American Epic: The Best Of Mississippi John Hurt'

 

'American Epic: The Best of Mississippi John Hurt', was released on June 16, 2017, and issued as a download by Sony Legacy and a vinyl LP by Third Man Records.  Today's freeload is a vinyl rip of the Third Man LP, with 24bit/96kHz sonics.

This is not the 1971 classic Vanguard Records release 'The Best Of Mississippi John Hurt', which was a live release recorded April 15, 1965, at Oberlin College.

This is the thirteen surviving recordings, thirty-five-year-old Mississippi John Hurt recorded in 1928 for the OKeh Records label.  There were three recording sessions overseen by Tommy Rockwell of Okeh Records: February 14, in Memphis, Tennessee, and two sessions recorded in New York City on Recorded December 21, and December 28.  These performances are cited by many as some of the greatest recordings of the 1920s.

John received $240.00 (roughly $4,534.00 in 2025 money) from the Okeh Company for his recordings, the Great Depression set in, and he never heard from them again.  He returned home to Avalon and lived there for over thirty years until he was located by musicologist Dick Spottswood.  This led to a booking at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, and a recording contract with Vanguard Records, which brought his music to a global audience in the last three years of his life.

John's 1928 sessions were first released on LP in 1971, and since then, there have been various reissues on LP and CD.

So, what makes this release so special?  Well, new sound restoration techniques developed specifically for the American Epic film series were employed to restore the thirteen 1928 recordings on the album.  Sound engineer Nicholas Bergh meticulously transferred the 78rpm records using reverse engineering techniques gained from collaborating with the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s in The American Epic Sessions. Subsequently, sound engineers Peter Henderson and Joel Tefteller meticulously restored these 1920s recordings, resulting in a greater fidelity, presence, and clarity than had been previously heard.

Mississippi John Hurt fans adore this album, but many find the title somewhat misleading, as it only includes the thirteen 1928 recordings. Many of their favorite songs were recorded for the Vanguard label and the Library of Congress in the early 1960s.

So, for the freeload, what songs other than the songs on today's freeload, do you consider "The Best Of Mississippi John Hurt"?