John Smith Hurt (1892-1966) became one of the most influential musicians of his time. His genre was the blues, and he performed as Mississippi John Hurt. Born in Avalon, Mississippi, John Hurt was a self taught musician. He taught himself to play the guitar when he was about nine. He worked as a sharecropper. He picked up a bit of extra change by playing at dances and parties. He developed a melodious fingerpicking technique, pioneering the style. He made some recordings for an obscure lable, Okeh, but his early 1928 recordings were a commercial failure. He continued to work as a farmer until he was rediscovered by musicologist Tom Hoskins in 1963. He was persuaded to come to Washington, DC, where he made a number of recordings for the Smithsonian Institution.
Hoskin’s rediscovery of Mississippi John Hurt and his towering talent helped spur the folk music revival of the 1960s. That led to the discovery of more blues talent. The world is a better place because he was here.
The next few years, he continued to perform in clubs and coffeehouses until he fell ill in 1965. He died in 1966.
Mississippi John Hurt combined his talent for storytelling and song. One of the best examples is the story of Stagger Lee.
Here is one of the best blues songs ever written, but one that hardly anyone outside the Highway 61 corridor in the Mississippi delta country has ever heard. This song epitomizes what the blues is all about.
Blind Man Sit In The Way and Cried.
When you don’t have anything, your faith is often the only thing to sustain you.
Do Lord, Remember Me.
Then there is this. We cannot leave it out.
I Shall Not Be Moved.
Come on in and sit a spell. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?