Mississippi John Hurt

"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (July 2, 1892, Teoc, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an American blues singer and guitarist.
Life.
Hurt was raised in Avalon. He tought himself playing guitar at the age of nine. While he was working as a sharecropper, he played at local dances and parties. He did his first recording in 1928 for Okeh Records but was not successful. So he worked on as a sharecropper and played on at the local parties.
Two of Hurt's songs were included in the album "The Anthology of American Folk Music" and an Australian found a copy of "Avalon Blues". So the interest in finding John Hurt himself increased. In 1963 Tom Hoskins found him in Avalon and found out that his musical skill was still intact. He brought him to Washington, D. C. He started playing at greater festivals like the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. In his later years he often played in colleges, concert halls, coffee houses and also on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He also recorded three albums for Vanguard Records and recorded most of his songs for the Library of Congress.
Hurt influenced different music genres like blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. 
Death.
Hurt died on November 2, 1966 from a heart attack in Grenada, Mississippi.
Discography.
Last Sessions - 1966 (Vanguard)
Mississippi John Hurt 1928 Sessions (Yazoo 1065, Yazoo Records)
Worried Blues (Piedmont PLP 13161, Piedmont Records)
Mississippi John Hurt Today (VSD-79220, Vanguard Records)
Mississippi John Hurt Last Sessions (VSD-79327, Vanguard Records)
The Best of Mississippi John Hurt (VSD-19/20, Vanguard Records) 
Recorded live at Oberlin College April 15, 1966
The Candy Man (QS 5042, Quicksilver Records) 
Volume One of a Legacy (CLPS 1068, Piedmont Records) 
Folk Songs and Blues (PLP 13757, Piedmont Records)