Editing Mississippi John Hurt (section)

==Biography==
===Early years===
John Hurt was born in [[Teoc, Mississippi|Teoc]],<ref name=linear>Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings''. [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]/[[Legacy Records|Legacy]] CD.</ref> [[Carroll County, Mississippi]] and raised in [[Avalon, Mississippi]]. His parents, Isom and Mary, had both been slaves and as was common after the Civil War, they continued working on the same plantation, now as [[Sharecropping|sharecroppers]], for the same enslaver.

John taught himself to play guitar at the age of nine. To earn extra money, his mother took in boarders. One of them, William Henry Carson, who played a guitar and was a friend of John's mother, often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a woman who lived nearby. When no one was around, John would play Carson's guitar.<ref>{{Citation |title=MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT tells of making his first record in 1927 | date=February 21, 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW4JoELYw4Y |language=en |access-date=2022-08-24}}</ref> As a youth, he played [[old-time music]] for friends and at dances or at the local general store. His [[syncopation|syncopated]] playing style was ideal for dancing.<ref name="AMG">{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p379/biography|pure_url=yes}} |author=Eder, Bruce|title=Mississippi John Hurt: Biography |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=May 30, 2009}}</ref>

He worked as a farmhand and [[sharecropper]], sometimes working for the railroad into the 1920s. On occasion, a [[medicine show]] came through the area. Hurt recalled that one wanted to hire him: "One of them wanted me, but I said no because I just never wanted to get away from home."<ref name="linear" />

===First recordings===
In 1923, he played with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for Narmour's regular partner, Shell Smith.<ref name="AMG" /> When Narmour won first place in a fiddle contest in 1928 and got a chance to record for [[Okeh Records]], he recommended Hurt, who by that time had a good reputation, to Okeh producer Tommy Rockwell.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|first=Giles|last=Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|location=New York City|page=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/121 121]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/121}}</ref>  After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, Hurt took part in two recording sessions where he recorded 20 songs, in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] and New York City.<ref name="AMG" /> While in Memphis, he recalled seeing "many, many blues singers ... [[Lonnie Johnson (musician)|Lonnie Johnson]], [[Blind Lemon Jefferson]], [[Bessie Smith]], and lots, lots more."<ref name="linear" /> Hurt described his first recording session:

{{blockquote|... a great big hall with only the three of us in it: me, the man [Rockwell], and the engineer. It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after.<ref name=linear/>}}

The records sold modestly well, not only with the black community but also among southern whites. Hurt attempted further negotiations with Okeh to record again but Okeh declined since his record sales were only modest. Okeh went out of business during the [[Great Depression]], and Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing at local parties and dances.<ref name="russell">{{cite book
| first= Tony
| last= Russell
| year= 1997
| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
| publisher=Carlton Books
| location= Dubai
| pages= 121
| isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref>

=== Rediscovery and death ===
[[File:Mississippi John Hurt - grave (cropped).jpg|thumb|Hurt's grave]]
In 1952, musicologist [[Harry Everett Smith|Harry Smith]] included John's version of "[[Frankie and Johnny (song)|Frankie and Johnny]]" and "[[Take This Hammer|Spike Driver Blues]]" in his seminal collection [[Anthology of American Folk Music|''The Anthology of American Folk Music'']] which generated considerable interest in locating him.<ref name="dahl">Dahl, Bill (1998). Liner notes to ''D.C. Blues: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings, Vol. 1''. [[Fuel 2000 Records]] CD.</ref> When a copy of his "Avalon Blues" was discovered in 1963, it led [[Musicology|musicologist]] [[Richard K. Spottswood|Dick Spottswood]] to locate Avalon, Mississippi on a map and ask his friend, Tom Hoskins, who was traveling that way, to enquire after Hurt.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/2001/06/24/mississippi-john-hurt-discovered-again/d7d6f596-f05a-448f-8dd5-97eaaa94ea85/|title=Mississippi John Hurt, Discovered Again|last=Segal|first=David|date=June 24, 2001|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=February 27, 2018|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2012/04/graded-on-a-curve-mississippi-john-hurt-last-sessions/|title=Graded on a Curve: Mississippi John Hurt, Last Sessions – The Vinyl District|date=April 17, 2012|work=The Vinyl District|access-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref>

