Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 1958-1971
by Various Artists
Nico Fournier
Nico Fournier
Beyond description, truly seismic. The sounds of raw humanity. Prepare to cut a rug or two.
Eyresy
phono-optica
Tapemooch
Black Lodge Productions
kreasibaru
Kyn81
huntingsoundman
STAALPLAAT
Edward Dunne
joseph medrano
oldbanjo61
M.Slattery
HarriedD
13question
Bruce Bryant-Scott
pleurodont
Todd Brown
Artemis Edward
spaklava
dlp
Sebastian von Haugwitz
manko
Tom Bowden
gatheringdust
saltbagel
JackSzwergold
Tiedbelly
JazzCook
Bohemian Square
lionswithwingsfanaccount
Jeff Curtis
Nic McPhee
Dan Kletter
ese
Randall Weinstein
David Beaudouin
Robert Bach
Michael Mikesell
Lara Taubman
jschapiro
William Haworth
muditaart
photoradical
andeee
soulchap
Ewan
Andrew Elliott
scottblack345
apemilkbuddha
Judd Evans
Philip Hill
Hog Wild and Half Cocked
Jon Winge
Another Fan
J. Edward Keyes
Ryan Bruce
deltaromeohotel
Charlie Parr
alablues
John Lynch
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card
$59.99 USD or more
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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album6 LP box set in custom 12" box with 128 page book.
Includes unlimited streaming of Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 1958-1971 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 10 daysPurchasable with gift card$129.99 USD or more
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album3 CD box set in custom 12" box with CD tray and 128 page book. 2nd printing.
Includes unlimited streaming of Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 1958-1971 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 10 daysPurchasable with gift card$75.99 USD or more
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CD Box Set + Book
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album3 CD box set in custom 12" box with CD tray and 128 page book.
Includes unlimited streaming of Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 1958-1971 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Sold Out
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Joe Patterson - Quills
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Allen Van - China Tea
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Billy Bizor - Fox Chase
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Hardy Gray - Runaway
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about
CD, LP, AND DIGITAL RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 4, 2023
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.
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.
credits
released August 4, 2023
Producer - Jeff Place
Producer - John W. Troutman
Liner Notes - Jeff Place
Liner Notes - John W. Troutman
Recorder - Robert "Mack" McCormick
Mastering Engineer - Charlie Pilzer, Tonal Park Studio
Liner Notes Editor - James Deutsch
Designer - Visual Dialogue
Producer - Jeff Place
Producer - John W. Troutman
Liner Notes - Jeff Place
Liner Notes - John W. Troutman
Recorder - Robert "Mack" McCormick
Mastering Engineer - Charlie Pilzer, Tonal Park Studio
Liner Notes Editor - James Deutsch
Designer - Visual Dialogue
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Washington, D.C.
discography
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May 2024 -
Apr 2024 -
Mar 2024 -
Jan 2024
contact / help
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