Stack O' Lee Blues

Mississippi John Hurt traveled from his farm in Avalon, Mississippi, to a freezing New York City studio just after Christmas in 1928 to record for Okeh. On "Stack O' Lee Blues," Hurt completely subverted the violent, traditional St. Louis murder ballad. While the lyrics recounted the bloody, historic barroom shooting over a Stetson hat, Hurt played an incredibly gentle, syncopated, cascading ragtime fingerpicking pattern. He delivered the narrative with his signature sweet, whispery vocal style, completely contrasting the brutality of the story with an unmatched, mesmerizing musical serenity that baffled commercial audiences but deeply influenced later folk revivalists.