Jimmy Reed was born on a plantation near Dunleith, Mississippi. His parents, Joseph Reed and Virginia Ross, were sharecroppers. Reed had nine siblings. As a child, he worked in the cotton fields and sometimes sang with his family at the Baptist Church. From 1932, he learned guitar from his friend Eddie Taylor, who will also become an accomplished musician. Reed went to school until 1939. He found various jobs in farms around Duncan and Meltonia, Mississippi.
In 1943, Jimmy Reed went...