Mississippi John Hurt

• Born: March 8, 1892
• Birthplace: Teoc, Mississippi
• Died: November 2, 1966
• Place of death: Grenada, Mississippi

American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist

Storytelling balladry and touches of ragtime were strong elements in Hurt’s music, which was deeply rooted in traditions that predated the blues.

The Life

Born John Smith Hurt, Mississippi John Hurt spent most of his life in Carroll County, in Mississippi hill country. Geographically and culturally removed from the Mississippi Delta, it was an area where white and black stringband musicians interacted fairly freely and where the harder edges of the Delta’s blues softened. Inspired by a guitar-playing schoolteacher, William H. Carson, Hurt got his first guitar at age nine, and he claimed to be self-taught. During his teens, he entertained locally at dances as a solo singer-guitarist and as a performer in stringbands, some of which were probably racially mixed. That would account for white fiddler Willie Narmour, a neighbor of Hurt in the town of Avalon and half of the popular Narmour and Smith duo, recommending him to record producer Tommy Rockwell of the Okeh label.

Hurt made his first recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, in February of 1928, and he was summoned to New York City for further recordings in December of that year. A half dozen 78-rpm discs by Hurt were issued by Okeh Records, but none sold spectacularly. The economic strains of the Great Depression slowed record sales in general, and Hurt would not record again for thirty-five years.

In 1952 Hurt’s 1928 recording of “Frankie” appeared on Harry Smith’s influential reissue, The Anthology of American Folk Music. This spurred interest in Hurt’s music among both record collectors and aspiring folk guitarists. In 1963 one of these enthusiasts, Tom Hoskins, followed a clue Hurt had left regarding his whereabouts in one of his 1928 recordings, “Avalon Blues.” Hurt was still there, herding cattle. He was persuaded to relocate to Washington, D.C., and over the next three years he enjoyed extraordinary popularity on the folk scene, making triumphant appearances at the Newport and Philadelphia folk festivals and at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Hurt would record extensively and appear on television’s popular The Tonight Show and in the pages of such publications as Time before succumbing to a heart attack some twenty miles from his Mississippi birthplace.

The Music

Had the Okeh label not pinned the “Mississippi” moniker onto Hurt’s name for his initial releases, there’s a good chance listeners might have surmised he was from elsewhere, probably from the Southeast. Hurt’s light touch on the guitar, sure pitch, clear diction, and relaxed, conversational singing style are all at odds with the stereotype of the intense Mississippi bluesman. Little of Hurt’s music, however, was blues in the conventional sense. The term “songster” has been applied to African American artists such as Hurt, whose style and repertoire were broader than the blues and included elements of ballad traditions. Nevertheless, Hurt put an individualistic stamp on any tradition that touched him. Songs entirely his own, such as “Avalon Blues,” are no less compelling than traditional ones, such as “Frankie,” which were arranged to sound original. Hurt’s evident isolation from his musical contemporaries was, if anything, a boon to his creating a unique musical world. The gentle good humor in his voice and the buoyancy of his guitar accompaniments provide a somewhat ironic frame for his lyrics, rife with sagas of murder and other dark doings.

“Frankie.”Variously known as “Frankie and Albert” or “Frankie and Johnny,” this tale of jealousy and murder was once one of the best-known American folk songs. Hurt’s version, which is driven by his gently relentless guitar and the eloquent economy of his lyrics, is entirely sympathetic to the killer.

“Avalon Blues.”Hurt wrote and recorded this song that, like a message in a bottle, washed ashore decades after its release and led to his rediscovery. Likely prompted by his feelings of homesickness, this tune, a response to the culture shock the New York City of 1928 dealt to Hurt, vividly shows that his talent as a songwriter was fully equal to his talent for reworking traditional material.

“Stack O’Lee.”Hurt turned again to a traditional murder ballad, this one about a cold-blooded killer who valued his hat over a man’s life. There are other recordings of the song from this era and later reworkings well into the time of rock and roll, yet Hurt’s version emits a quietly assured authority.

“Candy Man Blues.”Double-entendre songs were a staple in most blues singers’ repertoires. Despite its title, the risqué “Candy Man Blues” is not structurally a blues, and while ragtime embellishments sparkle throughout Hurt’s guitar accompaniment, his most complex, the song springs from a deeper well of tradition: through minstrelsy and all the way back to Africa. Whatever its arcane origins, the song is one Hurt delighted audiences with after his rediscovery.

“Spike Driver Blues.”This is not a blues at all, but a work song of the sort that predated blues. There is only one chord in the entire song, a fact easily overlooked because of Hurt’s bobbing, melodic guitar work, which aids Hurt’s storytelling. Again, he has taken the traditional—in this case, the folk song “John Henry”—and made of it something individual and essentially archetypal.

Musical Legacy

When Hurt was rediscovered in 1963, he was revealed as a true folksinger, the genuine article, with a formidable résumé, thanks to his 1928 recordings. Despite being labeled a blues artist, as much for his race as for his repertoire, Hurt was far more accessible to young folk enthusiasts than other rediscovered bluesmen, on whom age and drink had often taken a serious toll. Hurt recorded and performed extensively during the brief years of his celebrity. Such disparate folk-based singer-guitarists as Dave Van Ronk and Doc Watson heard Hurt, and they adopted both his songs and his guitar style into their repertoire.

Bibliography

Erlewine, Michael, et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francsico: Miller Freeman Books, 1999. This guide to the recorded blues world features a good entry on Hurt, along with listening recommendations.

Rucker, Leland, ed. Music Hound Blues: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit, Mich.: Visible Ink Press, 1998. Though albums go in and out of print, this listening guide has a worthwhile entry on Hurt by Bryan Powell.

Waterman, Dick. Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003. As manager and friend, Waterman was close to a number of rediscovered bluesmen of the 1960’s. Hearing Hurt was Waterman’s personal gateway to their world, and his exquisite photographs illuminate touching recollections of Hurt and others.

Principal Recordings

albums:Avalon Blues, 1963; Folk Songs and Blues, 1963; Worried Blues, 1963; Last Session, 1966, 1966; Today!, 1966; The Immortal, 1967; Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 OKEH Recordings, 1996 (individual songs recorded 1928); The Candy Man, 1980.