S.O.D. "Payday" by Mississippi John Hurt

5/7/2015     Even during these times most of us really don't know what we want to do with our lives.  John Smith Hurt on the other hand had a pretty good idea, teaching himself guitar at the age of nine.  His date of birth remains a mystery with two possible dates being March 8, 1992 or July 3, 1993.  He grew popular in his hometown of Avalon, Mississippi, playing at parties and dances. In 1928 with the help of fiddle player Willy Narmour, he made some recordings for Okeh records which were unsuccessful. This was culture shock for Hurt as he was pulled out of his farmland to a studio in New York City.  

     Many years later in 1963, just three years before Hurt's death, musicologist Tom Hoskins, searched successfully for Hurt, and after hearing him play, persuaded him to move to Washington DC to entertain larger audiences. The world of music finding Mississippi John Hurt was like the world of baseball finding Babe Ruth.  Major success came after that, including being recorded by the Library of Congress, and pretty soon many people were listening to and trying to learn the "Mississippi" John Hurt guitar style.  

     All the years in between, he practiced guitar and worked as a sharecropper.  Playing many styles of blues and a little folk, he mostly leaned toward Piedmont blues which is similar to Ragtime. Hurt had a fast, syncopated style that he developed on his own.  One of his biggest influences was a blues artist that lived in his area named Rufus Hanks, who played 12 string guitar and harmonica and was never recorded.  If you're ever in Avalon, Mississippi, check out his memorial tribute which is located parallel to the road, RR2 on which he grew up.