American country blues singer and guitarist
Musical artist
John Smith Hurt
(March 8, 1893
[1]
[nb 1]
? November 2, 1966), known as
Mississippi John Hurt
, was an American
country blues
singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
[3]
Hurt was raised in
Avalon, Mississippi
and taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He worked as a
sharecropper
and began playing at dances and parties, singing to a melodious
fingerpicked
accompaniment.
[4]
His first recordings, made for
Okeh Records
in 1928, were commercial failures, and he continued to work as a farmer.
Dick Spottswood
and Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, located Hurt in 1963 and persuaded him to move to Washington, D.C.
[5]
He was recorded by the
Library of Congress
in 1964. This helped further the
American folk music revival
, which led to the rediscovery of many other
bluesmen
of Hurt's era. Hurt performed on the university and coffeehouse concert circuit with other
Delta blues musicians
who were brought out of retirement. He also recorded several albums for
Vanguard Records
.
Hurt returned to
Grenada, Mississippi
, in 1966, where he died at the age of 73.
Material recorded by Hurt
has been re-released by several record labels. His songs have been recorded by
Bob Dylan
,
Dave Van Ronk
,
Jerry Garcia
,
Beck
,
Doc Watson
,
John McCutcheon
,
Taj Mahal
,
Bruce Cockburn
,
David Johansen
,
Bill Morrissey
,
Gillian Welch
,
The Be Good Tanyas
,
Josh Ritter
,
Chris Smither
,
Guthrie Thomas
,
Parsonsfield
, and
Rory Block
.
[6]
Biography
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
Hurt was born in
Teoc
,
[7]
Carroll County, Mississippi
, and raised in
Avalon, Mississippi
. He taught himself to play guitar at the age of nine, stealthily playing the guitar of William Henry Carson, a friend of his mother, Mary Jane, who often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a woman who lived nearby.
[8]
As a youth, he played
old-time music
for friends and at dances. He worked as a farmhand and
sharecropper
into the 1920s.
[9]
Hurt's fast, highly
syncopated
style of playing was meant for dancing. On occasion, a
medicine show
came through the area. Hurt recalled that one wanted to hire him: "One of them wanted me, but I said no because I just never wanted to get away from home."
[7]
In 1923, he played with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for Narmour's regular partner, Shell Smith.
[9]
First recordings
[
edit
]
When Narmour got a chance to record for
Okeh Records
as a prize for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, he recommended Hurt to Okeh producer Tommy Rockwell.
[10]
After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, Hurt took part in two recording sessions, in
Memphis
and New York City.
[9]
While in Memphis, he recalled seeing "many, many blues singers ...
Lonnie Johnson
,
Blind Lemon Jefferson
,
Bessie Smith
, and lots, lots more."
[7]
Hurt described his first recording session:
... a great big hall with only the three of us in it: me, the man [Rockwell], and the engineer. It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after.
[7]
Hurt attempted further negotiations with Okeh to record again, but his records were commercial failures. Okeh went out of business during the
Great Depression
, and Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing at local parties and dances.
[4]
Rediscovery and death
[
edit
]
Hurt's renditions of "
Frankie
" and "
Spike Driver Blues
" were included in
The Anthology of American Folk Music
in 1952 which generated considerable interest in locating him.
[11]
When a copy of "Avalon Blues" was discovered in 1963, it led
musicologist
Dick Spottswood
to locate Avalon, Mississippi, in an
atlas
, and ask Tom Hoskins, who was traveling that way, to enquire after Hurt.
[5]
[12]
Avalon, my home town, always on my mind / Avalon, my home town.
?
Mississippi John Hurt,
"Avalon Blues"
Upon locating Hurt, Hoskins persuaded him to perform several songs, to ensure that he was genuine.
[11]
Hoskins was convinced and, seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and perform for a broader audience. Early in 1963 Hurt recorded an album,
Folk Songs And Blues
, that was released in August 1963 through
Piedmont Records
.
[13]
His performance at the 1963
Newport Folk Festival
caused his star to rise in the
folk revival
occurring at that time.
[4]
Soon after, in 1964, he recorded live for radio in Massachusetts with
Skip James
.
[14]
[15]
For a few short years, Hurt performed extensively at colleges, concert halls, and coffeehouses and appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
. He also recorded three albums for
Vanguard Records
.
[4]
Much of his repertoire was also recorded for the
Library of Congress
. His fans particularly liked the
ragtime
songs "
Salty Dog
" and "Candy Man" and the blues
ballads
"Spike Driver Blues" (a variant of "John Henry") and "Frankie".
[4]
Hurt's influence spanned several music genres, including blues, spirituals,
country
,
bluegrass
, folk, and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which consisted of a mellow mix of country, blues, and old-time music.
[9]
Hurt died of a heart attack on November 2, 1966, at a hospital in
Grenada, Mississippi
.
[1]
His last recordings had been done at a hotel in New York City in February and July of that year but were not released until 1972 on the Vanguard LP
Last Sessions
.
