Mike, I agree with you. Talking Casey is a great piece of bottleneck playing. I have heard nit-pickers say that Avalon Mis. is too high up to be considered part of the delta. Perhaps it was his placid personality; but interviews with Hurt don't reflect the racial oppression you get from some of the Delta people.

Jon, if that is the case I can slip Furry Lewis in as one of the First Generation Delta Bluesmen. Some of his songs, like "Goin' to Brownsvile" are very Delta-ish.

Rider, Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop has a lot of Hurt's music in Music/Tab form. There is a book called "The Music of Mississippi John Hurt" by Grossman Published by Belwin. Some of the things he did for Vanguard in the 60s Can be found in "Ledgends of Country Blues Guitar" by Grossman, published by Mel Bay. Neither book is very expensive. By the way, I think Hurt does bend a few notes in "Payday".

I was listening to Patton's "Spoonful" recently. He's gotta have that guitar on his lap because he seems to slide almost up to the soundhole. Perhaps he saw a Hawaiian steel guitar player. There were some around in the early 20s and probably before. Jimmie Rodgers made use of one in some of his recordings,

It has always been my suspicion that before the Delta style came along, the earlier musicians played an imitation of stride piano--like Leadbelly did and like the bluesmen further east (eg Blind Blake) did.

Murray