ArtistInfo

Mississippi John Hurt

g, voc, 1893-1966 US, Mississippi
Singer / Musician / Songwriter of Blues
A.k.a. John Smith Hurt

John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt (July 3, 1893 or March 8, 1892 – November 2, 1966) was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. Singing to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances and parties while working as a sharecropper. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these recordings were commercial failures. Hurt then drifted out of the recording scene and continued to work as a farmer. Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, located Hurt in 1963 and convinced him to relocate to Washington, D.C. where he was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This helped further the American folk music revival, which had led to the rediscovery of man

Instruments

• Guitar
• Vocals

Genres

• Blues
• World
• Folk