When I first heard "Spike Driver's Blues" I got tingly. It's not really blues, strictly speaking. More like a rare window into black folkstyles that might have help shape the blues. I try to imagine that it might have been originally played on a clawhammer banjo.

I vowed when I bought an acoustic that I would learn that song. It took a while but now I play it almost effortlessly and people love it. There's something about the spell it kind of casts over you. It's so haunting. It's a man enslaved on the railroad planning his escape back to Colorado before that spike driver's hammer does him in like it did po' ol' John Henry. Amazing song!

And when you sing it, you have to sing it like John did. You have to pronounce "hammer" as "HAM-maaw"--seriously, it doesn't sound right if you don't.

The guitar line just repeats. It doesn't vary although I've worked in all kinds of interesting variations as I cycle through it. A folkie I know loved it when I played it for him but he already knew it and could play it better than me (at least I liked how he played it more than I like how I play it) but he admitted he can't sing it and play it which I do quite easily in a perfect John impersonation.

When I was buying my last acoustic, I was trying it out close to a lobby where parents could sit while their kids took their lessons. I started picking out "Spike Driver's Blues" and this longhaired kid in one of the chairs suddenly sat up and looked over at me. Then he got up and approached me smiling and said, "That's Mississippi John Hurt, isn't it?" I nodded. "Sure is," I said, "Spike Driver's Blues." I played the cycle through a couple of times working in some of my more impressive variations and he watched for a while and then said, "That's cool!" So it pays to know your MJH, folks.