Review Summary: I ain't gon' tell no stories and I ain't gon' tell no lies.
Sometimes I'm blown away by how the simplest forms of music are oftentimes the most emotional. The lofi and stripped down sound of simply a man and his guitar singing the blues can conjure all kinds of feelings from joy to melancholy and everything in between. Mississippi John Hurt may be one of the earliest folk musicians as he started making music in the early 1920s. This compilation consists of 13 tracks originally recorded all the way back in 1928, but not released until the early 70s.
Mississippi John touches on subjects from love to murder to travel tales and good ole traditional blues. The acoustics are pretty simplistic for the most part, and honestly, that’s a huge part of the appeal. He never really veers from the few chords that he decides to play on any given track and yet everything sounds vibrant and fresh. There’s something about the raw production and the staticy reverb in the background that gives these recordings a certain charm. You can tell that these songs were recorded almost 100 years ago simply based on the production. John croons away all the pains of his life as the acoustics hum and the haze of the static soars above it all.
The beauty of folk music in general is that it doesn’t have to have a lot going on. You can make a downright superb folk album with just a guitar and some emotional vocals. Mississippi John most likely didn’t have access to some of the more bombastic instruments that bands do nowadays seeing as this was made almost a century ago. This is music in its rawest form and that makes it all the more gorgeous. Some may feel as though this is boring or lifeless, but in reality stuff like this laid the groundwork for folk music as a whole. It may not have a lot going on, but in the grand scheme of things, it really is a timeless recording of some of the earliest folk music on record.
