The Blues Road: Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt

I am writing this, sitting in a vast bedroom above Morgan Freeman’s Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Tim and Hugh are downstairs having a beer and playing blues. Check out the website http://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/

For the uninitiated, it is reputed that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the junction of Highway 61 and 49 at Clarksdale in exchange for the ability to play the blues with such mastery and skill. Whether he did or not, Johnson revelled in the suspicion of his links with the Lord of Darkness. He certainly played great blues and it was with this in mind that we drove out of Greendale this morning across the Tallahatchie River to little Zion Church to one of the 3 reputed graves of the great master. This was the last site to claim the body of Johnson but probably the most likely as there are witness accounts of his death close by on the Hopson Plantation and his subsequent burial at Zion Church. Everything to do with him is a mystery but we felt honoured to be standing at the side of his grave.

In homage to Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues

WABD Radio out of the Delta. Music was blaring out but not a soul to be seen!

My great Blues hero is Mississippi John Hurt, a bluesman/balladeer who’s music gives us a glimce of the music forms that the black musicians were playing at the start of the 20^th Century. John Hurt was a country boy who learnt the guitar at the age of 8, recorded in Memphis in the 1930s and was lost to the world until he was discovered again in the 1963. He had been untarnished by what had gone in between and did not even own a guitar. His fresh finger picking style was recorded on 3 albums. His career was short and he died from heart disease 3 years later.

The stores in Valley, where John Hurt would often sit and play on the porch

The boys are off to play!

Playing on the porch of Mississippi John Hurt's shack

We were lost and looking for his grave in Avalon and accidentally stumbled on his museum and old home in Valley. We first met a local farmer called JR Minga who had known John as a neighbour and told us tales about this humble, gentle old man. JR was in to Chuck Berry at the time and hadn’t realised that he was living next to a legend. We then met Art Browning who was instrumental in setting up the Museum and the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation. Art was a great guitarist and has devoted his retirement to mastering John’s songs and promoting his legacy.

Art and the boys sat on the porch of John’s Shack and played in the sunshine. He also took us to his grave and showed us many of the photographs and mementos that he has collected over the years. What an honour to visit the home of the great bluesman and talk with people who knew him. This trip turns out to be one step better everyday. A special thanks to Art for the time that he devoted to us and for his enthusiasm about my hero.