As house Republicans remain in the house while house Democrats go home leaving the public to suffer under the high costs of oil, the focus is shifted to the oil companies for making excess profits. There is talk of nationalizing the oil companies, windfall profits taxes and severe consumer cutback's. I hear a lot of complaining about existing oil leases being held but not drilled on by the oil producers, the Democrats obstinately demanding they drill on existing leases before any new ones are granted. Oil exploration is a high risk venture, the oil companies use seismic methods to find a potential area then they petition for a lease on those parcels from the land owner. Once they get drilling permits and have satisfied all the environmental impact issues they can drill exploratory wells to determine if there is oil or gas present, the quantity and quality and the boundaries of the find. This is all before any production wells are even spudded. If there is sufficient oil to justify extraction and shipping they will invest in the drilling, production and transportation of the oil. All too often there is oil that is not practical or profitable to extract, some of the leases have a tiny section of oil and the rest is barren. Who owns the land? Some land is held in private ownership, most is on Federal or State land whether that land be offshore or onshore. If the oil explorer suspects there is oil on any of these lands they petition the land owner to lease drilling right on their property. Those oil companies simply don't drill without a proper lease and all the related restrictions under the law. A royalty is the landowner's share of the gross production, which is free of the costs of production. It is probably the most important part of the lease to the landowner. A nationwide leftist organization founded by Ralph Nader makes some heavy charges as follows: "A bureaucratic oversight has allowed 24 oil companies to avoid more than $1.3 billion in royalties for the privilege of extracting oil and natural gas from U.S. territory in the Gulf of Mexico - with foreign companies responsible for 55 percent of that total. But this $1.3 billion in forgone royalties pales in comparison to the $60 billion that Americans stand to lose in royalty revenue over the life of these leases. And if Congress repeals the moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling that has existed since 1982, these freeloading oil companies will be eligible to bid on new leases, providing them with more record profits while American families are left holding the bag. These 24 companies have posted a combined $365 billion in profits since 2006." OK, some oil companies got a good deal on a federal lease offshore, back to the issue of royalties, Ralph's shadow organization didn't specify whom, nor over which period of time nor cite the royalty agreement in place. Sure there have been record gross profits reported by the oil companies, the same record oil profits are realized by the landowners as a percentage of that dollar per barrel wellhead extraction price. You didn't hear the land owners whining about excess profits when they were content at $6/bbl oil nor do you hear them complain at $130/bbl because that royalty is based on a percentage of the price per barrel, usually 12.5% or 1/8 the price per barrel, sometimes it's as low as 1/5th and as high as 1/3 the price per barrel but seldom if ever zero. The typical fractions used in oil and gas leases can also be expressed in percentages such as 1/16 = 6.25%, 1/8 = 12.5%, 1/7 = 14.29%, 5/32 = 15.63%. The current trend is to counter the lease royalty offer with what the landowner considers a fair percent of the 100%. The landlords don't have any reason to complain when they are not under the spotlight of windfall profits scrutiny. "On gas that is not sold, but is used by the Lessee for the manufacture of gasoline or other products, Twelve and One-half Percent (12½%) of the market price at the point of sale shall be used for these products, less reasonable deductions for refining costs, as determined by the State." There are certain costs in drilling and producing a paying oil or gas well. The costs are divided between the production company and the landowner. The production company bears the exploration, production, and marketing costs unless there is a clause in the lease that states differently. Expenses that occur after production can be borne by the production company or shared by the production company and the landowner. The royalty clause can specify that the royalty be established at the well, which means that the landowner's royalty payment is free of production costs. The landowner's royalty can also bear a share of the costs that occur after production. If the lease reads that the royalty is fixed in the pipeline or at the place of sale or at some other delivery point, then a new set of costs occur and are part of the