Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971

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 its 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.

Track Listing

1	Mojo Hand	Lightnin' Hopkins	04:03
2	God Moves on the Water	Mance Lipscomb	02:33
3	The Clinton	Robert Shaw	02:18
4	Sugar Blues	Kid Wiggins	02:44
5	St. James Infirmary	Dudley Alexander and Washboard Band	04:16
6	Darlin' (You Know I Love You)	Cedell Davis	02:55
7	You Gonna Look Like a Monkey	Dennis Gainus	02:25
8	One Room Country Shack	Grey Ghost	03:42
9	Groceries on My Shelf (Piggly Wiggly)	Edwin "Buster" Pickens	04:26
10	3 O'Clock Blues	Hop Wilson	04:52
11	Anything from a Foot Race to a Resting Place	Jealous James Stanchell	03:11
12	Salty Dog Rag	James Tisdom	03:18
13	Goin' to the River	Gozy Kilpatrick	01:35
14	Quills	Joe Patterson	01:14
15	Ma Pa Cut the Cake	Lightnin' Hopkins	01:42
16	Crazy About Oklahoma	Otis Cook	03:12
17	Little Red Rooster	Grey Ghost	03:51
18	My Work Will Be Done	The Spiritual Light Gospel Group	03:00
19	Steel Guitar Rag	James Tisdom	01:42
20	Tall Angel at the Bar	Mance Lipscomb	03:02
21	This Whole World's in a Sad Condition	George "Bongo Joe" Coleman	08:59
22	World's in a Tangle	Lightnin' Hopkins	05:51
23	Someday Baby	Robert Shaw	05:39
24	It's Alright	CeDell Davis	03:36
25	Cryin' Won't Make Me Stay	R.C. Forest and Gozy Kilpatrick	01:54
26	China Tea	Allen Van	02:31
27	Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is	George "Bongo Joe" Coleman	03:24
28	Tom Moore's Farm	Lightnin' Hopkins	04:34
29	Tom Moore's Farm	Mance Lipscomb	04:56
30	Don't Do Me No Small Favors (Help the Bear)	Jealous James Stanchell	01:37
31	Fox Chase	Billy Bizor	02:20
32	Black Widow Spider Blues	R.C. Forest	02:03
33	Come and Go with Me to That Land	Hardy Gray	05:26
34	Rollin' and Tumblin'	CeDell Davis	03:18
35	Train Roll Up	Leroy "Country" Johnson with Edwin "Buster" Pickens	01:44
36	Shorty George	Edwin "Buster" Pickens	04:32
37	Matchbox Blues	Joel Hopkins	01:49
38	It's My Life Baby	Blues Wallace	04:16
39	Hello Central, Gimme 209	Andrew Everett	03:08
40	Bad Lee Brown	Jim Wilkie	02:33
41	Tin Can Alley Blues	R.C. Forest and Gozy Kilpatrick	02:49
42	Medicine Show Pitch	Murl "Doc" Webster	01:52
43	So Different Blues	Mance Lipscomb	02:45
44	I Feel So Good	James Tisdom	02:41
45	Mr. Charlie	Lightnin' Hopkins	04:51
46	The Ma Grinder	Edwin "Buster" Pickens	02:08
47	Deep Ellum Blues	Paul Elliott	02:37
48	K.C. Ain't Nothing but a Rag	Andrew Everett	02:00
49	Lonesome Road	Kid Wiggins	02:24
50	Old Judge Blues	Dennis Gainus	03:15
51	The Slop	Melvin "Jack" Jackson and Lightnin' Hopkins	02:24
52	Corrine, Corrina	Lightnin' Hopkins	03:20
53	Talking Blues	Jimmy Womack	01:35
54	Good Times Here, Better Times Down the Road	Joel Hopkins	03:05
55	Put Me in the Alley	Robert Shaw	02:26
56	Auctioneer	Walter Britten	00:35
57	Runaway	Hardy Gray	03:27
58	Broke and Hungry	Hop Wilson	04:14
59	Big Road Blues	Mager Johnson	03:46
60	Casey Jones	Mance Lipscomb	02:27
61	Atomic Energy	Jimmy Womack	02:15
62	Natural Born Lover	Long Gone Miles with Lightnin' Hopkins and Love Crazy	04:24
63	Swanee River Boogie	E.B. Busby	01:44
64	Rock Me Baby	Long Gone Miles	02:53
65	Blues Jumped a Rabbit	Lightnin' Hopkins	03:51
66	George Coleman for President, Nobody for Vice President	George "Bongo Joe" Coleman	03:12