Customer Reviews

Mississippi John Hurt (Book & 2 CD's)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book covers most if not all of Mississippi John Hurt's songs (26 songs total). This is essentially the same book as the older Stefan Grossman's Masters of Country Blues Guitar, The Music of Mississippi John Hurt, Edited by Aaron Stang. The two CDs are very high quality recordings of live performances, possibly not available elsewhere. Shake That Thing and Sliding Delta are included here. I've been unable to find MJH recorded version of these songs elsewhere. These recordings just by themselves are probably worth the price of the whole package. Songs are presented in tablature and standard music format. All the words for all the verses are present. The tablature is big and easy to read. There are several songs where the tablature transcriptions are just for the break. The parts that aren't tabbed out should be the easiest parts to figure out. Or, you can learn the break and just use that to accompany your singing. Again each song is represented, on a separate page, in standard music format, with the melody line and the cords noted. I wanted Coffee Blues spoon fed to me one loving spoonful at a time, in its entirety, so I'm a little disappointed that only the break was included as tablature. I'm sure that filling in the gaps will make me a better musician. That is the whole point isn't it?

Grossman is serious about the blues. A gifted teacher (see his DVDs here at Amazon), here he presents the student with an excellent and nicely legible Guitar Tab of 26 of Mississippi John Hurt's songs, including all the hits "My Creole Belle", "Louis Collins", and some not so known like, "Blessed Be the Name" and "Sliding Delta".

As with other Grossman products, excellence is the keyword. Grossman wants precision and he wants feel, but before you can "own" and begin to add signature to a song, you must learn it. He feels that you can best learn from the master himself, so included is two CDs of MJH's music, including the high quality live performances (with much improved recording over the 1920's and 1930's recordings), so it is a real treat to own.

Great for early guitarists who may not yet be true Intermediates, but also great for advanced guitarists who need the music of MJH!

His music is tougher than it sounds. Not for beginners. Haven't spent much time with the book as I'm trying to get my playing better.

You have to love John Hurt and this package with CDS is excellent value but the tablature is not an easy read if you are used to "on string" representation and I have found myself transcribing the tab into a format I am more familiar with. Still think it is worth buying - just a shame about the tab issue

enjoy

3thumbs

Although I love the music of MJH, in this instructional book the tabs are incomplete when compared to the CDs' musical performances, so you can only learn parts of the songs. Also, the tabs could be for the beginning, middle, or end of the song. The original recordings are great from a music history standpoint and general listening, but it is often very difficult to hear exactly what John is playing.

That said, I have still learned many useful and enjoyable MJH-style licks. I feel that the book was definitely worth the money at the Amazon price, but I am unhappy with its incompleteness. It would have been better, I think, if the anthology covered fewer songs with more detail.

I'm an advanced beginner - intermediate player. First, it's written in the "other" tab notation (non-standard). The songs are greatly simplified...basic fingerpicking, with none of the extra "licks", songs are also abbreviated. The 2 CDs have different songs, but the titles are electronically the same, making it difficult to move into a mp3 player. I wouldn't purchase again. The old recordings of the original music vary greatly in volume. It's very hard to find good transcriptions of any style fingerpicking music.

The book is excellent as well as the CD's - I play them under Itunes on my Mac. With a head set the clarity is even improved. My first introduction to what I called country blues in the 60's 70's was from Mississippi John Hurt and a man that published some country blues and ragtime books back in the old days. He was a great player and so is Stefan Grossman. I also liked Blind Blake and Blind Will McTell. I had a lot of Yazoo records in those days.

Well I have picked up my Martin D35 and began playing music and lyrics I have written as well as other guitar pickers and singers. Of course Mississippi John Hurt has always been one of my favorites.