Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt was born on March 8th, 1893, according to the Hurt family Bible.
Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play guitar around the age of 9. He would learn from Rufus Hanks and later from William Henry Carson when he would frequent the family home. John would play Carson's guitar while he was sleeping. One night his mother mistook his playing for Carsons, and she scraped together $1.50 to buy him his first guitar, which he named "Black Annie."
In 1923 Hurt began playing with a white fiddle player named Willie Narmour, who would later win a recording contract with Okeh. Narmour would go on to recommend Hurt to the producers and help start Hurt's recording career. But after little commercial success and Okeh being wiped out during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to sharecropping in Avalon, Mississippi.
In the '50s, Hurts music was rediscovered when it was included on an American folk music anthology album. This sparked interest in pulling Mississippi John Hurt out of Avalon and back into the Blues scene.
In 1963 Hurt's performance at the Newport Folk Festival made him an immediate star, and he would continue to travel the circuit of colleges and coffeehouses.
The original home that Hurt grew up in is long gone, but the three-room shack he lived in has since become a museum to his legacy. ."
Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play guitar around the age of 9. He would learn from Rufus Hanks and later from William Henry Carson when he would frequent the family home. John would play Carson's guitar while he was sleeping. One night his mother mistook his playing for Carsons, and she scraped together $1.50 to buy him his first guitar, which he named "Black Annie."
In 1923 Hurt began playing with a white fiddle player named Willie Narmour, who would later win a recording contract with Okeh. Narmour would go on to recommend Hurt to the producers and help start Hurt's recording career. But after little commercial success and Okeh being wiped out during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to sharecropping in Avalon, Mississippi.
In the '50s, Hurts music was rediscovered when it was included on an American folk music anthology album. This sparked interest in pulling Mississippi John Hurt out of Avalon and back into the Blues scene.
In 1963 Hurt's performance at the Newport Folk Festival made him an immediate star, and he would continue to travel the circuit of colleges and coffeehouses.
The original home that Hurt grew up in is long gone, but the three-room shack he lived in has since become a museum to his legacy. ."
