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Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2014 11:06:12 GMT -5
I can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to one of the greatest Blues Artists to come from the Hill Country of Mississippi. His music ranges from traditional delta style blues to fingerstyle blues reminiscent of the Piedmont styles of Blind Blake, et al. Many books, blog articles, and other media coverage exists on this great artist, but I'm sure all of the blues lovers out there have their own feelings on this artist. Let's get a great discussion going. What is your favorite song, album, style, etc. I have a hard time deciding between "Make Me A Pallet On the Floor" and "Salty Dog Blues." www.cr.nps.gov/delta/blues/people/msjohn_hurt.htm
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Post by AlanB on Feb 4, 2014 12:20:10 GMT -5
I'll kick it off with this 1963 interview-cum-discussion first with Dick Spottswood followed by MJH Published in Jazz Journal, February 1964 p. 24-26)
MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT GEORGE W. KAY
Mississippi John Hurt is probably the most important rediscovered folk artist to come from the Mississippi Delta country. Although he sings the blues as well as early folk songs, there may be reason to question whether this pleasant little sixty-nine year old man should be identified as a rural blues singer. His rather small baritone voice contains only slight traces of traditional negro blues inflections and his light, nimble thumb-and-finger guitar technique reflects almost none of the slurred notes and pronounced beat characteristic of most blues guitarists. John Hurt might be classified more properly as a folk minstrel. He learned his ballads from his people as they worked in the cotton fields and plantations near his home town of Avalon, a village boasting a population of zoo. He borrowed his blues from the hymns and spirituals he heard in his church.
Although he lived all his life at the edge of the Delta country, Hurt was not influenced by other famous bluesmen associated with the area. Names such as Charlie Patton, Son House, William Brown and Robert Wilkins held no meaning to him. Only twice did he leave Avalon—in 1928 when he went to Memphis and New York to make six new fabulously rare records for Okeh. Then he returned to Avalon where he remained in obscurity for 35 years.
The return of Mississippi John Hurt to the music world has brought enthusiastic acclaim from critics and writers as well as the increasing folk blues audience in America. His performances at the Newport and Philadelphia folk festivals were described as the most important events in the history of the festivals. At the Ontario Place in Washington where he is appearing as the featured artist in residence, John Hurt is enjoying long-overdue recognition and popularity.
One evening in October, John and his close friend, benefactor and personal manager, Dick Spottswood, came to my apartment where the three of us spent several delightful hours reconstructing the romantic and almost unbelievable story of this forgotten folk artist.
Q. Who discovered Mississippi John Hurt? SPOTTSWOOD: "That is really Tom Hoskin's story. Tom is a rather good left-handed guitar player whose origins are Southern. He was born and reared in Charlottesville, Virginia. He played guitar for a number of years and he started out as a rock 'n' roller. He played in a number of bands down there before he moved to Washington a couple of years ago. He started listening to the old blues but his relationship was between the old Negro country blues and rock 'n' roll. Tom began to listen to the old records and he became interested in the old blues artists themselves."
Q. Who undertook the expedition to find Hurt? SPOTTSWOOD: "Tom Hoskins left Washington late in February when he went South to the Mardi Gras. Most of us had been under the illusion that John Hurt actually was from Georgia. John's style, not being typical of other Mississippi singers, we naturally thought he had gotten his name from somewhere else. We knew about his record called Avalon Blues but we also knew there was a place called Avalon, Georgia. People had been going to Avalon, Georgia and had inquired but without luck. When Tom was in Mississippi he happened to get a state map and discovered Avalon, Mississippi. He drove over zoo miles out of his way to get to this little town. Once he got there the rest was very easy."
Q. Tell us the rest of the story, John Hurt. HURT: "Well, Mr. Hoskins goes to a little store right in the centre of town. Dick Switzel owns the store. He asked Mr. Switzel, "Does Mississippi John Hurt live around here?" Mr. Switzel answered, "Why, yes! He lives probably five miles east. You go right across that road until you hit that gravel road and you go east. You go right up that hill until you come to a little country store on the right. Just on the other side of that store, on the left, is Mississippi John's employer's house. You keep on going and the next house on the left, sitting out there in the pasture, is where Mississippi John Hurt lives.
