Mississippi John Hurt was born 121 years ago today. A country blues singer and guitarist, Hurt was raised in Avalon, Mississippi and taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. Singing to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances and parties while working as a sharecropper. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these were commercial failures. Hurt then drifted out of the recording scene, and continued his work as a farmer. Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, would be the first to locate Hurt in 1963. He convinced Hurt to relocate to Washington, D.C., where he was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This rediscovery helped further the American folk music revival, which had led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurts era. Hurt entered the same university and coffeehouse concert circuit as his contemporaries, as well as other Delta blues musicians brought out of retirement. As well as playing concerts, he recorded several studio albums for Vanguard Records. Material recorded by Hurt has been re-released by many record labels over the years and his influence has extended over many generations of guitarists. Songs recorded by Hurt have been covered by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Beck, Doc Watson, John McCutcheon, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, David Johansen, Bill Morrissey, Gillian Welch and Guthrie Thomas. In 1923, Hurt partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. 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 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. While in Memphis, Hurt recalled seeing many, many blues singers ... Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith and lots, lots more. 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 couldnt 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.” Hurt attempted further negotiations with Okeh to record again, but after the commercial failure of the resulting records, and Okeh Records going out of business during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances. After Hurts renditions of Frankie and Spike Driver Blues were included in The Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952, and an Australian man discovered a copy of Avalon Blues, interest increased in finding Hurt himself. In 1963, a folk musicologist, Tom Hoskins, supervised by Richard Spottswood, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi using the lyrics of Avalon Blues: “Avalon, my home town, always on my mind/Avalon, my home town.” Hurt’s performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new folk revival audience. Before his death, he played extensively in colleges, concert halls, coffee houses and also on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, as well as recording three further albums for Vanguard Records. 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.” Hurts influence spanned 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 consisted of a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music. Hurt died at age 73 on November 2nd, 1966, of a heart attack in Grenada, Mississippi. Hurt was influenced by very few people; but did recall an elderly, unrecorded, blues singer from that area, Rufus Hanks, who played twelve-string guitar and harmonica. He also recalled listening to the country singer Jimmie Rodgers. On occasion, Hurt would use an open tuning and a slide, as he did in his arrangement of The Ballad of Casey Jones.” Singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, who met Hurt and played on the same bill as him at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village around 1963, wrote and recorded a song about him in 1977 entitled Did You Hear John Hurt? Paxton still frequently plays this song at his live performances. Here, Hurt performs “Lonesome Valley” in 1965.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 09:55:16 +0000
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