I met Mississippi John Hurt in the fall of 1963. He was in the Washington D.C. area at the time, recording for Dick and Louisa Spottswood, playing gigs, mostly at the Ontario Place Coffee House, and getting ready to burst on the national scene at the Newport Folk Festival. He’d been discovered tending cattle in Avalon, Mississippi a few months earlier and there was a bit of a buzz about this legendary musician resurfacing after having been “lost” since the late 1920s. He was in his early seventies; I had just turned twenty-three.

John was the first musician of his sort I’d ever heard live. I can’t really say he was a blues musician because this doesn’t describe his talent sufficiently. Folk-blues-balladeer may be better. But whatever he played, whatever he sang, I was enthralled, just like everyone else who heard him. He made a lasting impression on me and it wasn’t just because I was young and impressionable. I’d never heard anyone like him and today, over forty-five later, I still haven’t.

One of the best memories is listening to him at Chez Spottswood. In the living room surrounded by thousands of old records, or in the kitchen, accompanied by Skip James, playing a little spinet piano that was not well-tuned, or just sitting on the back porch. One kitchen jam session was recorded and a few years ago I transferred the tapes to a CD and relived a nearly fifty year old afternoon musicale.

On occasion I drove John to work. This was fine with me; it meant I’d get a good seat and would be required to stay all night. He usually wanted me to stop along the way and buy him a half pint of Old Hickory, which I did even though it meant I’d have less on reserve to buy another Coca Cola at Ontario Place.

One day in late 1963 I took my small 35mm Kodak along. I took two flash pictures that night. I would have taken more, but some folkie yelled at me that I was spoiling the mood. Maybe, but I’m glad I took them. That mood vanished forty-five years ago and those two pictures are still around. The original Kodachrome was misplaced, this was long before I began taking serious photographs, but I somehow I managed to save two prints, one of which we’ve scanned and managed to restore.

John Hurt is also still around and going strong in 2010, at least in terms of legacy. In an issue of Newsweek in 2008 I spotted a picture of John with Skip James and if you look on Amazon.com today (July 8, 2010) 154 CDs and LPs are listed. This is quite remarkable for a guy who recorded a handful of songs in 1928, went back to Mississippi and stayed there, until he reluctantly returned in 1963. He didn’t love his new fame unconditionally, but continue to record and make personal appearances until his death in 1966, and the timeless music he left behind remains as alive today as it was in an OKeh studio in New York in 1928 or the Ontario Place Coffee House in 1963.