Jan 21 2008
Mississippi John Hurt: Spike Driver Blues
Tonight we have Mississippi John Hurt, who is on Pete Seeger’s TV show Rainblow Quest some time in the mid 1960s. If I seem to be paying a lot of attention to fingerstyle guitar players I don’t apologize - it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.
Sittimg around the table with John and Pete are Hedy West, a folksinger from Northern Georgia who wrote the classic “Five Hundred Miles” and Paul Cadwell. Paul Cadwell was, or is, a banjo player, but seems to have fallen into obscurity. Any information that you have about his would be appreciated.
Pete Seeger financed the making of “Rainbow Quest” with his own money. Some might argue, after seeing this clip, that the money would have been better spent on a new sweater, but we are left with a historic collection of performances unavailable anywhere else. It is widely available on a collection of DVDs.
Share This
[…] Mississippi John Hurt sings a version of the song in which Stagolee is a feared figure. Billy Delions is boastful about his own potential for violence until he meets the bad man, cruel Stagolee, who even frightens the police, note the appearance of “Stag’s” Stetson hat in the song, showing a possible tie to the St. Louis incident. […]