Requiem for John Hurt

The opening track of Requia is dedicated to the country blues singer and guitarist Mississippi John Hurt. Fahey remembered Hurt as a very great man in his quiet way and said he deeply mourned the loss. He wrote the piece for him and about him but played it, he said, as Charley Patton would have played it had he ever thought of such a thing, which he never would have. Fahey returned to Hurt on his Reprise debut Of Rivers and Religion, which includes a Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt.

A live Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt appears on The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick, drawn from two shows in 1968 and 1969. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork heard a pivot point between country blues and bluegrass, with a light, bouncing verse and sheets of furious picking on the chorus.