"About nine o'clock that night, Mr. Hoskins knocked on my door. I asked, "Who is that?" He said, "Is this where Mississippi John Hurt lives?" I thought it was someone nearby so I said, "Yeah", and I opened the door and he walked in. He looks at me and said, "John, have you got a guitar?" I told him I didn't have one and he said, "No sweat." He walked right out to his car and came back with a guitar and he said, "John, I want you to play this."
"I thought the man was a sheriff or the FBI and I was thinking to myself, "What have I done?" I hadn't done anything mean and I knew he was after the wrong man and he wasn't looking for me. Then he said, "John, we have been lookin' for you for a long time. I want you to come to Washington with me and make some records. Will you go?" I said, "Yeah, I'll go. But first I'd like to talk to my employer a little bit." He told me okay. The next day Mr. Hoskins came back with his recorder and I did some tunes."
Q. What happened after Tom Hoskins returned to Washington with the tape? SPOTTSWOOD: "When we heard the tape we were almost hysterical with joy but we didn't want the news to leak out. We knew as soon as someone in New York heard about it there would be a plane with someone going down there and beating us to it. We had no signed contract. So we waited about a week and we started back to Mississippi in my car. The three of us returned to Washington in early March."
Q. What did you do about getting engagements in Washington? SPOTTSWOOD: "We immediately started arrangements to record John. I had been thinking of starting a record company because I felt there was a good deal of material in South that was untapped. However, I had no idea there was anything like Mississippi John Hurt. The first thing we did was make a long series of tapes. John was here about three weeks and after he finished the tapes he went back to Mississippi. While he was here he played at the Showboat and the Brickseller. That was the first of several nightmares, because the shorter one's name, the easier it is to misspell it. One newspaper had his name coming out as "Hertz"! I was so damned mad I almost cancelled the engagement.
John returned in June and we scheduled him into the Ontario Place as the folk musician in residence. We had to have some means of guaranteeing John some sort of steady income in Washington where living costs are much higher. In Mississippi, John was making $~8 a month plus social security and this was his entire income. He has a wife and two grandchildren."
Q. How did you get John to the Newport Folk Festival? SPOTTSWOOD: "That was possible through my friend Bill Clifton. Clifton is a very fine Blue Grass singer and a great performer in his own right. He was elected a director of the Festival board and he was responsible for getting some of the old-time talent. There is great interest in this type of music. As a matter of fact, there are certain records by the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers that will do as well as the rare jazz items bringing $25 to $30 each. We stayed in Newport for three days.
"Before going to Newport, John played a week at the Ontario Place, and John Gerachis, the owner of the coffee house, took advantage of the publicity. It was a tremendous boost for him. The funny part of the whole thing was that none of the directors at Newport, aside from Bill Clifton, had ever heard of John Hurt. John made only six issued records for Okeh in I9~8 and they are fantastically scarce today. Ten years ago Harry Smith reissued two tracks on that famous Folkways set and that is where John Hurt made his latterday reputation and not from the old Okehs. The tunes on Folkways were Frankie and Spike Driver Blues. The critics and writers gave John tremendously favourable reviews at his Newport engagement. When it was all over and we were leaving, Bill Clifton said to John, "You know, you were the jack-in-the-box of this whole affair."
Q. John, tell us about your early life and musical background. HURT: "I am sixty-nine years old. I was born on a plantation near Avalon and I have lived in Avalon all my life, and I got playing and singing when I was nine years old. I never had any teaching—not one bit, just made them up out of my head. Some of the songs I heard from other people singing in the fields and in the church. I would sing in the church, too, and some of the tunes I just picked up.
"I learned to play guitar from a man named William Henry Carson. There was a school I attended near Avalon called St. James and my teacher was a single lady. This young man, William Henry Carson, used to come up to see that school teacher every week-end. He would come up on Friday and he would spend the night at our house. He had a guitar. I was just a small boy and I would try to get to that guitar when they all went to bed. I would sneak around to see if he was asleep and then get that guitar and start workin' on it. That's the way I learned to play. I never will forget a tune he used to play called Hop Joint. I wanted to learn it awful bad. And I did.
