Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

Born March 8, 1893, John Smith Hurt — best known by his artist name Mississippi John Hurt — was an influential guitar player and country blues singer and songwriter. He grew up in the town of Avalon in the state of Mississippi, which is how he got his artistic moniker.

In the 1920s, Mississippi John Hurt made recordings on the Okeh Record label; one of those memorable songs was “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor.” Unfortunately, the recordings were not commercially successful, and Mississippi John Hurt returned to Avalon where he worked as a sharecropper and kept up his music chops by playing at dances and other community events.

Fast-forward to the 1950s, and Mississippi John Hurt’s recordings are rediscovered by a pair of musicologists who invited Hurt to move to Washington, D.C., to relaunch his career. In 1963, Mississippi John Hurt went on to record a new album, Folk Songs and Blues, and that same year, he performed before thousands of music fans at the Newport Folk Festival.

Three years later, Hurt died of a heart attack at age 73. But his syncopated fingerpicking style of guitar playing and his earnest vocals have influenced wave after wave of artists, including Taj Mahal, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan and Gillian Welch.

Back in Mississippi John Hurt’s hometown of Avalon, Mississippi, a three-room shack that was one’s Hurt’s home stood as a museum to the late musician. Sadly, on Feb. 21, 2024, just hours after being listed in the National Historic Register, the Mississippi John Hurt Museum burned to the ground, the 200-year-old building and everything inside it completely reduced to ashes. In the aftermath of the fire, the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation announced it “will work to create a new physical symbol of his legacy.”

We’ll remember Mississippi John Hurt today with his music; this is “Avalon Blues” from that 1963 collection, Folk Songs and Blues.

Classic Americana Playlist

External Link

Mississippi John Hurt Foundation – official site