - Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin' Hopkins

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4 star:		(1)
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This video has clear sound and excellent black and white images of these country blues legends singing and talking at home and around their home towns in their later years. It is a very professional documentary. I f you are interested in the history of the blues and learning pickin' styles you will be very satisfied with this one!

I fell in love with this genre (i.e., blues) about 5 yrs ago and amongst the various blues artists, Hopkins' and Manscomb's music were the ones that hit the right chord within me.

Watching this DVD is very exciting for me thus, as I've been listening to these guys for a long time now but have not seen till now how they perform their music.

The DVD is very well made. The soundtrack is monoaural though, and certainly not of high fidelity, as the original material came from an old [1969?] performance for the Seattle Folk Society, in a session that was shot in what looks like a bare studio.

The beauty of the performances lie therein though, in the "primitiveness" of the material. It sure is fun to watch Lipscomb singing/playing with minimum bodily movements, as compared to the more animated and lively Hopkins.

My only negative comment is that there's not much story-telling that Hopkins made in between or before the songs, which stories are usually as interesting to hear as the songs themselves.

Just the same, on the overall this is a must-see for all fans of Texas blues.

The list of tracks are as follows:

Mance Lipscomb [born 1895]

1. [Taj Mahal Introduction]
2. Sugar Babe
3. Ella Speed
4. Can I Do Something For You
5. Baby Please Don't Go
6. Shine On Harvest Moon
7. You've Got To See Mama Every Night
8. Goin' Down Slow
9. Night Time Is The Right Time
10. Jack O' Diamonds

Lightin' Hopkins [born 1912]

11. [Taj Mahal Introduction]
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. Take Me Back
14. Hurricane Beulah
15. Mojo Hand
16. Baby Come Home With Me
17. Baby Scratch My Back

Total run time - appx. 45 min.

The Mance Lipscomb songs, especially "Sugar Babe" and "Ella Speed", are the highlights of this dvd. Lightnin' Hopkins set is very good until the last two songs, which are just mediocre Lightnin'. Sometimes the man produced great recordings; most of his stuff from the late 1940s and early 1950s is great. His Blues Revival-era stuff, which is when this footage is from, is a mixed bag. This dvd originally came out in 1991 according to the copyright at the end of the program, but it seems as if the sound hasn't been touched up very well. This may be due to limitations based on the way these performances were recorded. There's really no need to have Taj Mahal host the dvd if he's just going to read off of cue cards or a teleprompter. At any rate, this is a very good Blues and Pre-Blues music dvd that is certainly worth owning.

Run time is 45 minutes of actual performances:

Mance Lipscomb [born 1895]

1. [Taj Mahal Introduction]
2. Sugar Babe
3. Ella Speed
4. Can I Do Something For You
5. Baby Please Don't Go
6. Shine On Harvest Moon
7. You've Got To See Mama Every Night
8. Goin' Down Slow
9. Night Time Is The Right Time
10. Jack O' Diamonds

Lightin' Hopkins [born 1912]

11. [Taj Mahal Introduction]
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. Take Me Back
14. Hurricane Beulah
15. Mojo Hand
16. Baby Come Home With Me
17. Baby Scratch My Back

This is a must for olde time country blues fans...ala 'acoustic blues'

On a secondary note I much prefer the acoustic blues of men like these and Blind Lemon, Son House, etc over the electric blues of most blues performers. Ah, and before the wanna be's came around from most notably from England and stole the style and sound never to really give anything back except a passing credit in interviews to legitimize them as "blues men".