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Mississippi John Hurt

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"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1892 There is confusion about his date of birth, but the [grave] mentions this date., Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an influential blues singer and guitarist.

Mississippi John Hurt (left) and Skip James
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Mississippi John Hurt (left) and Skip James

Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. In 1923 he often partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour (Carroll County Blues) as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. When Narmour got a chance to record for OKeh Records in reward for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, Narmour recommended John Hurt to OKeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in Memphis and New York City (See Discography below). The "Mississippi" tag was added by OKeh as a sales gimmick. After the commercial failure of the resulting disc and OKeh records going out of business during the depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances.

In 1963, however, a folk musicologist named Tom Hoskins, inspired by the recordings, was able to locate Tom Hoskins was able to find Mississippi John Hurt after listening to the lyrics of Avalon and realising it was written about a place called Avalon. Unable to find Avalon on a recent map, Hoskins searched older and older maps and eventually found it on an atlas from 1878 between Greenwood and Grenada. John Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi. In fact, in an early recording, Hurt sang of "Avalon, my home". With his guitar playing skills still intact, Hoskins encouraged Hurt to move to Washington, DC and begin performing on a wider stage. Whereas his first releases had coincided with the Great Depression, his new career could hardly have been better timed. A stellar performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new "folk revival" audience, and before his death in 1966 he played extensively in colleges, concert halls, coffee houses and even the Johnny Carson Tonight Show, as well as recording three further albums for Vanguard Records. John Hurt's influence spans several music genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which remained a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music to the end.

Contents

Media

Discography

Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 OKEH Recordings (Columbia Roots N' Blues reissue)

Last Sessions - 1966 (Vanguard) Mississippi John Hurt 1928 Sessions (Yazoo 1065, Yazoo Records) Side 1 Side 2
Worried Blues (Piedmont PLP 13161, Piedmont Records)

Side 1

Side 2 Mississippi John Hurt Today (VSD-79220, Vanguard Records)

Side 1

Side 2 Mississippi John Hurt Last Sessions (VSD-79327, Vanguard Records)

Side 1

Side 2 The Best of Mississippi John Hurt (VSD-19/20, Vanguard Records) Recorded live at Oberlin College April 15, 1965

Side 1

Side 2 Side 1 Side 2 The Candy Man (QS 5042, Quicksilver Records)

Side 1

Side 2 Volume One of a Legacy (CLPS 1068, Piedmont Records)

Side 1

Side 2 Folk Songs and Blues (PLP 13757, Piedmont Records)

Side 1

Side 2

Notes

External links

 

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