Mississippi John Hurt-Monday Morning Blues

There's nothing Hollywood about Mississippi John Hurt. He tells it like it is and talks about what he knows. And you can tell Hurt knows something about the Monday Morning Blues. No matter where you are or where you're headed this fine Monday, I bet you got a case of the blues. The weekend seems like a distant memory, future salvation seems so far away. But be strong, and know that John Hurt's got your back with a story that makes your case of blues seem trivial by comparison.

In a year marked more and more by the pressures of record labels (Lupe and Frank Ocean), Mississippi John Hurt's music is about as about as pure as you can get. Telling the tale of a man who has to go to the mines as a punishment for an unknown crime, you can't help but feel for the guy, with a fate so cruel, and yet on top of it, he can't even find his Monday morning shoes. While the story is sad, the music is about as alive as you can get. So wherever you are this Monday, jam with the eternal Mississippi John Hurt and help put your Monday morning blues behind ya.

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Mississippi John Hurt Monday Morning Blues

Mississippi John Hurt-Salty Dog

I remember when my family first got a cd player. My parents were in starving-student mode for the majority of my childhood, and we had a hulking black tape/radio player until I was about seven or eight. From that point till my mid-teens, a few cds dominated my household, a random medley of gifts and albums of bands we saw live at the nearby University of Florida Center for Performing Arts. We played these albums over and over, with a patience for listening to the same songs that I seemingly lost years ago, replaced by an itch to always find something new. Among the few albums that were on constant repeat was the Best of Mississippi John Hurt.

Mississippi John Hurt is about as classic as they come. Just an oldetimey blues man, singing on stage with a guitar, John Hurt’s songs are about the simple things-his hometown, the Monday morning blues, problems with women-the sounds of regular life on the delta. What makes the songs unique is Hurt’s extraordinary voice. Thick, gravely, and aged with the years, Hurt’s voice is a weathered instrument that plays an amazing duet with his guitar. The two together sound even better live, and the album that this jam is on is the very essence of live, with Hurt making a mistake or two alongside the laughter and clapping of the audience. But in the end, it just adds to the realness of the track. I never did know what a Salty Dog, and still don’t, but Hurt makes everything sound so good, that after listening to this jamandahalf a few times, it’s hard not to want to be someone’s salty dog too.

Mississippi John Hurt-Salty Dog (http://jamandahalf.com) by jamsfordays