"Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God. We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah's colorful language, the 'scarecrows in a cornfield' (10:5). They are portable and completely under the user's control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry."
- David F. Wells
Monday, February 15, 2010
I discovered Mississippi John Hurt quite by accident a few weeks ago surfing around YouTube. Started consuming everything of his I could. One difficult night I listened to his songs on repeat, and God really ministered to me through them. There's something about his voice . . . I don't know, maybe it's just me. My friend Jason heard about my newfound appreciation, and being a long-time fan of the man's music, he sent me almost Hurt's entire catalog.
Here's one of the few video clips of Mississippi John Hurt available online, filmed shortly before his death on some television program along with Pete Seeger and Hedy West.
There's a really interesting story here. Hurt recorded a couple of albums in the early 20s that were commercial failures and then basically disappeared into obscurity for forty years, working as a sharecropper and playing the occasional party. Having grown to love the existing recordings, in 1963 a scholar tracked him down in Avalon, Mississippi and brought Hurt into the spotlight. Hurt played the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and did some more recording, a long time coming. He died in 1966.
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Comments on "You Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley":
4. Daniel Ross
- 02/16/2010 8:06 am CST
A few comments:
1.) YES!
2.) That chorus ("walk that lonesome valley") was also used in the old song "The Reverend Mr. Black" that the Kingston Trio did (I used to listen to it on my parents old 45s when I was growing up). I have great memories of listening to that and imagining the story played out in my head.
3.) In "O Brother ..." The Fairfield Four did it and, yeah, it was much more haunting. Not better, just different.
4.) If you decide to go further in your exploration of Delta Blues, read Robert Palmer's fantastic book "Deep Blues," buy yourself some Robert Johnson or some Charlie Patton ("High Water Everywhere" or "Oh Death" are excellent choices).
5.) I know everything is subjective in the matter of taste in music, but this, to me, is about as real as it gets. I've always said if I get to a deathbed situation, I want delta (acoustic) blues put on (on a record player preferably) while I die. It's that good.
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Awesome stuff. I love roots music.
Do you remember the cover of this that was in O Brother Where Art Thou?. It was a lot less slap-happy.
He's pickin the heck out of that guitar :-)