deductions from the royalty. It will be the costs after the oil or gas has been extracted at the well. There are three methods generally used for computing and establishing the royalty payment and how it is valued. The first method is market price and value of the oil or gas. Sometimes the market price at the well in the field is used as the prevailing price. Landowners usually have been taking the field price at the well because it allows the price to rise as the price of crude oil and gas rises. Some leases have royalty clauses that state that the royalty is set at the highest price or percentage posted for fields within one hundred miles by any major oil company for similar grades and gravity on the day that the oil is removed. The second method ties the royalty to actual revenue received from the sale of the oil or gas. In this case, the royalty received may or may not be equal to the actual market price of the oil or gas. This method of computing royalty is used mainly with gas royalties. The production company can and has committed to long-term contracts and the royalty, in that case, is more dependable. Unfortunately, in a rising market, the production company cannot be flexible with set in place long-term contracts. Another method of commuting royalty is the "in-kind." The landowner takes possession of the oil or gas produced for the landowner's share of the oil or gas production before the oil or gas is marketed by the production company. The landowner can insert a clause in the lease to take royalty either "in kind" or "in proceeds." This clause allows the landowner more flexibility and a higher royalty based on decisions of the market. The landowner is subject to taxes on the royalty from the production company. The taxes are federal taxes and state taxes on the royalty. The landowner can also be subject to the cost of moving the oil or gas from the well to the refinery and storage tanks. Royalty interests on a lease can be sold in part or in the entirety by the landowner. A royalty can be split among several persons, such as surviving relatives and family for the life of the lease. Remember that those obscene profits are gross profits, that the royalty increases with the increasing price of crude and remember that the politicians never mention that the government takes the lion's share of the royalties as well as taxes. I'll gladly blame the oil companies when the government admits they are a big part of the ponzi scheme and when they will cut back on their windfall royalty monies as a good will gesture to cut consumer suffering and job losses. Impose windfall profits on the oil companies if you will but impose those same restrictions on the stock market speculators and the landowners to be fair, it's the Democrat(Socialist) way.

Remember George Lucas's enigmatic feature film THX 1138 starring Robert Duvall, set in a compliant world where efficiency overrides every other aspect of human life, where people are reduced to code names and their lives are contained, monitored, and manipulated for the sake of the system. The movie is set around a couple who defies the system by not only starting an affair, but by trying to escape to the the outside world. Heaven forbid having to think for yourself or to lift a finger to be self reliant. This past week there was a real episode of what happens in a very real system when people are taught to behave like sheep, to mind their own affairs and just go along with the system, it's straight out of George Orwell's 1984. The apparently unprovoked assault by a 40 year old passengr against a 22 year old passenger on a Canadian Greyhound bus left 36 men, women and children stranded Wednesday night on the shoulder of the darkening Trans-Canada Highway near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba., watching while the bus driver and a driver of a nearby truck shut the crazed attacker inside the bus with the mangled victim. Let's see here, you're riding along on the bus and this attack takes place, nobody attempts to stop the attacker, the bus driver sees something happening, stops the bus and they all get off, what sheer courage and bravery they all exhibited, but that is not all, they bravely locked the perpetrator and the victim inside the bus until the RCMP showed up to arrest the attacker. The attacker did kill the man in front of all those passengers who so bravely reacted to the crisis and he was charged Friday with second-degree murder. In Canada that could mean a psychiatric hospital exam, a period of treatment where he's miraculously cured ready to ride that bus again. Thirty six additional passengers, men,(I use that term loosely), women and children and not one soul steps foward to help another passenger. Quite a system we have evolved for mankind and quite a society we have devolved into. We sheeple haven't progressed much since the time of Cain and Abel it seems. Genesis 4:1-16.

