“I am in awe of the immersive sensuality of the lyrics, especially in the emotive vocals of Erin Harpe. Mississippi John Hurt, too, was deeply engaged with the blues as a reflection on mortality – a reminder that death was imminent and always near… A beautiful portrait of Hurt, drawn by Erin’s father, Neil Harpe, titled Coffee Blues, completes this package. Thank you, Erin.”
Full review:
The Boston-based Erin Harpe recorded five electro-pop albums with her first band, Lovewhip, before embracing the blues. Her transition began in 2002 when she released Blues Roots and continued with 2008’s Delta Blues Duets, recorded with her father, Neil Harpe. Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers were formed in 2010 and went on to win the Boston Blues Challenge twice, advancing to compete in the International Blues Challenge held annually in Memphis.
They released their debut recording Love Whip Blues in 2014, followed by 2017’s Big Road, 2018’s The Christmas Swing, and 2020’s Meet Me in the Middle, produced and recorded by Harpe in a duo setting with her husband, co-producer, and recording engineer Jim Countryman. The album was recorded while quarantined in their third-floor apartment in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Harpe refers to their home studio as Juicy Juju Studios, where she handled vocals, acoustic guitar, kazoo, and foot percussion, while Countryman played ukulele bass and provided backing vocals. Harpe mixed selected covers with her own originals.
John Smith Hurt, born in March 1893 and known professionally as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was born in Carroll County, Mississippi. His parents had both been enslaved and, as was common after the Civil War, continued working as sharecroppers for the same plantation owner. John taught himself to play guitar at the age of nine. William Henry Carson, a guitarist and friend of John’s mother, often stayed at the Hurt home, and when no one was around, John would secretly play Carson’s guitar.
As a youth, Hurt performed old-time music for friends and at local dances. In 1928, he got a chance to record for Okeh Records and took part in two sessions where he recorded twenty songs. While in Memphis, Hurt saw many blues legends including Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Bessie Smith. The records sold only modestly, and Okeh declined Hurt’s request to record again.
In 1952, musicologist Harry Smith included Hurt’s versions of “Frankie and Johnny” and “Spike Driver Blues” in his seminal collection The Anthology of American Folk Music. When a copy of Hurt’s “Avalon Blues” was rediscovered in 1963, it led musicologist Dick Spottswood to locate Avalon, Mississippi, and rediscover Hurt himself. He recorded the album Folk Songs and Blues, released in 1963 on Piedmont Records, which included his wistful line, “Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind.”
The ten-song album opens with “Candy Man,” perhaps the most popular of all Hurt’s songs. Every guitar picker I knew learned to play it, myself included, as Erin sings, “All you ladies, gather ’round, ’cause the Candy Man’s in town… you might get stuck on the Candy Man’s stick, a huh, a huh…”
“Casey Jones” follows — another very popular song later covered by the Grateful Dead, though they took several liberties in their version. Erin delivers it true to tradition: “That Casey Jones was a railroad man… I’d like to see that man before I die… if all I wanted was to see Casey before I die.”
“Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me” is probably the most obscure of these songs, one I’d never heard before. Erin sings sweetly, “Way out on the ocean… when I die, float my body out to sea, let the mermaids flirt with me.”
“Got the Blues (I Can’t Be Satisfied)” comes next as Erin laments, “Got the blues, can’t be satisfied, the blues, I guess it’s my time to die… baby, baby, what makes you act this way.”
“Richland Woman” is another well-known song, even covered by Maria Muldaur, as Erin moans, “If you come too late, your momma will be gone… come blow your horn, if you come too late your momma will be gone.”
“Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” deals with one’s mortality as Erin groans, “Make me a pallet on your floor… don’t forget I was a good man… let me down, make me a pallet on your floor.”
“Frankie” is another familiar song: “He was her man, but he done her wrong… you’re my man, but you done me wrong… you’re still my man, but you done me wrong.”
“Nobody’s Dirty Business” is a tune seldom heard, as Erin cries, “Ain’t nobody’s business but mine, ain’t nobody’s dirty business but my own… I’m going down to Pensacola, nobody’s business but my own.”
“Stagolee” is one of the most widely known songs, with countless versions sung by different artists. Erin belts out, “Billy and Stagolee got into a fight… that bad man Stagolee… all you people gather ’round, he’s a bad man, oh, cruel Stagolee.”
The closer, “You Are My Sunshine,” is a classic that Erin delivers with heartfelt warmth: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you’ll never know, dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
In retrospect, I am in awe of the immersive sensuality of the lyrics, especially in the emotive vocals of Erin Harpe. Mississippi John Hurt, too, was deeply engaged with the blues as a reflection on mortality — a reminder that death was imminent and always near. Erin thanks the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation, Mary Frances Hurt, Caffè Lena, Kasey Kelley Allen, and everyone at Vizztone.
A beautiful portrait of Hurt, drawn by Erin’s father, Neil Harpe, titled Coffee Blues, completes this package. Thank you, Erin.
(Written by Richard Ludmerer.)