Mississippi John Hurt (3 July 1893 and March 8, 1892 – November 2, 1966) was an influential singer, guitarist and country blues. He sang in a loud whisper, accompanied by a melodic guitar finger-picking. Born John Smith in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi, Hurt and raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent most of his youth, old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as an officer in 1920. In 1923 he collaborated with violinist Willie Narmour as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. If Narmour opportunity for Okeh Records in reward for having won first prize in a competition record violin was in 1928, Narmour advised John to Okeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell Hurt. After listening to “Blues on Monday morning” at his house, took part in two recording sessions in Memphisand New York City. The tag “Mississippi” was added by Okeh as a sales found. Returned to the commercial failure of the data sets and Okeh recordings resulting from the business during the Great Depression, according to Hurt Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances.
In 1963, however, a people musicologist Tom Hoskins, inspired by the photographs, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi. Maybe that Hurt guitar playing skills were still intact, Hoskins encouraged him to Washington, DC to move, and there is now on a wider stage. His appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, we saw his star rise in the new folk revival audience. Before his death, has long played in schools, concert halls, cafes and even on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as recording three more albums for Vanguard Records. The number of his supporters were very much enjoyed the ragtime song “Salty Dog” and “Candy Man” and the blues ballad “Spike Driver Blues” (a variant of “John Henry”) and “Frankie”.
Hurt influence stretched across several musical genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A quiet man, was in his nature of work, which was a delicate mix of country, blues and old time music endure to the end.