John Kerry, in sworn testimony before the Senate in April 1971, said he met with the North Vietnamese and Vietcong delegations in Paris in May 1970. He said they discussed their peace proposals —— especially the eight points of Madam Binh. Kerry strongly recommended that the Senate accept those proposals. "I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and of all eight of Madam Binh's points..." "...I realize that even my visits in Paris, precedents had been set by Senator McCarthy and others, in a sense are on the borderline of private individuals negotiating, et cetera." Did John Kerry Violate the Logan Act that April of 1971? In 1985, during the Cold War, John Forbes Kerry and Senator Tom Harkin met with the communist radical Manuel Ortega in Nicaragua. U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz decried “self-appointed emissaries to the Communist regime” in Managua, and said, “We cannot conduct a successful policy when [such people] take trips or write ‘Dear Comandante’ letters with the aim of negotiating.” Henry Kissinger added, “If the Nicaraguans want to make an offer, they ought to make it through diplomatic channels. We can’t be negotiating with our own congressmen and Nicaragua simultaneously.” Senator Goldwater called the Kerry-Harkin trip just “wrong, wrong, wrong.” In the end, the trip backfired. Not long after the senators left him, Ortega flew off to Moscow, to affirm his alliance with the Soviets. Democratic leaders ” Tip O’Neill in particular ” were embarrassed. Even after Reagan’s policy in Nicaragua ended in democracy in Central America, John Forbes Kerry refused to accept that his own actions against both Reagan and then Vice-President George H.W. Bush had been ill-advised. Did John Forbes Kerry Violate the Logan Act again? Reverend Jessie Jackson's trips to Syria, Cuba and Nicaragua also drew accusations of Logan Act violations from President Reagan.   On Dec 14, 2006 Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) defied pressure from the Bush administration not to go and went ahead with talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. the first senator in nearly two years to meet with Assad. Did Senator Bill Nelson Violate the Logan Act?   December 21, 2006, Senator John F. Kerry visited Syria along with Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, despite the administration's opposition to the trip. The Bush administration cut off high-level diplomatic contact with Syria in late 2004, saying that talks with the government had failed to persuade Syria to stop the flow of insurgents into Iraq or to stop support for the anti-Israeli militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. Then White House press secretary Tony Snow blasted the visits as "not appropriate," saying such meetings hand the Syrian government "a PR victory" by allowing officials to showcase what they portray as improved relations with the West. Did John Forbes Kerry Violate the Logan Act once again?   May 12, 2002, Jimmy Carter flew to Havana Cuba for a six-day private visit to the island country the first president in or out of office to visit Cuba since its 1959 revolution. During his stay here, Carter held talks with Castro and other senior Cuban leaders, a direct violation of United States policy. 13 April 2008, Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter sparked an outcry of protest from Israeli and American officials for his decision to meet with Hamas leaders during a week-long visit to Israel, Syria and Egypt, against the wishes of the State Department. After being snubbed by Israel's senior leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He met that Sunday with Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, who told him that meeting Mashaal was "a very big mistake," according to Peres spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch. after being snubbed by Israeli leaders. On April 14, Carter visited Sderot, Israel. Mayor Eli Moyal said he met with Carter to present Israel's side, even though he said he was "upset" about Carter's scheduled meeting with the Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal. "I don't think he should meet with killers," Moyal said. On April 15 Carter went to Ramallah, West Bank to participate in a meeting that infuriated Israeli officials already upset by Carter's freelance Mideast peace mission. There Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom the Bush administration and many Israelis blame for the breakdown of peace talks seven years ago and the violence that followed. While in Ramallah the former president hugged Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, meeting participants said. Embraces between men are a common custom in Arab culture. Then on April 16, Carter flew to Egypt to meet Hamas' Gaza leaders, Mahmoud Zahar, Said Siyam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on April 17, in Cairo. On Friday April 18 Jimmy Carter went to Syria and met with the exiled leader of Hamas and his deputy, two men the U.S. government labels as global terrorists and Israel accuses of masterminding suicide bombings and kidnappings. Carter's meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal was the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and Hamas' leadership and followed two other meetings between the former American president and the Palestinian militant group around the Middle East this week. Hamas officials say the meetings have lent the group legitimacy. Mashaal's deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk attended the meeting with Carter at Mashaal's Damascus office. Abu Marzouk was designated a terrorist by U.S. Treasury