Out of old blues comes new on the Maverick Stanzas’ adaptation of “I’m Satisfied” by blues legend Mississippi John Hurt.  Probably a souvenir of his childhood, Hurt was reportedly performing the song as early as 1905 (age 12) at house parties around Avalon, Mississippi, sometimes working with a fiddler.  If he didn’t write the original, his version of playful lyrics, which portrayed a young woman’s desire to wed, are reminiscent of Hurt’s early romances with his first and second wives.  Musically, Hurt might have also been influenced by Duke Ellington’s jazz hit by the same title (1933) which had a similar chord progression but different lyrics.  Hurt’s “I’m Satisfied” would remain an oral tradition until he finally recorded it at his now infamous sessions of the US Library of Congress shortly after he returned back to the blues spotlight in 1963. The first studio recording of the song was released for Vanguard on the LP “Today!” (1966), which became an immediate hit in the folk and blues sphere when it came out. 

Like much of Hurt’s handiwork, “I’m Satisfied” lives on in the hands of a few artists who have reshaped it without compromising its integrity as a masterpiece.  British folk singer Roger Hubbard appears to be the first to cover it in 1971, emulating Hurt’s steady flowing finger picking style.  A few years later, world music pioneer Taj Mahal interpreted it with a slow reggae style on his 1976 record “Satisfied, ‘n Tickled Too.” Taj’s version switches the gender perspective, dropping Hurt’s original references to marriage and adding a refrain redolent of a man caught speechless and stuttering when confronted by his lover.  Like a true folk craftsman, Taj inserted several old stanzas for added context. In the second verse, Taj adds a stanza from the pre-Civil War minstrel standard “Camptown Races” (1850): “Well I'm going downtown / with my hat caved in / I'm coming back home now / Baby, with a pocket full of tin”.  The third verse is drawn from Taj’s earlier country-blues tune “Little Red Hen Blues” (1973): “Well the little red hen said to the little red rooster / you don’t come ‘round here like you used to”—a line that may have been a parody of the traditional children folktale, “Little Red Hen,” about the virtues of hard work.  He also inserts: “Cause he throws his arms around me / Like a circle 'round the sun,” an admittedly common lyric found in early blues numbers such as “Greyhound Blues” (1936) and “You Baby Can’t Get Enough” (1936) by Cincinnati bluesman Bob Coleman, a.k.a. Sweet Papa Tadpole, and later on James Taylor’s folky “Circle Around the Sun” (1968). 

Fast-forward to the early 2000’s, and Hurt’s song was circulating in the urban jug band scene, where Taj Mahal’s version was adapted to a more traditional sound and arrangement.  A street busking group called the Kitchen Syncopators recorded a version of the song as simply “Satisfied” (2005), which included a new stanza credited to well-known New Orleans street musician Lissa “Washboard” Driscoll: “I used to live in the country, by the high lonesome hill / Crow by day / By the night the whippoorwill”.  Syncopators vocalist and trad guitar picker, Woody Pines, recorded a polished folk version reminiscent of Hank Williams in 2009.