Week 8: MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT

Mississippi John Hurt, 1964, David Gahr photo (detail)

For the next two weeks we'll explore the songster tradition--a wonderful example being the music of Mississippi John Hurt. First, here's a download on box with a selection of his songs:

https://berkeley.box.com/s/ys2pvqpxyluf8hoaz3dj 

Note that the download also includes a handful of songs by other artists (Henry Thomas, and Jim Jackson's Old Dog Blue.) You'll need to add the xml file to your iTunes to see artists' names. However, Mississippi John Hurt's voice and guitar playing are unique--as are Henry Thomas'-so it should also be clear from listening who's who.

Reading and Online Sources:  A good biography of MJH by Philip Radcliffe is available in the Music Library. This would be a good time to dip in. Also, you've read Norm Cohen on the folk revival movement, now (at some point) read another version--Eric von Schmidt ("Baby Let Me Follow You Down," Reader pps. 101-116) This was the period (early 1960s) when Mississippi John Hurt, by then in his 70s, became known to a wide audience...

I'd like for you to have a sense of Mississippi John Hurt's life--both in Avalon, Miss. and later, with his unique presence in the folk music revival movement. Unfortunately, some of the best material for this (material I used to use for the class) is no longer available online. I assume it's being held under copyright restrictions for future commercial purpose. In particular a very good article by writer Jas Obrecht. Gone. So make use of the wikipedia articlefor starters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt  and explore for more online. And remember the Ratcliffe book, in the Music Library.

For a more personal (and personally enlightening) view, I'll attach something Betsy (Elisabeth Dubovsky) wrote several years from a story related to us one evening here in Berkeley by musician, poet and activist friend Max Ochs. Max was part of the circle of young people from the Washington DC area who located ("rediscovered") John Hurt in the early 1960s, in Avalon, Mississippi, invited him north, and helped introduce him to a wide and receptive new audience. Betsy's piece was published as a small chapbook edition, in 2005.  (Note: To maintain original formatting, you'll need to view online using MS word, or download before reading)

* With Mississippi John Hurt, by Max Ochs

You can hear John Hurt telling parts of his own story on Pete Seeger's 1960's television show, Rainbow Quest. I found the a post with the full hour-long segment--with other guests--so I recommend you go first to 21:04 for Mississippi John Hurt's  Lonesome Valley (with his beautiful introduction)--then skip to 36:25 for his Spike Driver Blues (John Henry). Followed by a jig medley by Paul Cadwell, and returning to John Hurt at 46:00. You'll get a sense of what Pete Seeger was all about as well. But be sure to listen at 46:00 to hear John Hurt tell how he got started on the guitar. They finish with a part of Goodnight Irene... (We can talk about the dynamic here between the four participants. And you may find the show interesting as a window into that slice of the folk-revival world. We'll discuss in class.)

* Mississippi John Hurt, Pete Seeger, Paul Cadwell, Hedy West- Rainbow Quest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j0Q7k7HSnA   (Rainbow Quest - Episode 36 --- 54 minutes)

* Mississippi John Hurt, Pete Seeger, Paul Cadwell, Hedy West - Goodnight Irene (Live) - YouTube
    (very last part of the show- Goodnight Irene 1-1/2 minutes)

Supplemental. There's also Tom Hoskin's interview with Mississippi John Hurt   (Tom Hoskins was the musician/aficionado who made that original trip from Washington, DC to Avalon, Miss. and managed to locate John Hurt in the early 1960's)  The tape is uneven in terms of interest, but if you listen selectively you can glean a lot about John Hurt's life--both from what he says--and even more, from the way in which he says it. In any case, it's good to be able to hear Mississippi John Hurt in his own voice. Compare this interview with this one, by musician and teacher Stefan Grossman:

* Reminiscences of Mississippi John Hurt.

 About 10 minutes in Grossman mentions Tom Hoskins. He also talks about John Hurt in Berkeley. Many other interesting observations. Well worth listening to!  (Stefan Grossman was a young musician at the time John Hurt was "rediscovered" and his stories are from first hand experience.)

There are also a several video clips posted on YouTube with live-footage of MJH doing his songs...

Songs for the week. All of Mississippi John Hurt's songs are a delight, and for projects you're free to work from the ones you like best. But for singing together, here are three I like in particular:

Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor
Beulah Land (Mississippi John Hurt - Beulah Land - YouTube - not on download)
Louis Collins

The lyrics for these three are in your Gray Songset.
Note: We used to be able to find all of Mississippi John  Hurt lyrics in Ken Whitfield's compilation from 2008. That link is no longer active, so my suggestion is to search for the lyrics song by song using MJH and song title.

John Hurt and Jessie

Pay particular attention to Avalon Blues, recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in one of those early sessions in 1928, and (because it made reference to Avalon, Miss., his hometown),  the route to his rediscover three decades later. It's on your Songster download, but I'll include a YouTube link (below) for convenience. You can find the lyrics on this Mudcat Thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=67223#1187009)   Consider where Mississippi John Hurt locates himself--the song speaks of this--and why. (And how he juxtaposes Avalon, Miss. and New York City, where he'd gone for the first time to make the recording.)

* Avalon Blues:  Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues - YouTube

Montage by Ron Anton Rocz

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During the second Songster week, we'll pull the camera back and look at (and listen to!) a wider variety of songster material--and consider how it brought together so many streams from American popular music of an earlier era. More to come...