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Rating: John Smith Hurt grows up in Avalon, Mississippi, and at the age of 9 he learns to play the guitar self-taught. Over time, he begins to make music at local parties, and gradually his technique becomes more refined, until he finds his own unique stylistic signature, characterized by fast arpeggios played with the fingerpicking technique and marked by a decidedly syncopated style. One fine day, after a brief audition, a producer from Okeh Records proposes him to record some pieces under the name Mississippi John Hurt to highlight his area of origin. The recordings took place in February 1928 and in December of the same year, total 13 and can be found collected in this “Avalon Blues – The Complete 1928 OKeh Recordings” also with a magnificent remastering.
None of these recordings will have commercial success, and Hurt, without much difficulty, will return to his main job, that is to say, as a farmer.
However, commercial failure does not go hand in hand with the quality of the music expressed. These pieces are a testament to Hurt's uniqueness, and his intimate and tranquil country blues, with a warm and melancholic voice that prefers to whisper, highlighting only certain key passages of the text. This is accompanied by a guitar with a lyrical but determined sound, and all this powerfully brings out the purity and truthfulness of his music and his person. If it wasn't clear, I'd like to emphasize that we are really far from what will be called delta blues, which is decidedly rougher and harsher. Already with the precious version of a traditional song like "Frankie" (which opens the album), it is clear that Hurt has a different approach, dry, and he has an impressive authority and naturalness to convey the message and emotions, and he really only needs the "minimum" to highlight all of this.
"Avalon Blues" is a breath of pure poetry, a song of love towards his deepest roots, an anthem for the country where he has practically always lived and from which he has never wanted to detach.
"Stack O' Lee" is another traditional song, in which a slight and melancholic wind seems to blow, and in the end, on the ground, lies the body of the cruel O'Lee, just executed, but with his sad song, Hurt seems to tell us that in the end no one won even though, as they say, justice has been done.
Another classic is "Candy Man Blues", a ragtime with the flavor of a rural ballad, sung with light humor that well suits the amusing text with its not-too-veiled double meaning. The album closes with another gem, the delicate ballad "Spike Driver Blues", which is Hurt's variation on another traditional song, namely, "John Henry".
Yes, dear John Hurt, with a face that resembles that of a frog that has just jumped out of the murky waters of the Mississippi, you have been able to make music in a simple manner and with a style I like to define as gently incisive. For this, and also for your way of living, you remain and will remain a unique figure in the entire history of the blues.
Tracklist and Lyrics
09 Louis Collins (02:59)
Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,
to see her son Louis leavin' home
The angels laid him away
The angels laid him away,
they laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away
Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,
to see her son Louis leavin' home
The angels laid him away
Oh, Bob shot once and Louis shot too,
shot poor Collins, shot him through and through
The angels laid him away
Oh, kind friends, oh, ain't it hard?,
to see poor Louis in a new graveyard
The angels laid him away
The angels laid him away,
they laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away
Oh, when they heard that Louis was dead
all the people they dressed in red
The angels laid him away
The angels laid him away,
they laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away
Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,
to see her son Louis leavin' home
The angels laid him away
The angels laid him away,
they laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away
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