Vox Populi

Mississippi John Hurt (1893-1966) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Mississippi. His parents had both been slaves and as was common after the Civil War, they continued working on the same plantation, now as sharecroppers, for the same master. John taught himself to play guitar at the age of nine. To earn extra money, his mother took in boarders. One of them, William Henry Carson, who played a guitar and was a friend of John’s mother, often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a woman who lived nearby. When no one was around, John would play Carson’s guitar. As a youth, he played old-time music for friends and at dances or at the local general store. His syncopated playing style was ideal for dancing. He worked as a farmhand and sharecropper, sometimes working for the railroad into the 1920s. On occasion, a medicine show came through the area. Hurt recalled that one wanted to hire him: “One of them wanted me, but I said no because I just never wanted to get away from home.” >>>