Joe Turner Killed a Man - Texas Blues - Mance Lipscomb

A nice sunny day in the fall, time to put on the ol' Panama hat and do some Texas blues for my Lone Star friend Al.
Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976)was one of Texas most important bluesmen, or songster as he preferred to be called. He recorded 6 lp's for the Arhoolie label, most of them have been released on cd as well.
This song is also known as Kate Allen or Katy Adams which were Mississippi steamboats. Joe Turner, a notorious "bad man" turns up only in one verse hence the other names for this song I suppose.
It's a simple repetitive song, and those are often the finest, that creates a hypnotic effect on the listener. Great example of "less is more".
Mance plays it with a pocketknife and doesn't damp the strings behind the slide, therefore you get a lot of "authentic" string noise; I imitated this by not damping too (something I usually do as my other slidesongs show). The structure of the lyrics is not AAB like a standard blues but AB which makes is a pre-blues song.
I'm playing my old Stella and am tuned to open A.

I recorded a new version of this song on my cd "Blues and Gospel from the 78rpm era"
Available at
http://www.youtunerecords.com/daddystovepipe.html

This song is part of my lesson dvd available at
http://www.youtuberecords.com/dsp02.php

Category:

Music

Tags:

• accoustic
• guitar
• blues
• slide
• bottleneck
• mance
• libscomb
• joe
• turner
• stella
• fingerstyle
• fingerpicking
• solo
• daddystovepipe

[apmeomet]

very nice....did you tune up to suit your voice?

[daddystovepipe]

@apmeomet

yes indeed, but the higher tension gives a better sound as well; these old guitars don't take heavy strings so you get a better sound with light strings tuned up

[dwrightproducer]

Amazing!! I'm working on my slide technique at the minute. I think we all need some more mance in our lives so keep them ones coming! What is the slide you're using? Just glass?

[daddystovepipe]

Thanks dw, the slide is glass but made to fit snugly - it's a 'Diamond Bottleneck', model 'Ultimate'. The inside is tapered and gives you extra weight and better sound.

[u786812]

hey daddy, je bent gewoonweg een groots gitarist met een solide bluesstem, prachtig slidewerk, subliem geheel...exelent !!! vele groeten van kurt uit pittem, W.VL.

[daddystovepipe]

thanks Kurt, keep on slidin'

[leido159]

el sombrero de panama no es de panama es de montecristi manabi ecuador...

[Wargrin]

You know you're doing it right when you've picked up the guitaring mannerisms of your blues ancestry

[Girtattoo187]

man sweet sound i know it sounds cliche buti either use a shot glass or the neck of a jack daniels bottle to get my slide sound, really should get to the shop and buy a proper one :)

[electricladyland91]

brilliant.

[MsMedusa123]

Wow--awesome. A lot of soul. You make it look so easy because you are feelin' it. Thanks for the inspiration. :)

[qtip1064]

Great job man !

[mexicanmage]

man, you rules!!!, i'm a mexicano that loves yot're music man, you rock !!!

[fax1717]

yes yes yes... I love it.