Customer Reviews

Complete Studio Recordings 3-CD Set

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I actually have the three LP's this set represents, bought when they first came out. I played them so often back in college that they are pretty hopeless now, but I have never been able to let go of them. I just ordered this three CD set recently, and now I can officially move past the ancient vinyl into the digital age.

I have said elsewhere that John Hurt was a tremendous influence on me, both as a fledgling guitarist and as a newbie folk song aficionado. I won't belabor the point, I'm still a fledgling guitar player, but I get indescribable attacks of nostalgia and envy listening to them even now. There are other great musicians that play with a similar finger style, but Hurt seems to reach into some other 'space' to consistently create a total performance that can leave you blinking.

Hurt plays with an alternating thumb and several 'picking' fingers. No picks to change the tone of the guitar. The base line is so dead on the beat that the melody line seems somehow played by an eerie third hand. Hurt's voice defies description, kind of a sweet whiskey base. His singing works right in with the guitar playing, weaving into the guitar rhythm and creating syncopation out of unexpected silences. Call it singing a duet with the guitar. At 73, this man was at his peak, and the studio sessions are his final legacy. At 74, finally getting all the credit he was due, he died back at home in Mississippi.

The CD's are expertly re-mastered and some of the irritating balance and equalization problems that haunted the original LP's are gone. In fact, the recordings sound like they were made last week, not 40 years ago. If you want to own a good representative selection of the work of one of America's authentic masters of folk blues this is the perfect collection.

I toured and lived with John Hurt for some time in the 1960s as his "manager" and sometimes as his record label. His music recorded in the 1920s shows the vigor and vitality of youth - and I recommend it. His music from the 1960s shows the gentle soul of a great human being - as well as a master musician. There are more John Hurt studio recordings from that era, but these show him off well. Most people who hear the music of Mississippi John Hurt come to love it and him. You probably will too.

Mississippi John Hurt is the type of artist that when you hear him for the first time, it changes something in you. I heard someone say that once and didn't believe it until I heard for myself. The way I think about music, the blues, songwriting, and even life itself has been affected by Mississippi John Hurt. His music is some of the most beautiful, honest music ever made. Every time I hear it, it makes me wish that I was alive when he was, and that I knew him. All of his music, though it is typically refered to as "the blues," has such a joy of life behind it.

I know it sounds a little overly dramatic, but Mississippi John Hurt can change your life if you let him.

This is the place to start listening to John Hurt. The appropriately titled 'Last Sessions' (Disc Three) is not strong - it carries the leftovers from the 1966 sessions that produced all three of these albums. But the other two contain some of the finest folk-blues ever recorded. Hurt's ability to coax beautiful singing melody together with the deepest swinging rhythnm from his guitar is legendary, and never better than in these sessions, recorded just months before he died. And his voice, if a little wheezy at times, is capable of expressing the heights and depths of just about any emotion as he looks back over his whole life and experience. It's wonderful to hear him switch theme from hymns to work, adultery, murder and back to hymns again, all of them handled with complete conviction.

Most of the songs are his own classics. Avalon Blues, Pay Day, Candy Man, Make me a Pallet on your Floor, Stagolee etc are all here, and for me these are the finest, fullest versions. I often wonder why, simple and often samey in chord structure as most of them are, they move me as deeply as they do, but why bother? 'Gentle perfection', as Stefan Grossman once described it, is what we get from John Hurt.

A special word for the closing track of Disc Two (The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt): 'Nearer My God to Thee'. Yes, it's the old hymn. But oh, thank you John Hurt for revealing at last its full joy and beauty. If there's a heaven, he surely got there a few months after this performance.

MJH was a wonderful singer and fluid fingerstyle guitarist. I can't think of another artist where the guitar and voice are so perfectly matched. It sounds so natural and organic, but of course it took MJH years of practice to perfect his style. During that time, he played mostly for his own enjoyment and that of his neighbors -- he knew he was good, but he had no idea that anyone was interested in his songs. The fact that his 1928 recordings didn't sell well probably confirmed in his mind that his music would be made just for his own enjoyment.

I have just about everything released by MJH. He is my favorite country blues artist. To my ears, these Vanguard studio recordings are his best-sounding, best-produced, and best-performed material. These are the recordings I go back time and time again. [...]

Also check out his 1928 Complete Okeh Recordings to find out the birth of the legend. Terrific performances -- MJH played a little faster in his younger days -- and great sound quality for the era.

Mississippi John Hurt is one of the great blues man whose story seems to fit that romantic myth of what the blues and blues man are all about. He recorded music into the late 1920's (see 1928 Sessions released by Yazoo and Avalon Blues : Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings) and then disappeared back into the misty roads of Mississippi to be all but forgotten like so many others.

