Mathis James Reed from Dunleith, Mississippi moved to Chicago in 1943, served in the Navy, and came back to find his childhood friend Eddie Taylor playing guitar in the clubs. They formed a partnership that lasted decades: Jimmy singing and blowing harmonica, Eddie providing the steady rhythm guitar behind him. Vee-Jay Records signed him in 1953, and the hits came steadily -- Ain't That Lovin' You Baby, Honest I Do, Shame Shame Shame.

Epilepsy complicated his career. He'd have seizures onstage, and his wife Mary -- who sometimes sat behind him onstage whispering the lyrics into his ear because Jimmy couldn't remember them -- would guide him through. She wrote some of his songs too, uncredited. The epilepsy and alcoholism took their toll. He died at 50. But those records -- those impossibly relaxed, simple grooves -- are the sound of the blues at its most comfortable. Jimmy Reed made it sound easy. It wasn't.