"One day my mother heard me playing Mr. Carson's guitar and she exclaimed, "So you have learned to play guitar! " I said, "I have learned to play that tune, Mother. I want you to buy me a guitar, but I know we haven't any money to buy one." She said she would look around to see what she could find. She was the housekeeper for a white man named Mr. Johnny Kent and he had four boys who had all married off. The last one had a guitar and he just left it at his home. So Mr. Kent sold that guitar to my mother for $I.50. It was a good guitar! The sound box was made of real black wood the colour of patent leather and it had a wide neck and keyboard. The name of that guitar was "Black Annie" and it had a wonderful sound. In fact, when a fly would alight on a string and take off, that guitar would go "zing"! Never could find another one like it."
Q, Do you remember any of the other old songs you heard? HURT: "Beside Hop 'Joint I remember a good many church songs such as Blessed Be The Day With The Lord, Glory, Halleluiah and songs like that. I used the six-string guitar with a pick. I heard Spanish Fandang from a first cousin who got it from somewhere but I don't know where. It was mostly a war song. There was a white gentleman who lived close to my home who was a judge. He was a judge who would tend to the country court and his name was Mr. Henry Lee. My mother was a washwoman for him. He thought a lot of my mother and all the children and he called us "family folks". Spanish Fandang was a Civil War song I am pretty sure because when I would play it for Mr. Lee he would say, "Yes, yes, yes. Don't play that song, John, it gets my liver wrong." He just couldn't stand to hear that song because it made him think about war. Most of the blues songs I wrote myself. Maybe I'd hear somebody sing just one verse of a blues song and I would make up more to it. I never did read music and I still play by ear."
Q. How did you happen to record with the Okeh people? HURT: "They were doing music research and I would say they discovered me just like Mr. Hoskins found me. A white friend named Mr. Willie Narmour lived near me and we knew each other all our lives. He was a fine fiddler. There was a fiddling contest about eighty miles from our home and he won it. Mr. T. J. Rockwell of the Okeh company was there and he persuaded Mr. Narmour to go to Memphis to record. Mr. Rockwell asked him if there was anyone else in the area who could make music. Mr. Narmour happened to think of me and he suggested that Mr. Rockwell go back to New York by way of Greenwood. He said he would get me to play something to see how he liked it.
"They knocked on my door about one o'clock and woke me up. Mr. Narmour shook me and said "Hey, John, get up and get your guitar. Here is a gentleman from New York who wants to hear you play." At first I thought he had some of his own friends, but when they walked in, I could see he was telling the truth. I played one piece and started on another when Mr. Rockwell said, "That's all right How about us gettin' you to come to Memphis to try some records?" I told him I had never made any records and he said, "I know it, That's what I'm trying to tell you. Will you come? I will leave you the train fare and I will give you $30, make no mistake." He left the money with Mr. Narmour who promised Mr. Rockwell he would get me to the train on time.
"I went to Memphis and made some records and I returned home for just one week. Then they sent me train fare to come to New York for more recordings. They gave me $40 a record or $20 a side. Altogether I made two sides in Memphis and ten in New York."
Q. When you finished those records, did you make any public appearances? HURT: "I did not. Of course I played for country dances back home even before I made the records. I played alone for those dances. They danced the two-step, shimmie-sham-wabble, breakaways and the slow drag. I remember the dance they called the camel walk. They also did some sort of trot they called 'takin' a trip'. Right after I made the records I met a man from Louisiana, a fiddler named B. Anderson. We got together and he started to fiddlin' my tunes and the white people in that part of the country got us to play for their dances. That was fiddle and guitar with me doing the singing. When I played my tunes for the Okeh people, they asked me to try to play them on the basis of Nobody's Dirty Business. They told me to "double-note" all the tunes. That's how I knew what they meant by "double-note" on account of the way I played Nobody's Dirty Business. It's a double lick-boomde-boom-de-boom. They didn't want any slow blues things. I couldn't read music, you see. I was doing this "double-note" all along and didn't know it! "
Q. John, I have listed the tunes you recorded for the Piedmont album. Will you tell us about them. HURT: "Of course. Avalon Blues was named after my home town. Richland Women Blues was written by W. E. Myer of Richlands, Virginia. He wrote 22 songs and I have them all. He was a record salesman and he had a record store in Richlands. I had learned two of his songs, Waiting For You and Richland Women Blues and I was playing them one night for a friend of mine, a white man named Roy Guidon. He asked me who wrote them and he exclaimed, "Why, I know Mr. Myer, and I know him well. I have been in his store several times!" That is how I got to know Mr. Myer. I signed a contract with him to put those songs on Okeh and he said he would give me a royalty. Then he wrote me that he wanted me to record some songs for a company in Port Washington, Wisconsin. He got sick and wrote me he wanted to get to it when he was well. Well, I waited a long time but I never did hear from him. Then I wrote him and they told me he was still sick. I didn't write anymore until this year, I963. His wife answered the letter and told me he was dead."
