79R2069 JTR-D


By:  Kolkhorst                                                  H.C.R. No. 24 



HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Known throughout the world as an inexhaustible 
source of every variety of American music, Texas boasts 
particularly rich reserves of the distinctive musical genre known 
as the blues; and
	WHEREAS, The community of Navasota exemplifies the Lone Star 
State's strengths in this area, combining as it does a lively 
contemporary blues scene with the birthplace of one of the great 
Texas blues artists; and
	WHEREAS, Blues aficionados are well aware that the beloved 
singer and guitarist Mance Lipscomb was born near Navasota, and 
although he was almost 65 years of age before he committed his 
distinctive performance style to a recording, his wide-ranging 
repertoire of blues, boogies, ballads, rags, dance tunes, and 
sacred music is an apt reflection of the breadth of his home state's 
musical treasures; and
	WHEREAS, Mance Lipscomb's heritage lives on in present-day 
Navasota, where the heirs to this profound musical legacy have 
created the Navasota Blues Fest; and
	WHEREAS, The Navasota Blues Fest not only brings together 
blues musicians for an annual celebration of regional music but 
also administers the Mance Lipscomb Scholarship Fund, which each 
year awards a scholarship to a deserving senior at Navasota High 
School; and
	WHEREAS, Just as Mance Lipscomb personified Texas music in 
his encyclopedic grasp of a host of musical styles, so the city of 
Navasota is a fitting representative of the richness, power, and 
variety of the Texas blues tradition; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby designate Navasota as the official Blues Capital of Texas.