Editing Mississippi John Hurt (section)

===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" />