"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (
July 2,
1892, Teoc,
Carroll County,
Mississippi -
November 2,
1966,
Grenada,
Mississippi) was an influential
blues singer and
guitarist. Raised in
Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing
old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the
1920s. In 1923 he often partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour (Carroll County Blues) as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. When Narmour got a chance to record for
Okeh Records in reward for winning first place in a
1928 fiddle contest, Narmour recommended John Hurt to
OKeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in
Memphis and
New York City (See Discography below). The "Mississippi" tag was added by OKeh as a sales gimmick. After the commercial failure of the resulting disc and OKeh records going out of business during the depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity working as a
sharecropper and playing local parties and dances.
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