|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZHURT, Mississippi John(b 8 March 1892, Carroll County MS; d 2 November 1966, Grenada MS) Country blues/folk singer, guitarist. Discovered by Tommy Rockwell, working for the Okeh label and searching in the field for talent; Hurt was sent to Memphis to record in 1928, the record sold well and Hurt went to NYC to make more late that year, but then came the Depression. There were only 13 tracks, later issued on Biograph, Yazoo, and a Columbia Legacy CD Avalon Blues. The recording artist went back to work herding cows for 35 years, until Tom Hoskins, remembering the name of one of the songs, went to Avalon, near Greenwood, and asked for him. His excellent guitar playing and his gentle, home-spun folk style, full of good humour and unlike that of any other Delta bluesman, brought him three years of stardom at the end of his life. He recorded for the Library of Congress '63, later issued on Flyright and Heritage; Mississippi John Hurt: Folk Songs And Blues '63 was made by a label variously called Piedmont, Gryphon, or Chesapeake, which also recorded Worried Blues March '64 at the Ontario Place Cafe in Washington DC; he did remakes of 'Avalon Blues', 'Spike Driver Blues' etc from '28; the delightfully raunchy 'Candy Man Blues'; 'My Creole Belle', a sweet love song with a beat, based on part of a rag published in 1900; many more. Vanguard recorded him at the Newport Folk Festivals '63-4 and also released Today, The Immortal (with delightful anecdotes about Hurt on the sleeve by Dick Waterman) and Last Sessions, all produced by Patrick Sky; then a best-of compilation. He was a gentle man with a sly wit; his swan song represented some of the prettiest music of the decade. |