Then in 1963, Tom Hoskins and Mike Stewart, two young blue musicians from Washington, D.C. came across Hurt's 1928 Okeh recordings and decided to try to find some of the great old blues men, including Mississippi John Hurt. Using his song Avalon Blues as a starting point, they searched all the maps looking for Avalon, Mississippi. However, no town was found. Finally, an 1878 atlas listed Avalon as a rural road in Mississippi between the small towns of Greenwood and Grenada. Taking a chance, they went to Mississippi to find John Hurt. Stopping at a gas station near the area where Avalon was supposed to be, they asked the attendant if by chance he knew John Hurt. The attendant said sure, "about a mile down the road, third mailbox up the hill." Sure enough, they found him. John Hurt went with them back to Washington, D.C. and recorded and toured during the GREAT Blues revival of the 1960's until his death in 1966.

What a story!!! However, the music is the real treasure. Mississippi John Hurt possessed one of the truly great voices in Blues/Country music. Full of warmth, gentleness and power, he tells stories of times and events long since gone. Mixed with his crisp and attractive guitar work, Mississippi John Hurt is one of the GREAT storytellers of all time.

The packaging of three albums, Today!, The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt and Last Sessions, together for around $20 is an absolute steal. You will love these albums. Close the doors, turn out the lights and just listen and enjoy. Then check out the other recordings of this great artist.

First my review:

The recorded legacy of MJH falls into roughly five categories.

(1) his early 1928 recordings on the OKEH label which comprise around 20 tracks. Although they are quite listenable and of historical interest and importance they are not the most enjoyable of his recordings. (2) recordings from 1963 that are available on the Rounder label. The sound quality of these recordings is somewhat disappointing. For that reason alone I don't listen to them much except for the fact that they were heavily relied upon by people who transcribed his songs for instructional materials. (3) The Library of Congress recordings (also from 1963). These are perhaps the best. The sound quality is excellent and there is an informality to the sessions which makes it like having MJH as a house guest for the weekend determined to play you every song he knows. (4) The (these) Vanguard Recordings, which I think were recorded between 1967 and 1969. These rival and sometimes surpass the Library of Congress Recordings as far as the material goes. There is also a palpable sadness as you can detect a man near the end of his life aware of the fact that he may very well be making his final recordings. The audio engineers did a terrible job at Vanguard for a good deal of these recordings. How can you screw up recording just one guy with a guitar? If you try hard enough you can set the levels WAY off. That is how. (5) there is also a Live MJH CD from Vanguard. It's sound quality is pretty good and it is endearing to hear MJH talk to an audience, but I find it less compelling material wise than the studio recordings.

Listening to MJH makes you want to piick up the guitar and learn to play like him. The good thing about this is that if you really want to you probably can. Many of his songs have been transcribed and broken down in intructional books and DVDs. After going through a "beginning fingerpicking" DVD by Stefan Grossman you are probably ready to take on MJH.

Go for it!

And now for my question:

It's not obvious to me from the Vanguard website whether the boxed set is actually a newer digital remaster than the original digital re-masters from the mid 80s. As far as digital remasters go those ones were a bit of a disaster. When you put the disc into your player you would have to crank the volume on your stereo. As you might expect, the careless lack of attention to levels setting in the remastering process resulted in a mushy sounding guitar. I seem to remember that was also a problem with the vinyl Vanguard LPs, particularly the first one. Hopefully these CDs really are *new* remasters because most CDs re-mastered these days are remastered quite well.

My music management software for encoding MP3s has the capability of looking up CDs in an online database. Whenever I present it with copies of the old mid 1980s vanguard CDs it recognizes them as possibly being from the boxed set, so I hesitate to spring for the "new remasters" without really knowing if they are indeed recently remastered. Perhaps someone else could clear this up.

Not only is this the definitive box set of the definitive 20th century blues man, but it's exceeedingly well mastered. Every facet of the guitar sound comes through clear as crystal. This is a must have for any blues or rock aficionado.

It's hard to imagine acoustic finger-picking blues being any smoother, yet heartfelt, than this. This fabulously mastered collection assembles the three studio albums MJH recorded in the 70's following his "rediscovery". The music, sound, and feeling is all there - and it's an absolute PLEASURE to listen to - pop and scratch free - as it was recorded with relatively modern equipment in the 70's.
MJH's intricate and beautifully styled finger-picking represents a degree of confidant mastery that perhaps could only be created by 40 years of playing in relative obscurity working to please only yourself...and his engaging vocals compliment seamlessly.
These three disks are like a favorite sweater on a cool night, comfortably warm, and the fit is just right.

This compilation of Mississippi John Hurt's Vanguard recordings are classics. These albums were recorded in the 60's after he was re-discovered by a music industry full swing into folk, blues, and "old timey" music. The audio quality is superb, the songs are timeless, and the voice is amazing. A must have for any serious blues fan. Robert Johnson is not the end all, be all of delta blues. Check out Mississippi John Hurt.