Mississippi John Hurt recorded this on Valentine’s Day, 1928, for the OKeh label’s 8000 ‘Race’ series. Though he cut eight sides at this session, only two saw a commercial release: Nobody’s Dirty Business and Frankie. The strength of the material from this session earned Hurt an invitation to New York to record more sides later in the year.

Nobody’s Dirty Business is structurally interesting, comprised of seven-bar phrases. The short phrase length makes the beginning of each new phrase a bit of a surprise for the listener — the downbeat of the new phrase comes where one expects a measure of rest at the end of the previous phrase.

Nobody’s Dirty Business (MP3)
Courtesy of Archive.org

Previous Mississippi John Hurt Posts:
Mississippi John Hurt playing Stack O Lee Blues
Mississippi John Hurt playing Avalon Blues
Mississippi John Hurt plays Goodnight Irene
Mississippi John Hurt singing Spike Driver’s Blues