SFR-108

Discovery:The Rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt

                                    March 3, 1963

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Spring Fed Records is proud to announce the September release of Discovery: The Rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt. On a fateful day in 1963 guitarist, blues fanatic, and inspired roamer Thomas Hoskins rapped on the door of a small house in rural Mississippi.  The house was the end of a long, twisted road for Hoskins and the beginning of a new, unknown road traveled with Mississippi John Hurt.  His love of blues music and its players, his unencumbered sense of adventure and manic dedication led Tom Hoskins to this modest front stoop in Avalon, Mississippi. Inside the house Hoskins found found an amiable, humble man, who farmed to make a living. John Hurt was surrounded by family and friends. He hadn't owned a guitar in years, and was amazed that a young white man had sought him out  35 years after his last recording sessions. Hoskins gave Hurt his guitar and turned on his reel to reel recorder. The results of the session are now available. These "lost" recordings have never been heard by the general public and provide a window into a period before John Hurt became a professional musician and the most respected songster in the American folk movement. Keep checking back to Spring Fed Records for more information concerning this never published historic recording. Come back. Get Fed.

Here's Frank Scott's Review from

Roots and Rhythm

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT Spring Fed 108 Discovery

19 tracks, 68 mins, highly recommended

What a delightful discovery - the first recordings made by the great Mississippi John Hurt the day after blues researcher Tom Hoskins

knocked on his door in March, 1963 on an inspired guess that John might still be living in the town that John sang about in his OKeh recording "Avalon Blues." So began a short new career traveling around the country delighting people with his wonderful music. The

day after his first appearance Hoskins returned with a tape recorder and spent an afternoon recording him and, finally, these recordings are being made available. The recordings are informal with family and friends coming in and, in some cases, joining John on the vocals

and, for a while, a rooster crowing very loudly! The songs are all ones that John was to return to again and again on his commercial recordings and live performances - Nobody's Business/ Stack O'Lee/ Coffee Blues/ Candy Man/ Got The Blues/ Spike Driver Blues/ Louis Collins and others but these recordings will hold a special place on the hearts of country blues lovers for their spontaneity. Here was a man who had spent most of his life as a farmer when, out of the blue, a young white man knocks on his door. At first Hurt thought he might be an FBI agent but Hoskins reassured him that he was there because he loved his music and the next day John was creating that magical music that only he was capable of. If you are not familiar with Hurt's music this is probably not the place to start since the recording quality isn't all that great and Hurt's performances are not as polished but if you love Hurt's music as I do this will send a shiver down your spine and possibly bring a tear to your eye! The recordings include a 16 minute interview with Hurt. Simply magical. (FS) 

 

In the 2011 Oxford American Annual Southern Music Issue, author William Gay called Discovery: The Rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt

"a [W]onder to hear."

Heres the full article

 

Here's the Amazon.com review by Larry Hoffman

 

Remarkable, the career of the uniquely gifted Mississippi John Hurt.

An unassuming self-taught musician in a remote area of Mississippi in the 1920's, unaffected by the contemporary blues or 'race records' of the day. Some years ago, his son remarked to me in an interview that there was not even a record player in their house; that his father had 'dreamed how to play' the instrument - or, as John Hurt remarked to Columbia's Larry Cohn, he wanted to play the guitar 'as it should sound.'

As it turned out, the artist developed an original style more akin to the Piedmont players - ragtime-oriented, replete with syncopated treble melodies and accompaniment designs driven by an anchoring, alternating bass. Unlike his many imitators, it was neither slavishly repetitive nor metronomic.

Recommended by some white players in the area, he was brought to the attention of an agent of Okeh Records in 1928, and made a few relatively successful sessions - the beginning of a promising blues career cut short by the Great Depression that tanked so many record companies and their artists.

Mr. Hurt returned to Avalon, Mississippi where for thirty-odd years he resumed his life of farming, playing occasionally for neighborhood picnics and community functions.

In 1963, absent the benefit of all the now-available blues research and recorded perspective, a few savvy blues aficionados in the Washington, D.C., area - including Dick Spottswood, Mike Stewart, and Pete Kuykendall - found and were immediately attracted to John Hurt's music, and - on a clue (John sings ''Avalon my home town, ...ain't got no drivin' rain.'') - convinced the adventurous Bob Hoskins to travel to Avalon, Mississippi, to try and record this artist - if he could find him. In the tradition of pioneers such as Alan Lomax and Sam Charters, Bob Hoskins indeed found his bluesman living and farming in Mississippi, no longer owning a guitar, or expecting any more musical attention.

Fighting a sore throat, trying to remember arrangements, chord progressions, and lyrics, he capos Hoskin's guitar to the fourth fret - perhaps as compensation for his voice. Then, at the request of Mr. Hoskins - he begins singing and playing into a tape recorder, sometimes along with his wife Jessie, sometimes with a full-throated rooster crowing for day in the background (seriously).

This is certainly an archival release, but one with surprisingly good recording quality; and, incidentally, with wonderful aesthetics from the perspective of packaging, archival photographs, and the like. This is an aural document of perhaps the most beloved blues artist of the twentieth century - at a time when he was the least prepared, yet hardly embarrassed - to perform on tape. Included also is Bob Hoskins' interview with John and his wife Jessie.

To be sure, for all who had the privilege of knowing this great artist and very special man, and for the many more who heard him in person, every musical encounter is special. To think that in a matter of months this artist achieved an artistic level greater than he had ever known, on par with any bluesman of that or any other era is yet another testament to Mississippi John Hurt and his indomitable spirit. This is an important document of the blues. --Larry Hoffman

 

                                           

C

                                            Want to learn more about Mississippi John Hurt?

                                            Check out Dr. Philip R. Ratcliffe's excellent biography

                                            Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues

                                            published by the University Press of Mississippi.