Mississippi John Hurt - You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Live) John Smith Hurt, known as "Mississippi John Hurt," was born in '93 (ahem, I mean "1893...") in Teoc but grew up in Avalon, still in Mississippi.
He was an important figure in "Country Blues" as well as a central character in "Modal Music" and "Piedmont Blues" played in the eastern states.
His repertoire is a mix of blues, country, bluegrass, folk, and rock and roll, with a truly original style both in singing and in the sound of his acoustic guitar that influenced American popular music of the 20th century.
The eighth of ten siblings, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar at the age of 9.
Legend has it that his first (second-hand) guitar was bought for him by his mother for 1 $ & ½.
In the '20s, to make a living, he worked as a farmhand. (well, what did you expect...)
In '28, Hurt was sent to Memphis to record a 78 RPM record containing songs like "Frankie" and "Nobody's Dirty Business," and to New York for a session with his new songs including "Candy Man," "Corinna, Corinna," and "Stack O Lee Blues," which would later also be recorded by a guy named, ahem, Bob Dylan...
As the "Great Depression" approached, Hurt returned to Avalon to work again as a sharecropper, limiting his artistic activities to local parties and barn dances.
The name "Mississippi John Hurt" fell into obscurity until the early '60s when it was rediscovered thanks to the work of musicologist Tom Hoskins, who helped re-evaluate his figure after listening to the singer's old recordings. Based on the lyrics of "Avalon Blues," Hoskins decided in '63 to visit the musician in Avalon, Mississippi. Initially, he thought the song referred to the legendary island of Avalon rather than a real place, but unable to find that location on a recent map, he was able to pinpoint it (which is located between Greenwood and Grenada, Mississippi) only by consulting an atlas from '78 (ahem, I mean "1878...") and nothing, or rather, no thanks to my "wiki" from which these brief paragraphs were derived.
