Hurt developed his ragtime, blues, and popular song influenced guitar style in the early years of the 20th Century. He recorded in 1928 in Memphis and in New York City. When the market crash came in 1929, the recording industry went down as well, taking John Hurt’s recording career with it. The greater nation didn’t hear from him again until 1963 when he was ‘re-discovered.’ He died in 1966, having transformed the folk revival with his gentle kindness, beguiling manners, and deceptively simple sounding guitar style. We’ll explore Hurt tunes in keys he commonly played in with a focus on developing a strong and steady righthand as we play steady alternating bass on the low strings while integrating melodic picking on the treble strings.
A familiarity with fingerpicking is necessary for this class. (If you only play with a flat pick, put it in your pocket and play with your fingers until July……;-)…) Int/Adv