Q. I understand you worked with Mr. Myer on those songs in 19'9. Would you tell us about some of the other tunes? SPOTTSWOOD: "May I interrupt here to clear up a few things John might have overlooked. Regarding Richland Women Blues and Waiting For You, both of these songs were Myer's words and John's melodies. The third song, Let The Merrnaids Flirt With Me, Myer sent John the words but also sent him Jimmie Rodgers' record Waiting For A Train and John got the melody off that record. He sent John six other records for John to get melody ideas but he didn't use a single one of them."
Q. Do you recall anything else about your tunes, John? HURT: "For all the rest of my tunes, I didn't get a thing off those records. I took the melody for Richland from a real old song called, Good Morning, Miss Carrie. I had to add a good many more notes to it, but that's where I got it lined up off of. Spike Driver Blues is a song about John Henry but it is not the tune John Henry. My song, Cow Hooking Blues was about what I was doing when the Okeh people came down there. I was a herdsman for a man on a plantation."
Q. I am quoting lines from the Time story on John Hurt: "It doesn't sound quite like the blues. The thumb strums a steady one-two beat on the two lowest guitar strings while two fingers play arpeggio melodies on the upper strings. There are no leaning, sliding blue notes, no full chords. The music is light and nimble, and the guitar accompanies the singer's baritone voice in note-for-note unison." Does this accurately describe John's singing and playing? SPOTTSWOOD: "It is a good description, except that John does not play unison behind his voice. He actually plays melody, but down there it is not called melody. It is known down in Mississippi as "making the guitar talk". There are some men who really play unison behind their voices but you hear the difference immediately and it is very strange sounding. Very good but strange sounding."
Q. Is there anything else we should include in this discussion? SPOTTSWOOD: "Another very nice thing John did last July was the recording of his entire repertoire for the Library of Congress. He was there for two days on the stage of the Coolidge Auditorium right where Jelly Roll was. And he was there for the same reason. There was singing and talking but nothing as extensive as the thing we are doing here. The Library material probably will be exclusively for the archives but there was very little documentary because of time limitations. "I would like to add something that I know John would never say about himself. Since the recordings for Piedmont last March, John's fingers have grown very, very nimble and much iess hesitant than the music you hear on the record. The point of the record was to get something out quick and we didn't know John's ability. Each time he has come back to Washington (this is his fourth trip), he has played better and better. Now he is a musician who is quite superior to the man who made those Okeh records 35 years ago. In this case, age has mellowed and improved the man rather than taken away. Every time I hear him I want to throw away all the material- in the can and start all over again. Mississippi John Hurt is rather special in many ways."
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Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2014 13:36:25 GMT -5
Thanks Alan. That is a great article.
It's so true, much of what MJH did was also covered in the old Country Music genre.
For example,
was recorded by the Carter Family in 1936.
and "Where Did You Sleep Lst Night"
was a huge hit for Bill Monroe
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Post by traveler on Feb 4, 2014 17:23:00 GMT -5
One of my all time favorites to listen to. So many great songs, Stack O Lee, Candy Man, Creole Belle, Good Night Irene etc...
In "Make Me A Pallet" when he sings "I'd be more than satisfied, if I could just catch that train and ride", you think he's talking bout a train, or a woman?