[16]
Style
[
edit
]
Hurt used a fast, syncopated fingerpicking style of guitar playing that he taught himself. He was influenced by few other musicians, among whom was Rufus Hanks, an elderly, unrecorded blues singer from the area where he lived, who played
twelve-string guitar
and harmonica.
[7]
According to the music critic
Robert Christgau
, "the school of
John Fahey
proceeded from his finger-picking, and while he's not the only quietly conversational singer in the modern folk tradition, no one else has talked the blues with such delicacy or restraint."
[17]
Tributes
[
edit
]
There was a memorial and museum dedicated to Hurt in Avalon, Mississippi, parallel to RR2, the rural road on which he grew up. On February 20, 2024, it was destroyed in a fire the day after being made a National Landmark. Arson is not suspected.
[18]
The singer-songwriter
Tom Paxton
, who met Hurt and played on the same bill with him at the
Gaslight
in
Greenwich Village
around 1963, wrote and recorded a song about him in 1977, "Did You Hear John Hurt?".
[19]
The first track of
John Fahey
's 1968 solo acoustic guitar album
Requia
is "Requiem for John Hurt". Fahey's posthumous live album,
The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick
, also features a version of the piece, entitled "Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt".
Norman Greenbaum
's eclectic minor hit, "Gondoliers, Shakespeares, Overseers, Playboys And Bums" refers to Mississippi John Hurt singing the blues.
[20]
The British folk and blues artist
Wizz Jones
recorded a tribute song, "Mississippi John", for his 1977 album
Magical Flight
.
The Delta blues artist
Rory Block
recorded the album
Avalon: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt
, released in 2013 as part of her "Mentor Series".
[6]
The New England singer-songwriter Bill Morrissey released the Grammy-nominated album
Songs of Mississippi John Hurt
in 1999.
In 2017, Hurt's life story was told in the documentary series
American Epic
.
[21]
The film featured footage of Hurt performing and being interviewed,
[22]
[23]
and improved restorations of his 1920s recordings.
[24]
[25]
Director
Bernard MacMahon
stated that Hurt "was the inspiration for
American Epic
".
[23]
Hurt's life was profiled in the accompanying book,
American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself
.
[26]
In 2023,
Rolling Stone
ranked Hurt at number 159 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
[27]
Discography
[
edit
]
This section was compiled from three sources.
[28]
[29]
[30]
78-rpm releases
[
edit
]
- "
Frankie
" / "Nobody's Dirty Business" (
Okeh Records
, Okeh 8560), 1928
- "
Stack O' Lee
" / "Candy Man Blues" (Okeh Records, OKeh 8654), 1928
- "Blessed Be the Name" / "Praying on the Old Camp Ground" (Okeh Records, OKeh 8666), 1928
- "Blue Harvest Blues" / "
Spike Driver Blues
" (Okeh Records, OKeh 8692), 1928
- "Louis Collins" / "Got the Blues (Can't Be Satisfied)" (Okeh Records, OKeh 8724), 1928
- "
Ain't No Tellin'
" / "Avalon Blues" (Okeh Records, OKeh 8759), 1928
Albums
[
edit
]
- Folk Songs and Blues
(
Piedmont Records
, PLP 13157), 1963
- Worried Blues,
live recordings (Piedmont Records, PLP 13161), 1964
- Today!
(
Vanguard Records
, VSD-79220), 1966
- The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt
(Vanguard Records, VSD-79248), 1967
- The Best of Mississippi John Hurt
, live recording from Oberlin College, April 15, 1965 (Vanguard Records, VSD-19/20), 1970
- Last Sessions
(Vanguard Records, VSD-79327), 1972
- Volume One of a Legacy
, live recordings (Piedmont Records, CLPS 1068), 1975
- Monday Morning Blues: The Library of Congress Recordings
, vol. 1 (
Flyright Records
, FLYLP 553), 1980
- Avalon Blues: The Library of Congress Recordings
, vol. 2 (Heritage Records, HT-301), 1982
- Satisfied
, live recordings (Quicksilver Intermedia, QS 5007), 1982
- The Candy Man
, live recordings (Quicksilver Intermedia, QS 5042), 1982
- Sacred and Secular: The Library of Congress Recordings
, vol. 3 (Heritage Records, HT-320), 1988
- Avalon Blues
(Flyright Records, FLYCD 06), 1989
- Memorial Anthology
, live recordings (Genes Records, GCD 9906/7), 1993
Selected compilation albums
[
edit
]
- The Original 1928 Recordings
(Spokane Records, SPL 1001), 1971
- 1928: Stack O' Lee Blues ? His First Recordings
(
Biograph Records
, BLP C4), 1972
- 1928 Sessions
(
Yazoo Records
, L 1065), 1979
- Satisfying Blues
(
Collectables Records
, VCL 5529), 1995
- Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
(
Columbia Records
, CK64986), 1996
- Rediscovered
(Vanguard Records, CD 79519), 1998
- The Complete Recordings
(Vanguard Records, CD 70181?2), 1998
- Candy Man Blues: The Complete 1928 Sessions
(
Snapper Music
, SBLUECD 010), 2004
- American Epic: The Best of Mississippi John Hurt
(Lo-Max /
Sony Legacy
/
Third Man
, TMR-459), 2017
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
There is uncertainty about his date of birth. March 8, 1893, is the date written in his family's Bible and accepted by his biographer Philip Ratcliffe and by the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc as the most likely. Other possible dates include March 3, 1892 (shown on his gravestone); March 8, 1892; March 16, 1892; July 2, 1892; July 3, 1893;
[2]
and May 5, 1895.
