July 3, 1893 - November 2, 1966
Birthplace: Teoc, Mississippi

Mississippi John Hurt was a songster whose repertoire included
a caressing, gentle version of the blues, handed-down folk
songs, light rags, and ballads. Apart from a brief recording career
in the late 1920s, Hurt lived nearly all of his life in obscurity until
being rediscovered by folk fan Tom Hoskins in 1963. During the
three years before his death in 1966, Hurt performed his
soft-spoken, finger- picked blues and folk tunes at college
coffeehouses and numerous festivals, including the Newport Folk
Festival (1963 to 1965). A favorite with the early-'60s folk crowd,
who were touched by his untroubled voice and equally tranquil
guitar picking, Hurt also appeared on national television,
performed in the blues documentary This Hour Has Seven Days,
and recorded three albums for Vanguard Records.

Hurt was raised in Mississippi, where he taught himself how to
play guitar. He worked as a farmhand and often performed at
local dances and socials. During this time he joined the Nuraw
Blooze Band, led by the legendary Jethro T. Nuraw, and, through \
him, met and performed with such future blues greats as Charlie
Jackson and Charley Patton. Hurt was seduced away from the delta
by an Okeh Records talent scout in 1928 and sent to Memphis and
New York where he recorded thirteen sides, only seven of which
were ever released. Hurt returned to Mississippi where he continued
to do farm work and occasional performances in the Avalon area until
age seventy-one, when Hoskins found him.

Hurt was a major influence on the many folk artists who came of
age in the early l960s. Everyone from Bob Dylan down has paid
tribute to Hurt's inventive finger-picking technique and his humble
brand of blues.