Mississippi John Hurt
- Birth name:
- John Smith Hurt
- Born:
- March 8, 1892?, Teoc, Mississippi, U.S.
- Died:
- November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi
Mississippi John Hurt (born March 8, 1892?, Teoc, Mississippi, U.S.—died November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an American country-blues singer and guitarist who first recorded in the late 1920s but whose greatest fame and influence came when he was rediscovered in the early 1960s at the height of the American folk music revival.
In Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues (2011), Philip R. Ratcliffe assesses the evidence for several birth dates claimed for Hurt—including two dates in March 1892 as well as May 7, 1893, and May 8, 1895—before choosing March 8, 1892, which appears on his gravestone and is supported by family memories. Born to formerly enslaved parents, Hurt grew up in the small town of Avalon, Mississippi. He taught himself to play the guitar, and, after leaving school at age 10, he performed at local gatherings.
Representatives of the Okeh division of Columbia Records “discovered” Hurt and persuaded him to travel to Memphis, Tennessee, and then later to New York City, to record. The records that resulted from those sessions caused little stir, and Hurt soon returned to Avalon, where he worked as a farmer and laborer, raising a family of 14 children. All the while he continued to perform, perfecting the distinctive three-finger guitar-picking and relaxed singing style that prompted musical archivist Tom Hoskins to go in search of him in 1963.
Rediscovered, Hurt became a favorite on the coffeehouse and college folk circuit for the next three years, performing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival and recording several albums (including some 90 songs for the Library of Congress) before he died in 1966.
In addition to popularizing blues standards such as “See See Rider,” he wrote and performed his own songs. Mississippi John Hurt was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1988.