It wasn't until the ‘60s that Mississippi John Hurt gained widespread notoriety, but he'd been popularising a style known as the Piedmont blues since the '20s, using a ragtime-influenced technique that incorporates both melodies and basslines on one guitar. His nimble fingerpicking and warm, mellow vocal delivery helped make tunes like the desperate outlaw tale "Stack O'Lee" and the spurned-lover vengeance story "Frankie" into country-blues standards. His work in the '60s produced just as many classic cuts, like the saucy, playful "Salty Dog Blues" and the idiosyncratic, almost surreal "Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me".