Dead Wax

The Dead Wax Artist of the Week is Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966). We're going back to his final album, Today!, from 1966. We'll play three tracks from a vintage Vanguard pressing, including Spike Driver's Blues. John Smith Hurt grew up in Avalon, Mississippi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt). He was a share cropper and a farmer for most of his life, although he had a short, three record recording career in 1928. While these albums had little commercial success, they drew the attention of producer Tom Hoskins in 1966. Tom tracked John Hurt down using the lyrics in the song Avalon Blues, which references Avalon, Mississippi. Tom found John there and convinced him to move to Washington D.C. and record a few albums for the Library of Congress.