But Of Course

A moving and hypnotizing requiem to one of the true blues greats? Check! As Fahey, the original American Primitive guitar maestro, once said about this composition himself: "He was in his quiet way, a very great man, and I deeply mourn our loss of him. So, I wrote this requiem for him, about him, but I play it the way Charley Patton would have played it, had he ever thought of such a thing, which of course he never would have..."

John Fahey - Requiem For John Hurt

Hurt Me

"One foot, another foot..." Finally got my copy of the new HGM album, and I'm glad to say it's a stunner once again. Sweet as John Hurt indeed.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Sweet As John Hurt

And while we're on the subject, here's the blues master from Avalon himself.

Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O'Lee Blues

One more? Why not. Golden Gunn happens to be a limited edition, vinyl only collaboration between New York picker Steve Gunn and Hiss Golden Messenger's M.C. Taylor. Their lazy but oh-so-funky desert rock (imagine J.J. Cale writing the score for a spaghetti western) definitely deserves a wider audience.

Golden Gunn - The Sun Comes Up A Purple Diamond

Nobody´s Business

Two variations - out of many - on the same old classic, one blues and one country. Mississippi John Hurt´s version from 1928 is more menacing by far: "Some of these mornings gonna wake up crazy, gonna grab my gun and kill my baby..." Blind country picker and Skillet Licker Riley Puckett´s 1940 take mentions morphine and cocaine driving the singer crazy, but has its funny moments, too: "She runs a weenie stand, way out in no-man´s land, oh boy that´s where my money goes..."

Mississippi John Hurt - Nobody´s Dirty Business MP3

Riley Puckett - Nobody´s Business MP3

Avalon Blues

Some time ago a friend of mine (hey bud!) asked me if I had any albums by Mississippi John Hurt, so I promised to burn him a copy of Avalon Blues. I finally got it done tonight, and decided to share it with you too, dear reader. All because Avalon Blues (subtitled The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings) is one of the finest country blues collections you´ll ever hear.

Hurt was a true original. He was self-taught and stylistically indebted to no one. The reason for that: no blues singer that could have influenced him ever played near Avalon, the hamlet in northwestern Mississippi where Hurt (born in 1892) lived most of his life. He got his break recording for the Okeh label in ´28 by word of mouth, and travelled to Memphis and New York City for two now legendary sessions. But soon after the Depression hit the States, Okeh went out of business and Hurt - apparently not embittered at all - went back to sharecropping and playing local jukejoints. "New York´s a good town, but it´s not for mine..."

He finally got his reward when he was rediscovered in the sixties folk revival and enjoyed quite a lot of success playing live and making albums until his death in ´66. Shame he didn´t live to see the royalty cheque he was entitled to when Dylan did a great cover of his Frankie (now titled Frankie & Albert) on Good As I Been To You in ´92.

Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie MP3

Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues MP3

Bob Dylan - Frankie & Albert MP3