Rocks and Gravel - Acoustic Fingerpicking Blues - Mance Lipscomb

Time for another song after that avalanche of lessons.
Mance Lipscomb recorded this song on an extremely rare lp called 'Trouble In Mind'. Author and researcher Mack McCormick was able to convince Liberty (Frank Sinatra's label) to record Mance shortly after his discovery in the early 60ies. The lp flopped and soon found its way to the cutout bins. Luckily it was reissued on cd with additional tracks recently and is well worth having.
Mance must have been intimidated by his first encounter with a recording studio as he did 6 takes...

The song is played in the key of E and has a mesmerising accompaniment and a very original, unusual guitar solo, it shows what a great talent Mance Lipscomb was.
Steve James does also a great version of this song on one of his early cd's.

John Miller teaches this song in his Texas Blues dvd (guitarworkshop.com) and although John is a great teacher I found his approach to this song too detailed. It is so that Mance plays (I believe unintentionally - the number of takes supports this) many variations in the bassline and it's impossible (boring) to learn all these, therefore I made my own arrangement with a more straightforward structure.

I uploaded two lessons about this song with free tablature
Link to the lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ_wCEKet9Y

Link to the FREE TABLATURE
http://www.daddystovepipe.com


John Jackson also did a version but more in the style of Blind Lemon Jefferson and in the key of A.
Here's the link to a great version by Danny Ward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1e0fzXvPDQ

I'm playing a cheap old Supertone from the 20ies

Category:

Music

Tags:

• acoustic
• fingerpicking
• texas
• blues
• dead
• thumb
• monotonic
• bass
• mance
• lipscomb
• daddystovepipe
• lesson
• free
• tab
• tablature

[dan670844]

Amazing playing have been watching your mandolin playing too. A question I am a bass player but love the blues. The guitar you are playing what make is it? really looking for an acoustic with a thick neck, everything i have tried the neck are way to thin for my hands.

[daddystovepipe]

@dan670844

thanks dan

I'm playing an 1927 Supertone - in those days guitars didn't have a truss rod in the neck - that's why they made the necks heavier/chunkier to withstand the pull...some people say : "baseball bat size"...you can find these guitars on evilbay...sometimes at good prices.

[ProfScratchy]

Love the bit at 1.57! As usual a fine authentic performance, Daddy S, even if you aren't wearing a bandage on your picking hand:)

[daddystovepipe]

@ProfScratchy

thanks prof, thought about the bandage but that would be too much schtick I suppose ;-)

[YTimshel]

Daddy ça fait longtemps que tu ne nous as pas fait partager des morceaux jazz de type "Cry me a river", "Manoir de mes rêves", "A little love". Je le regrette un peu !

[daddystovepipe]

Je comprends mais j'aime si beaucoup de genres.....musicalement je voyage en cercles et le jazz reviendrai...soyez patient ;-)

[guitarbluz62]

Very Nice Job! I learned a version of this song about 10 yrs ago taught by Steve James at the IGS in Seattle. Similar to yours, only with alternating bass lines throughout. Mance's music doesn't get the exposure like Mississippi John Hurt and other blues greats, but he's one of the best. Thanks for sharing!

[KrisLaybourn]

This is the one I like the most! all your vid's are topper!!! but here you sound likes mance's brother! take care.

[trapperjohn80]

@dan670844 Washburn now makes a "vintage" parlor that has a 1.9 inch neck. Apart from being sort of ugly, they do possess the thumpy sound of pre-war era parlors.

[sherrillwallace]

Amazing display of talent! Just great. Sherrill

[JohnnyReb2009]

Fingerpicking and singing is just perfect. Never heard of the guy before, but he is an excellent bluesman.

[baboxe]

Comme toujours : excellent, sympa, cool : bref tout est là. merci Daddy !!!

[SUNNYD3322]

what a powerful voice you've got!!!5*****.