Like many of today's most talented folk performers, singer and songwriter Peter Case was profoundly influenced by the music of Mississippi John Hurt. Peter recalls that as a youth of 13 he discovered one of Hurt's album's in his hometown library. "I took it home and it really moved me. It was my door into blues music." Hurt, who lived from 1892 to 1966, was a leading bluesman in the late 1920s, when he made a number of popular recordings for Okeh Records -- "Frankie and Albert," "Stagolee," "Make Me a Pallett on the Floor," "Candy Man Blues," to name a few -- and toured throughout the eastern United States. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, he returned to his hometown of Avalon, at the edge of the Mississippi Delta, where he farmed and performed for town dances and church events. "Rediscovered" during the folk music revival of the 1960s, he spent the last years of his life touring and recording. Music writer, Stacey Williams, describes Hurt's performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival as set apart from the great Mississippi Delta bluesmen, "gentle and unpressured, carrying on a quiet, somewhat philosophical conversation with his guitar, creating an almost introspective chamber music quality." This year, Peter helped open the door to this music to a new generation of fans, recording, producing, and releasing Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard) featuring two of the Freight's favorite performers, Dave Alvin and Bill Morrissey, along with Beck, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, John Hiatt, Taj Mahal, Gillian Welch, Geoff Muldaur, Ben Harper, Victoria Williams, Chris Smither, Mark Selby, and Alvin Youngblood Hart. Tonight Peter, Dave, and Bill pay tribute to Hurt with an in concert performance of this music along with their own originals that bear the mark of Hurt's influence.