Topic: New Mississippi John Hurt Site Is Open

[nancyel]

Great new site I noticed the other day by Fred Bolden, Mississippi John Hurt's nephew who spent much quality time with him and tells about it. The site is at: http://http://www.mississippijohnhurtnews.com

He also has in the forum section a place where you can discuss music "unrelated" to John. I found the thread "unrecorded songs by MJH" extremely interesting. As a longtime fan of Mississippi John Hurt, from this site you can learn many things about the man that we never knew.

[lindy]

Nancy--

Thanks for the heads-up on this website, made that much more interesting because it's from a descendent of John's.

I also want to add some encouragement to all Weenies and Weenettes who are anywhere within reasonable driving distance of Avalon on July 5 to attend the annual Mississippi John Hurt Blues & Gospel Festival.

Essentially it is a two-day open mike, with anyone and everyone invited to play their favorite song on stage. The year I attended (two months before Katrina), on that Sunday I was hornswoggled by Andy Cohen into playing "Frankie" as the first performer on the stage, around 12 noon. Two hours later, Andy did a nice 30 minute set with his partner (please forgive me for not remembering her name), and at 6:30 Alvin Youngblood Hart played 7-8 songs. Therefore, on my resume it says, "Opened for Andy Cohen and Alvin Youngblood Hart, July 2005." Don't ask, don't tell.

Nice people involved in that event, and you get to spend time wandering around inside the actual cabin that John lived in before he was rediscovered. Good b-b-q, too. In addition to the website that nancyel mentions, you can also get info at http://www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com/.

Lindy