Department in 1995, allowing the government to seize his assets. He was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York that same year and spent two years in a New York jail before he was deported in 1997. On April 16, 2008, Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-9) called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. “Former President Carter has acted in contradiction of international agreements to isolate Hamas. He has acted in defiance of both United States policy and international policy. His actions reward terrorists, lend support, and provide legitimacy to their belief that violence will eventually get them what they want,” said Rep. Myrick. After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) called on Hamas to renounce terror, recognize Israel and recognize the previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel as they seek an agreement to make peace. Hamas has categorically rejected these three conditions for more than two years. Congress granted the Secretary of State the power to grant and verify passports. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Haig v. Agee that the Secretary of State has the implied power to revoke passports as well (453 U.S. 280). Did Jimmy Carter Violate the Logan Act?   April 3, 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived Tuesday in the Syrian capital, where she is expected to tackle an issue complicating the U.S. mission in the Middle East -- Damascus' alleged support for militants in Iraq and Lebanon. The delegation includes one Republican, David Hobson of Ohio. Other Democratic members include Reps. Henry Waxman and Tom Lantos of California, Louise Slaughter of New York, Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to serve in Congress. Though her visit conjured a strong rebuke by the White House, Syria seemed to welcome the 67-year-old California Democrat. President Bush on Tuesday called the trip "counterproductive" and said it would send mixed signals. "Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they're part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they're a state sponsor of terror," he said at a news conference in the White House's Rose Garden. Pelosi defended her visit, saying her talks with Al-Assad focused only on topics on which she and Bush agree. "On the issues that we set before the president (of Syria)," she said, "there is no division among us or between our congressional delegation in Congress and the president of the United States." Syrian cabinet minister Buthayna Sha'ban expressed his support for the visit and said, "Syria stands for freedom and for peace, and so does Nancy Pelosi." The Bush administration charges that Syria allows insurgents to cross its borders and attack targets in Iraq -- an allegation Syria denies. While Syria admits it financially supports Hamas and Hezbollah, it denies U.S. accusations that it provides them with weapons. The country has been on the U.S. State Department's list of terror-sponsoring nations since the list was created in 1979. Still, despite the White House's rebuke, Pelosi's visited Syria anyway. Did Speaker Pelosi Violate the Logan Act?   Howard Dean has been meeting with world leaders to repair "the extraordinary damage" that the Bush administration has done to America's image and to prepare the way for a new Democratic president. "I am trying to build relationships with other governments in preparation for a Democratic takeover," Dean said. "I want to make clear that there is an opposition in America and that we are ready to take power and that when we do, we are going to have much better relationships with them."   February 12, 2008 Zbigniew Brzezinski a foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama went to Syria, a country President Bush has accused of arming terrorists and ordering political assassinations in Lebanon. A spokesman for Senator Obama's presidential campaign, Tommy Vietor, said the campaign did not know Mr. Brzezinski was leading the delegation for the RAND Corp. He added: "Brzezinski is not a day-to-day adviser for the campaign, he is someone whose guidance Senator Obama seeks on Iraq." Zbigniew Brzezinski, remember him from the Carter days of folly and bungle that gave us the Iranian debacle in the first place. A source familiar with Mr. Brzezinski's travel to Damascus said the visit was not coordinated with America's embassy there, but that embassy officials would be available for discussions if requested. Over that weekend, Mr. Brzezinski met with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. Syrian press accounts said the delegation would visit Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad; vice president, Farouq al-Sharaa, and foreign minister, Walid Mouallem. Did Zbigniew Brzezinski Violate the Logan Act?   Barak Obama is campaigning in Europe, collaborating with those same entities that Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kerry, Howard Dean, Bill Nelson and Nancy Pelosi collaborated with against the State Department's wishes, yet the blind and mindless minions don't see the damage being done to their very own Congress, the presidency and their diplomatic corp. Did Barak Hussein Obama in Violate the Logan Act?   The Logan Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953,PDF. states: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. There is a clear pattern of malfeasance if not downright treason on the part of the Democrats and not a whisper of rebuff or action from the RINO's and the Republicans, only a minor whimpering complaint. You decide if undermining the county and it's leader during wartime is a chargeable offense.

