John Hurt’s influence spans several music genres including country, blues and bluegrass, folk and rock n’ roll. In 1928 after recording two sessions for Okeh Records and facing commercial failure, blues legend Mississippi John Hurt disappeared back to his home in Avalon, Mississippi –- basically quitting music to become a sharecropper. Folk musicologist Tom Hoskins, a fan of Hurt’s, had always wondered what happened to Hurt and inspired by Hurt’s recordings, was able to locate him near Avalon, Mississippi. In fact, in an early recording, Hurt sang of “Avalon, my home town.” With his guitar playing skills still intact, Hoskins encouraged Hurt to move to Washington DC, and begin performing on a wider stage. A stellar performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new “folk revival” audience, and before he died in 1966 he toured extensively even performing on the Tonight Show.

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Mississippi John Hurt Museum