{{Quote box
| quote = Avalon, my home town, always on my mind / Avalon, my home town.
| author = Mississippi John Hurt
| source = "Avalon Blues"
| align = left
| qalign = left
| salign = left
}}

Upon locating Hurt, Hoskins persuaded him to perform several songs, to ensure that he was genuine.<ref name=dahl/> Hoskins was convinced and, seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and perform for a broader audience. Early in 1963 Hurt recorded an album, ''Folk Songs and Blues'', that was released in August 1963 through [[Piedmont Records]].<ref name=CbSep63>{{cite news |title=Piedmont Starts Folk Build-Up With Hurt LP|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/60s/1963/CB-1963-09-07-OCR-Page-0047.pdf |work=[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cash{{nbsp}}Box]]|location=New York|page=47|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704155628/https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/60s/1963/CB-1963-09-07-OCR-Page-0047.pdf|archive-date=July 4, 2023|url-status=live|editor-last1=Ostrow|editor-last2=Howard|editor-first1=Marty|editor-first2=Ira|publisher=The Cash Box Publishing Co.|date=September 7, 1963}}</ref>

This added to the [[American folk music revival]] which was blooming at that time and inspired the search for and the rediscovery of many other [[List of blues musicians|bluesmen]] of Hurt's era such as [[Son House]],  [[Skip James]], [[Bukka White]], [[Mance Lipscomb]] and [[Lightnin' Hopkins]]. Hurt performed on the festival, university and coffeehouse concert circuits with other [[List of Delta blues musicians|Delta blues musicians]] who were brought out of retirement. His performances in 1963 at the [[Newport Folk Festival]] and the [[Philadelphia Folk Festival]] caused his star to rise.<ref name="russell"/> In 1964, he recorded live for radio station WTBS-FM In Cambridge, Massachusetts as did [[Skip James]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Mississippi John Hurt & Skip James - Live At WTBS-FM In Cambridge. Ma October 1964 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/10538035-Mississippi-John-Hurt-Skip-James-Live-At-Wtbs-fm-In-Cambridge-Ma-October-1964 |language=en |access-date=2022-04-08}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-06-19 |title=Mississippi John Hurt And Skip James - In Session - 1964 - Nights At The Roundtable: Session Edition |url=https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/19/mississippi-john-hurt-skip-james-session-1964-nights-roundtable-session-edition/ |access-date=2022-04-08 |website=Past Daily: News, History, Music And An Enormous Sound Archive. |language=en-US}}</ref>

For three years, Hurt performed extensively at colleges, concert halls, and coffeehouses, appearing on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'', on [[Pete Seeger]]'s public tv show, [[Rainbow Quest]] alongside [[Sonny Terry]] and [[Brownie McGhee]] and [[Hedy West]] and had a write up in Time magazine. He also recorded three albums for [[Vanguard Records]].<ref name="russell"/> Much of his repertoire was also recorded for the [[Library of Congress]]. His fans particularly liked the [[ragtime]] songs  "[[Salty Dog Blues|Salty Dog]]", "Candy Man" and the blues [[ballad]]s "Spike Driver Blues" (a variant of "John Henry") and "Frankie".<ref name="russell"/>

Hurt's influence spanned several music genres including blues, spirituals, [[country music|country]], [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]], folk, and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature reflected his work which was a mellow mix of country, blues, and old-time music.<ref name="AMG"/>

Mississippi John Hurt made his last recordings at a hotel in New York City in February and July of that year though they were not released until 1972 on the Vanguard LP ''[[Last Sessions (Mississippi John Hurt album)|Last Sessions]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: H|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=H&bk=70|access-date=February 26, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref> He died of a heart attack on November 2, 1966 at a hospital in [[Grenada, Mississippi]].<ref name="bare"/>

Several record labels recorded his songs. They've been covered  by [[Bob Dylan]], [[Dave Van Ronk]], [[Jerry Garcia]], [[Beck (musician)|Beck]], [[Doc Watson]], [[John McCutcheon]], [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]], [[Bruce Cockburn]], [[David Johansen]], [[Bill Morrissey]], [[Gillian Welch]], [[The Be Good Tanyas]], [[Josh Ritter]], [[Chris Smither]], [[Guthrie Thomas]], [[Parsonsfield (band)|Parsonsfield]], and [[Rory Block]]<ref name="block"/> among others.