The story behind these sessions is typical for bluesmen of Mississippi John Hurt's generation. Hurt made some milestone recordings in the late '20s and then disappeared. He was tracked down by a young blues hound in the early '60s, at the height of the folk/blues boom. In 1964, Hurt ran through his influential repertoire for a series of recordings by the Library of Congress. This first installment of the series is thick with Hurt classics ("Avalon Blues," "Candy Man," "Stackolee"), as well as winningly quirky obscurities like "Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me." Age had altered neither Hurt's gentle, genial vocal style nor his nimble country blues fingerpicking.