While growing up in the small town of Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar and, after leaving school at age 10, performed at local gatherings. Representatives of the Okeh division of Columbia Records discovered Hurt and persuaded him to travel to Memphis, Tennessee, and then later to New York City, to record. The records that resulted from those sessions caused little stir, and Hurt soon returned to Avalon, where he worked as a farmer and labourer, raising a family of 14 children. All the while he continued to perform, perfecting the distinctive three-finger guitar-picking and relaxed singing style that prompted musical archivist Tom Hoskins to go in search of him in 1963.

Rediscovered, Hurt became a favourite on the coffeehouse and college folk circuit for the next three years, performing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival and recording several albums (including some 90 songs for the Library of Congress) before he died in 1966. In addition to popularizing blues standards like “C.C. Rider,” he wrote and performed his own songs.