The boxed set Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958 – 1971 (Smithsonian Folkways) will be available in September 2023. The 3-CD (6 vinyl LP) anthology is a remarkable assortment of unheard treasures from the vast and renowned archive of musicologist Mack McCormick. The 66-song compilation presents renowned artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, alongside lesser-known performers who might be unfamiliar even to the most ardent blues enthusiasts and scholars.
Captured in various settings, ranging from nightclubs to prison farms, these brilliant performances encapsulate a diverse array of African American musicians from the region referred to by McCormick as “Greater Texas,” encompassing Western Louisiana, East Texas, and parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Robert “Mack” McCormick, an enthusiast of the blues without formal academic training, transformed into one of its most fervent promoters and chroniclers. Through photographing Black and Hispanic Texans and their communities, as well as recording and interviewing musicians, many of whom had never set foot in a professional recording studio, McCormick endeared himself to and became an integral part of these communities.
At the time of his passing in 2015, McCormick had amassed a collection of 590 reels of audio recordings and 165 boxes of manuscripts, original interviews, research notes, thousands of photographs and negatives, playbills, and posters. As McCormick rarely published or released most of these materials, his collection gained a legendary status and sparked intense speculation among scholars, blues enthusiasts, and musicians alike.
Buy Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958 – 1971.
Author: Douglas Sanders