As of January 1, 2008, 64,473,140 people lived in the French Republic. 61,875,822 of these lived in metropolitan France, whereas 2,597,318 lived in the French overseas departments and territories. France has a sizeable population of Arabs and Africans from its former colonies, the proportion of immigrants in France is on par with other European nations such as the United Kingdom (8%), Germany (9%), the Netherlands (18%), Sweden (13%) and Switzerland (19%). Outside of Europe and North Africa, the highest rate of immigration is from Vietnam, Cambodia and Senegal. The large-scale immigration from Islamic countries sparked controversy in France, as some demographers state "the third world Neo-colonization of Europe" might make France an "outpost of the Arab world". Maybe that's why Paris is Burning? On the other hand, over one million Afro-French (or "black French"), descendants of sub-Saharan African and West Indian immigrants, have enjoyed better cultural and social integration, though some have dealt with issues of racism in French society. Widespread opposition to labor reform has in recent years hampered the government's ability to revitalize the economy. In 2007, the government launched divisive labor reform efforts that will continue into 2008. France's tax burden remains one of the highest in Europe (nearly 50% of GDP in 2005). France brought the budget deficit within the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP limit for the first time in 2007 and has reduced unemployment to roughly 8%. The 35-hour working week was a measure adopted first in France, in February 2000, the main stated objectives of the law were two-fold:   To reduce unemployment and yield a better division of labor, in a context where some people work long hours while some others are unemployed. A 10.2% decrease in the hours extracted from each worker would, theoretically, require firms to hire correspondingly more workers, a remedy for unemployment. To take advantage of improvements in productivity of modern society in order to give workers some more personal time in order to enhance their quality of life. That doesn't seem to have been the case, like most Socialist programs where the Utopians calculate a free ride in all social needs it hasn't quite worked out that well, their labor unions are like our labor unions, they want the deep pockets of the employer to bear the burden of the Socialist programs and at the same time salve the employees grievances of being over worked. That's the answer, reduce the workweek, give more paid vacations to the workers and hold those wages artificially high. Seems that there has been an economic change of heart, and the French parliament was set Wednesday to adopt a major economic reform promised by President Nicolas Sarkozy, which amounts to a defacto end to the country's much disputed 35-hour working week. Wow, have they finally figured out that their nation has to compete in a global market? French senators have already adopted other key reforms which change rules on strikes, tighten criteria for unemployment payments, and free up the economy with plans aimed at bringing down the cost of living by boosting competition. Competition, a novel approach to solving their slumping economy and high unemployment rate. The new measures were approved by the National Assembly lower house earlier in July and will become law with the backing of the Senate, where Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party has a majority. Who is opposing the new measures? The reform most contested by the opposition Socialists and by trades unions is the move to let companies ditch the 35-hour work week, a measure brought in by a Socialist government 10 years ago and denounced by conservatives as a drag on France's competitivity. This reminds me of my last ten years at the company I worked for, my department in maintenance was taken over by the production department as a move to reduce duplicate management, the production department needed the skilled labor but never entered us into their operating budget, only budgeting for their operators. Our funding as well as that of outside labor was managed as cost overruns to the operations budget. No matter what we did to cut costs it was impossible to balance the budget, that didn't stop management from using that as a cudgel to beat us over the head. Overtime, we were held to an 80 hour week in a possible 168 hour 7 day time frame per shift, they wouldn't hire new help to cover the shortages, we worked a lot of overtime, especially on 14 day shifts, I personally have worked over 128 hours in one 7 day shift, that gets expensive for the company in two ways, employee burnout and the lack of new trainees. The company was stepping over dollars to save penny's, that last ten years was hell on earth, I left four years before the company folded. Labor costs are the first thing a company cuts to save money, but limiting hours usually costs more, the only true savings for the corporation is that they base retirement benefits on the standard work week, in our case it's based on and limited to 40 hours, overtime doesn't accrue. France not only carries the health and retirement benefits costs it also carries the health costs and the unemployment stipends, if you can't compete on the global market the entire Socialist infrastructure collapses. This is the promise of change we are being sold, just look at Canada and Europe for the results of that change. The future French law would maintain the working week at 35 hours but give businesses the right to negotiate directly with employees to decide their working hours. While the 35-hour week was aimed at cutting unemployment and the French statistics institute INSEE said it created 350,000 new jobs between 1998 and 2002, but at the cost of billions of euros in state aid to companies. The bill concerning the unemployed which passed the French Senate Wednesday night obliges job seekers to accept the third "reasonable" job offer made to them, failing which their unemployment benefits would be stopped. That should piss off the Labor Unions, another controversial measure approved by senators forces schools to look after children in school premises when teachers are on strike. It also obliges workers to hold "preliminary negotiations" with employers before launching strike action. Critics(Unions) say the law undermines the right to strike. Sarkozy announced the proposed reform on 15 May, the day of national education mobilization to protest against cutting 11,200 positions at the start of the next school term. After their accusation that Americans are lazy and non productive I see it as a step in the right direction for France but you can bet your sweet ass I'm not going out and buy some French Brie and Champagne.

