Mississippi JOHN HURT

Born John Smith Hurt in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi and raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt 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 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, 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. The "Mississippi" tag was added by Okeh as a sales gimmick. 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.

In 1963, however, a folk musicologist, Tom Hoskins, inspired by the recordings, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi. Seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, Hoskins encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and begin performing on a wider stage. His 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 with Johnny Carson, as well as recording three further albums for Vanguard Records. The numbers his devotees particularly liked were the ragtime songs "Salty Dog" and "Candy Man", and the blues ballads "Spike Driver Blues" (a variant of "John Henry") and "Frankie".

Hurt's 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 remained a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music to the end.

Hurt died in November 1966 from a heart attack in Grenada, Mississippi.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mississippi
• john
• hurt

[catboneguitar]

Pete IS a great American. People shouldn't forget America belongs to the people,not the politicians. Penrod 59 needs to start looking for truth in his life & turn off the right wing propaganda in his head.

To hear John Hurt is to love him.

[ArkRed1]

What a classic John was. Does anyone what brand of guitar he's playing? Such dexterity in the fingers. Spike Drivers Blues is one of my favorite John Hurt songs. John's guitar gives me that feeling of walking along rails trying to keep balance. Super.

[rrch88]

youtube arguments will never iron out the worlds creases. only serve to boost our ego-driven opinions further. this music is beautiful, soul music. you're missing the point.

[philserious]

such a gentle, beautiful style singing about real life stories. this should be not only appreciated for its awesome music but the real story it tells.

[Seattleduck2]

penrod59 Pete resigned the Communist Party in 1950, nor does he consider himself a Marxist Lenninist, so get over it, stop making undocumented assertions.

[Aaronjrh]

what a fantastic guitar player

[fosjet]

Well my sense is that penrod59 is correct. Thank you penrod59 for expressing exactly how i feel about these videos.

[penrod59]

And Pete has been a communist since 'way before you were born, junior.

[penrod59]

I've been wrong lots of times. I know I'm right when I tell you that Pete Seeger is a communist and, while I think he's a kind-hearted ethical person, he seems to be deaf dumb and blind when confronted with the moral difference between Western democracies and communist dictatorships such as China and Cuba. You can have the last word, rude and simplistically ad hominem though it may be.

[penrod59]

doc, you are aptly named. Anyone over the age of ten should know who Pete Seeger is; I am over the age of ten. I find his behavior toward "minorities," and particularly in this instance toward John Hurt patronizing, and judging by Mister Hurt's body language and response, he felt the same way. I can't read minds, but I sense that I am correct.