Talk:Mississippi John Hurt

Discussion

Wasn't he believed to be dead? I heard a story that he walked into the newport festival and people didn't believe that it was him.. "No way man, John Hurt is dead..." and then he picked up a guitar and convinced him. Can anyone confirm or deny this? thanks- reverb10

Sounds like the stuff of legend to me. Before the sixties, John Hurt only recorded a handful of songs, and that was way back in 1928. By the time of his rediscovery he had been mostly forgotten and all but retired from music. He would have had to have reached some legendary status in order for the next generation to have rumored his death. --buck 04:17, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Hurt appeared on the extremely influential Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music - which I suspect a huge percentage of attendees at the Newport Festival owned, with even more having heard it heard. So the story is possible. Steven R. (talk) 11:29, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

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Discography is not quite complete, as it doesn't include the Library of Congress recordings (D.C. Blues) and Vanguard's The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt.

Actually the released LOC recordings do not contain all of the material John recorded.

They omitted 3 spoken folk tales he told. See my story about this on John's website below.

Also, no royalties on any of John's music - records - cd's - dvd's - mp3's etc. have ever gone to his rightful heirs.

Frank Delaney American Folk/Blues Researcher Webmaster www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com

• I visited your site--interesting stuff. John Hurt is one of my favorite musicians and it's nice to see someone so committed to giving him his deserved recognition. Regarding the discography, all I meant was that it needs to be updated a bit if it's going to be called a "Compete Discography", since I noticed that some of the recordings in my collection are apparently not on the list. buck 05:55, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

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------------ 25 November 2005

Mississippi John Hurt Blues Foundation

On behalf of www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com I thank you for your inclusion of information about John Hurt on your web page.

We are the official website for John Hurt’s Family.

John’s Grand Daughter, Mary Hurt-Wright set up the John Hurt Blues Foundation as a non-profit foundation in 1999.

The primary objectives are:

• To preserve the family and musical history of Mississippi John Hurt.
• To expose disadvantaged urban and rural children to folk/blues music by providing educational opportunities and on-hand experience.
• To nurture any aspiring musicians in the field of folk/blues by providing performance opportunities and scholarship assistance.
• To promote an appreciation of African American culture as it relates to the foundation of music by providing students with an in-depth study.
• The Foundation is seeking Corporate and Individual support to fund these objectives.

Our webpage www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com includes information on John and his music, our foundation, our annual Blues & Gospel festival, and we have a section for Guitar Players which includes Guitar Tablature, lyrics, words, and other information about John’s music and guitar style.

We would invite you to link to our page, and I would be glad to answer any questions you have.

Thank You,

Frank Delaney Webmaster www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com mailto:frank@mtamicro.com

----21 August 2009----

Hi, line two is incorrect "He sang in a loud whisper..."

I'm not familiar with his early recordings but in his later ones he certainly didnt sing in a loud whisper! - he doesnt sing loud but thats something different.

I'm not sure of protocol here - if no one objects I'll consider changing it to something like "He sang to a melodious finger-picked guitar accompaniment." in which case the quoted reference will still be relevant. Thanks, Tom Tomosullivan (talk) 09:25, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Raising "importance" on WP:Roots Music

I believe M.J. Hurt deserves a slightly higher rating on WP:Roots Music. I'm going to go ahead and bump it up from "low" to "mid". I.M.S. (talk) 19:16, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Place of death

The intro and the infobox state that he died in Grenada, Mississippi. The section "Rediscovery" states that he died in Avalon. If there is uncertainty about where he died, it should be stated consistently throughout. Jwicklatz (talk) 03:01, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Eagle and LeBlanc state, explicitly, Grenada County Hospital. It's usually a pretty reliable source, but I know it is not infallible. I've tweaked the text accordingly - but, am happy to discuss here if there is continuing uncertainty. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:32, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

Birth date uncertainty

I've added a footnote, in an attempt to summarise the uncertainty over his birth date - based on the possible dates included in Eagle and LeBlanc's Blues: A Regional Experience. If anyone wants to suggest a better way of dealing with the uncertainty, I'm happy to discuss it here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:31, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)

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"Piedmont blues"

I've removed the reference to "Piedmont blues" from the infobox - it doesn't seem to be mentioned as characteristic of his style in the article. What alerted me to this was a mention in an article by Ray Templeton in the magazine Blues & Rhythm, in a discussion on blues reference books and online sources, where he says: "This is where I bang on yet again about how Wikipedia thinks Mississippi John Hurt plays in the Piedmont style...". Mr Templeton has never raised that point here - and I will remind him of that - but if reliable sources can be found that justify reinstating the genre, no problem. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:02, 30 March 2021 (UTC)