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Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2014 17:38:28 GMT -5
In "Make Me A Pallet" when he sings "I'd be more than satisfied, if I could just catch that train and ride", you think he's talking bout a train, or a woman? I understand the lyrics to this song go way back to the late 1800's. Perhaps different lyrics recorded over time - for example, Mississippi John Hurt recorded the same melody as "Ain't No Tellin" in 1928...same song, different lyrics. If I were to guess though, I'd say it's about a woman "walking all over her "man""
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Post by dadfad on Feb 5, 2014 9:50:21 GMT -5
Good topic, Jim. I have a couple John Hurt stories. I myself would also call John Hurt more of a minstrel than a bluesman. His fingerstyle is perfectly executed, as clean as it gets. Most of his music is gentle and easy and played in open-tunings as well as standard. I never met the man, but I wish I had. He sounds like he was a really nice guy as well as a fine guitarist. He and John Jackson, my sort-of mentor, were close friends. I think of him as maybe being a lot like John (J)... kind, wise, and a tremendous player. In my mind's eye when I think of John Hurt, I almost think of John Jackson wearing John Hurt's face with John Hurt's voice. Hard to explain. John (Jackson) also thought of himself as more of a minstrel than a "bluesman" because his repetoire and audiences were so varied. John used to like to tell the story of when he first met John Hurt.
They met playing the same Washington DC club in the 60s folk revival. John (J) was playing on a Friday night and John (H) was going to play on Saturday night. John (Jackson) said when John (Hurt) walked in and saw him for the first time, he (Jackson) was on stage doing "Candyman" which was one of John Hurt's old tunes. He (Jackson) said John (Hurt) walked up to him after the set, introduced himself, and said "When I walked in here I thought that was ME up there singin' Candyman" . And then John (Jackson) would always laugh after telling that story.
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Post by AlanB on Feb 5, 2014 10:49:40 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Feb 5, 2014 19:34:41 GMT -5
John (Jackson) said when John (Hurt) walked in and saw him for the first time, he (Jackson) was on stage doing "Candyman" which was one of John Hurt's old tunes. He (Jackson) said John (Hurt) walked up to him after the set, introduced himself, and said "When I walked in here I thought that was ME up there singin' Candyman" . And then John (Jackson) would always laugh after telling that story. I can see the look on John Jackson's face when that happened. [laughing] Thanks for those great stories.
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Post by AlanB on Feb 6, 2014 5:17:52 GMT -5
Reminds me of the super feature that Dick Waterman contributed to Sing Out (February-March 1967). What follows I've extracted from that because it is priceless.
Last April, John was in dual concert with Son House at Oberlin College. I told them that I would introduce Son and then there would be an intermission after he played. Following that, I would introduce John for the second half.
The first part of the concert went smoothly, and I came out to introduce John. As I was talking I kept glancing at the door waiting for him to appear. I didn't see him, and I thought that he had slipped in unnoticed and was sitting somewhere in the audience.
I built the introduction into a stirring climax and grandly announced, '. ..and now, ladies and gentlemen, Mississippi John Hurt!"
No John.
I was frantically looking all over for him but he had disappeared. I talked on and on. I talked about his early life in Mississippi, about his Okeh recordings, about his re discovery, about his guitar style.
Still no John.
I babbled on and on about how sweet he was, what a loveable rascal he was, how kind and gentle he was.
I was about to give up when I glanced up and spotted him. He was sitting in the front row of the balcony, peering intently over the railing with his face cupped in his hands. I just looked up at him.
"John, you can't play from up there. You have to come down here."
His mouth opened in surprise and he leaped to his feet and ran for the stairs.
I asked him afterward what happened. He looked at me and shook his head.
"Well, Dick, I'll tell you. I never had anyone say such nice things about me, and I got so that I was liking it so much that I didn't want to come down to bother you."
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Post by scott baxendale on Feb 8, 2014 10:41:40 GMT -5
scott baxendale Luthier/Musician at Baxendale Guitar I worked oh his famous Guild guitar! As a college student in 1973 we lived and breathed his music. I still use his fingerpicking style in my own music. www.baxendaleguitar.com/index.html
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Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2014 10:57:40 GMT -5
I worked oh his famous Guild guitar! Very interesting. There have been a lot of threads about this guitar around the internet.
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Post by JamesP on Nov 2, 2015 9:19:19 GMT -5
I must admit, it's so sad that the only times I seem to post about MJH is on the anniversary of his birth or death. But on this date in 1966, the world lost one of the greatest "songsters" IMHO. His legacy remains: www.blackpast.org/aah/hurt-mississippi-john-smith-c-1892-1966Enjoy his full album - Best of
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