Mississippi John Hurt – Today! [Stereo] (Craft Recordings Bluesville Acoustic Sounds Series Edition)

(AAA) — Lacquers cut from the original analog master tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab at Blue Heaven Studios.

The Bluesville Series from Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds!

Inspired by the original Prestige label imprint established in 1959

Today! by Mississippi John Hurt

All-analog mastering by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab

180-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Replica tip-on jacket

Obi with notes by Scott Billington

Highlighting trailblazing blues musicians from legendary labels

"This is not a Hi-Fi spectacular show off the system for your audio buddies recording. Like John Hurt's music, it is modest, quiet and restrained. It's a beautiful, intimate listening album. Craft's Bluesville reissue sonically was nearly identical to my original stereo copy. Treble is very slightly more extended. Low guitar notes are a little more defined and tuneful. The ultra quiet, high quality QRP vinyl, superbly pressed, was a significant improvement over Vanguard's mid-60s vinyl, creating more space and air around Hurt and a slightly deeper, wider soundstage. Craft Recording's "Today!" is a superb reissue, and it is recommended to fans of fingerpicking and acoustic blues." — Music = 9/11; Sound = 9/11 — Joseph W. Washek, TrackingAngle.com. Read the entire review here.

John Smith Hurt, known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He taught himself to play guitar at the age of 9, and would play dances and parties while working as a sharecropper as he grew into adulthood. His first recordings, made for Okeh Records in 1928, were commercial failures. However, Dick Spottswood and Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, located Hurt in 1963 and persuaded him to move to Washington, D.C. He was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964.

This helped further the American folk music revival, which led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt performed on the university and coffeehouse concert circuit with other Delta blues musicians who were brought out of retirement. He also recorded several albums for Vanguard Records. Hurt returned to Grenada, Mississippi, in 1966, where he passed away at the age of 73.

Today! is the second studio album, but third body of work recorded by Hurt. It was released in 1966 by Vanguard Records. This album contains some of the first commercial material recorded after his "rediscovery" in 1963, and is the first he recorded for Vanguard. The album spans several genres and styles of music, ranging from traditional blues andfolk songs, to country, to African-American spirituals. In 2009, the album was one of 25 selections that were added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

According to Rolling Stone, Hurt is "the rare Delta blues legend who bowls you over with grace, generosity, and warmth." (AAA) lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans from the original tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP complete with a tip-on jacket.

(Above description from AcousticSounds.com)