Release Date : October 24, 2025
Let the Mermaids Flirt
With Me, A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, marks the fifth album from Erin Harpe on the Vizztone
Label Group. Harpe’s alluring vocals and her mastery of the Piedmont
Blues style of guitar playing hooked me on the very first listen of this soulful
acoustic recording. Self-produced and arranged, the album was recorded live in Harpe’s
home studio with her husband Jim Countryman on bass guitar. They hold
tight to keeping the music tied to its original time period and in doing so,
constructed a fabulous homage.
One couldn’t ask for a better song to kick this off with than Hurt’s 1928 classic “Candy Man”. The song has been stuck in my head since hearing this beautifully executed rendition. Harpe’s guitar picking is remarkably clean. A wave of melancholy washes over me when title-track “Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me” plays. It’s a gorgeous song of despair, and Harpe sings it with an amazing grace. A smile quickly forms on my face when I hear “Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor”. The song is truly one of my favorites. When it comes to murder ballads, “Stagolee” is among the most renowned of them. The song was first published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923 by Waring's Pennsylvanians. Hurt record his original version of the song five years later in 1928. Harpe plays and sings this one with perfection atop Countryman’s warm, buttery-smooth baseline. The record closes with the only non-Hurt penned track “You Are My Sunshine’, which coincidentally was performed by Hurt for the final selection of his 1970 live album on Vanguard titled “The Best of Mississippi John Hurt”. Whether one interprets this as a love song or a heartbreak song, it has been a timeless treasure over the years, and Harpe’s performance of the song is endearing.
The songs of Mississippi John Hurt are true masterpieces. Erin Harpe and Jim Countryman’s tribute to this blues legend, with their recording Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me, is quite marvelous.
Photo by Dave Geissler 
Photo by Adam Kennedy
For more info on Erin
Harpe visit the website at https://www.erinharpe.com/
Read the PhillyCheeze Review
for Erin Harpe’s 2020 album Meet Me in the Middle which landed in
my Top 20 albums of 2020 => https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/2020/12/477-erin-harpe-meet-me-in-middle.html
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