Mississippi John Hurt Rediscovered CD

Although usually classified as a blues musician, Mississippi John Hurt shares little musical common ground with the Mississippi Delta bluesmen that were his contemporaries. Hurt's gentle approach to guitar (which he finger-picks expertly), his vocals, and his highly melodic repertoire fall more easily into the folk category. Indeed, Hurt's music inspired a generation of '60s folkies. REDISCOVERED collects many of the recordings that folk musicians value so dearly, anthologizing the four LPs Hurt made for Vanguard Records in the '60s.

Although well on in years when he made these recordings, Hurt plays and sings magnificently-no mean feat considering the challenges presented by his elaborate guitar style. Many of Hurt's signature tunes are here: "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," "Stagolee," and "Candy Man" all appear, although the omission of a few classics ("Louis Collins" and "Casey Jones," to name two) prevents REDISCOVERED from being the definitive single-disc compilation of Hurt's later recordings. Still, with 24 bona fide classics, REDISCOVERED isn't a bad place to start your Hurt collection. On the other hand, since Hurt's Vanguard albums are all classics, you might want to skip this disc and head straight for the original releases.