Soul Music. Along about 1999 I worked with a couple members of a Seattle Grunge Band, they kept bringing that shit to work to listen to. I countered with some Country and Western and Bluegrass, damned if those two didn't like that too!!! The music tastes ran the gamut and it was the so called hip-hop that was universally disliked, hell I'll even listen to opera but disdane all that rap shit. Some where along the line we got into the classics of American Folk music and the topic of Mississippi John Hurt came up, we researched and found that his earliest recordings were with OKEH Records and producer Tommy Rockwell. So the purist one of the grunge group ordered the complete set of Mississippi John Hurt's recording made at OHEH Records in 1928, we each made copies of the CD and I treasure mine. John was Born July 3, 1893, in Teoc, Mississippi, Hurt and his family moved in 1895 to Avalon, a town on the edge of Mississippi's hill country. He dropped out of school at the age of nine to begin working as a farmer. In 1902, Hurt picked up the guitar, a $1.50 "Black Annie" his mother bought him. Self-taught, Hurt developed a distinctive three-finger style that bears no resemblance to other area musicians. He also developed proficiency with the harmonica but was always a self-accompanied musician. John never travelled from his home and thus wasn't recognised nationally. MY CREOLE BELLE / LOVIN' SPOONFUL Hurt refused an offer to accompany a traveling medicine show, preferring to stay close to home. Hurt played solo at local parties where his fluid yet highly syncopated guitar style made him a favorite among Carroll County dancers. His fame was localized, however; it was not until 1912 that he started playing parties around Jackson, Mississippi, 103 miles from his native Avalon. While Hurt worked mostly outside music as a farmer and laborer, his musical reputation among whites as well as blacks led to that first recording session in Memphis in 1928. Hurt recorded eight sides for the Okeh label, two of which were released and sold well: "Frankie" and "Nobody's Dirty Business." In Memphis for the same recording session was St. Louis guitarist/pianist Lonnie Johnson, and Hurt later recalled that Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith were also in town. He saw none of these famous musicians play but instead returned home to Avalon. Okeh called Hurt to New York City for another session in December 1928, where he cut twelve additional sides, including "Avalon Blues." Again, Hurt returned home to Avalon to farm and play music for local parties. These two sessions were the extent of Hurt's recording before the Great Depression curtailed record sales. His graceful picking, gentle crooning and homespun lyrics marked him as an exceptionally talented musician.The preponderance of songs about legendary figures in his repertoire ("Casey Jones," "Frankie," "Stack O'Lee Blues") and the lack of then-modern blues influences on his style, establish Hurt as a link between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Okeh originally designated two of his songs "Old Time Music," an appellation reserved for the label's hillbilly series. This, together with the fact that white musicians were familiar with and recommended his musicianship, suggests strongly that Hurt's music sprang from a common source that produced blues and country music. You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley Hurt lived a quiet life as a farmer and laborer, playing occasional parties and fish fries until 1963. He was rediscovered in Avalon, a consequence of having named it as his hometown in a record made thirty-five years before. Hurt enjoyed great popularity during the blues revival of the 1960s, making television appearances, playing folk festivals, and recording albums. Exceptionally well liked by all who came in contact with him, he became the most famous of all the rediscovered 1920s bluesmen. Candy Man Blues   Make Me a Pallet on the Floor According to personal biography of his life John Hurt learn to love and appreciate music and guitar playing from William H Carson, a man infatuated with his teacher at the St. James School, located in Avalon, Mississippi. John Hurt stated, "I wasn't allowed to bother Mr. Carson's guitar. I would wait until he fell asleep at my house, then I would slip his guitar into my room and try to play. There I learned to play the guitar at the age of nine years old. After that, my mother bought me a second hand guitar at the price of $1.50! I can tell you there was no beautiful sound than my own guitar music. I was playing for country dances at the same time working very hard on a farm neear Avalon,Mississippi. Richland Woman Blues During the blues revival of the 1960s John's newfound fame lasted three years before his death on November 2,1966. Mississippi John Hurt's grave is located outside his hometown of Avalon, Mississippi. This is my idea of Soul Music.