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Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues - The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings

Track listing:
  1. Frankie 3:23
  2. Nobody's Dirty Business 2:54
  3. Ain't No Tellin' 2:56
  4. Louis Collins 2:59
  5. Avalon Blues 3:03
  6. Big Leg Blues 2:52
  7. Stack O'lee 2:57
  8. Candy Man Blues 2:46
  9. Got The Blues (Can't Be Satisfied) 2:52
  10. Blessed Be The Name 2:47
  11. Praying On The Old Camp Ground 2:37
  12. Blue Harvest Blues 2:53
  13. Spike Driver Blues 3:13

Notes

Mississippi John Hurt
Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 OKeh Recordings
Columbia/ Legacy
CK 64986

Tracklist:
01. Frankie
02. Nobody's Dirty Business
03. Ain't No Tellin'
04. Louis Collins
05. Avalon Blues
06. Big Leg Blues
07. Stack O' Lee
08. Candy Man Blues
09. Got The Blues (Can't Be Satisfied)
10. Blessed Be The Name
11. Praying On The Old Camp Ground
12. Blue Harvest Blues
13. Spike Driver Blues

Quick facts from liner notes:

All tracks written by J. Hurt, except 10, 11 (Traditional).
Tracks 1 & 2 Recorded Feb. 14, 1928. Memphis, TN
Tracks 3 - 6 Recorded Dec. 21, 1928. NYC, NY
Tracks 7 - 13 Recorded Dec. 28, 1928. NYC, NY
All tracks initially issued by OKeh except for track 6 (unissued).
According to liner notes, these "sessions were to be
John Hurt's only commercial efforts until his later
rediscovery, nearly half a lifetime later."


All tracks are monaural.
Super Bit Mapping, processed using NoNoise,
a noise reduction system developed by Sonic Solutions.
Archival Restoration and Mastering by David Mitson, Sony Music Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
CD released Oct. 8, 1996.

Tracks 1 & 2 Recorded Feb. 14, 1928. Memphis, TN
Tracks 3 - 6 Recorded Dec. 21, 1928. NYC, NY
Tracks 7 - 13 Recorded Dec. 28, 1928. NYC, NY

All tracks initially issued by OKeh except for track 6 (unissued).

According to liner notes, these "sessions were to be John Hurt's only commercial efforts until his later rediscovery, nearly half a lifetime later."


Hurt's latter day recordings after his rediscovery have somewhat obscured the importance of these debut sides, the ones that made his rediscovery an idea initially worth pursuing. They are the collector's items that made his rep in the first place and stand as some of the most poetic and beautiful of all country blues recordings. Hurt's playing is sheer musical perfection, with a keen sense of chord melody structure to make his bouncy, rhythmic execution of it sound both elegant and driving. Mississippi John's voice — he was 36 at the time of these recordings — was already a warm and friendly one, imbued with the laidback wistfulness that would earmark his rediscovery recordings half a lifetime later. His best known songs — his adaptions of "Frankie (& Johnny)" and "Stack O' Lee," "Avalon Blues," "Nobody's Dirty Business," "Candy Man Blues" — are all accounted for in their original incarnations here and the NoNoiser remastering on this collection is superb. Mississippi John Hurt would go on to re-record this material for other labels in the 60s with fine results, but these are the originals and the ones that much of his justifiable reputation rests on.