Further reading
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013).
Blues: A Regional Experience
. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. p. 214.
ISBN
978-0313344237
.
- ^
"Mississippi John Hurt: American Singer and Musician"
.
Britannica.com
. October 29, 2023.
- ^
"Trail of the Hellhound: Mississippi John Hurt"
. nps.gov
. Retrieved
May 29,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Russell, Tony (1997).
The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 121.
ISBN
1-85868-255-X
.
- ^
a
b
Segal, David (June 24, 2001).
"Mississippi John Hurt, Discovered Again"
.
The Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
Block, Rory (June 4, 2013).
"Avalon: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt"
. Stony Plain Records
. Retrieved
December 11,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to
Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
.
Columbia
/
Legacy
CD.
- ^
MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT tells of making his first record in 1927
, retrieved
August 24,
2022
- ^
a
b
c
d
Eder, Bruce.
"Mississippi John Hurt: Biography"
. AllMusic
. Retrieved
May 30,
2009
.
- ^
Oakley, Giles (1997).
The Devil's Music
. New York City:
Da Capo Press
. p.
121
.
ISBN
978-0-306-80743-5
.
- ^
a
b
Dahl, Bill (1998). Liner notes to
D.C. Blues: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings, Vol. 1
.
Fuel 2000 Records
CD.
- ^
"Graded on a Curve: Mississippi John Hurt, Last Sessions ? The Vinyl District"
.
The Vinyl District
. April 17, 2012
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
Ostrow, Marty; Howard, Ira, eds. (September 7, 1963).
"Piedmont Starts Folk Build-Up With Hurt LP"
(PDF)
.
Cash
Box
. New York: The Cash Box Publishing Co. p. 47.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on July 4, 2023.
- ^
Mississippi John Hurt & Skip James - Live At Wtbs-fm In Cambridge. Ma October 1964
, retrieved
April 8,
2022
- ^
"Mississippi John Hurt And Skip James - In Session - 1964 - Nights At The Roundtable: Session Edition"
.
Past Daily: News, History, Music And An Enormous Sound Archive
. June 19, 2014
. Retrieved
April 8,
2022
.
- ^
Christgau, Robert
(1981).
"Consumer Guide '70s: H"
.
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies
.
Ticknor & Fields
.
ISBN
089919026X
. Retrieved
February 26,
2019
– via robertchristgau.com.
- ^
Christgau, Robert
(March 11, 1997).
"Consumer Guide"
.
The Village Voice
. New York
. Retrieved
July 21,
2013
.
- ^
Dankins, Pam.
"
'Fully engulfed in flames': Fire destroys Mississippi John Hurt Museum"
. Mississippi Clarion Ledger
. Retrieved
February 21,
2024
.
- ^
"Mississippi John Hurt"
.
Tom Paxton
. February 18, 2008
. Retrieved
June 16,
2022
.
- ^
Greenbaum, Norman; Dr. West's Medicine Show And Junk Band (1969).
"Norman Greenbaum With Dr. West's Medicine Show And Junk Band"
. Retrieved
August 16,
2021
.
- ^
"BBC ? Arena: American Epic ? Media Centre"
.
bbc.co.uk
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
"For Lovers of Recorded Music and its History, "American Epic" Is Must See PBS TV"
.
Analog Planet
. May 10, 2017
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Greil Marcus' Real Life Rock Top 10: The Epic Tradition"
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
"American Epic"
.
Stereophile
. June 12, 2017
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
Lewis, Randy (May 14, 2017).
"
'American Epic' explores how a business crisis ignited a musical revolution"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
- ^
MacMahon, Bernard; McGourty, Allison; Wald, Elijah (May 2, 2017).
American Epic
. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
9781501135606
.
- ^
"The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time"
.
Rolling Stone
. January 1, 2023
. Retrieved
March 21,
2023
.
- ^
"Mississippi John Hurt Discography"
. Wirz.de
. Retrieved
July 10,
2010
.
- ^
Dixon, Robert M. W.; Goodrich, John M. W.; Rye, Howard W. (1997).
Blues & Gospel Records 1890?1943
(4th ed.). Clarendon Press. pp. 418?419.
ISBN
0-19-816239-1
.
- ^
"Mississippi John Hurt: Discography"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
July 10,
2010
.
External links
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]
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