Biography
Joe Sheppard, a Louisiana street performer, adopted the recording alias Blind Joe Reynolds primarily to stay ahead of authorities. An altercation in the mid-1920s left him blinded after another man fired a shotgun into his face. Across the South he earned notoriety not merely as a vocalist but also for his brazen defiance toward police and the courts, his disregard for mainstream moral codes, and his repeated brushes with conflict. The handful of sides he cut feature his piercing, high-register vocals, fluid and propulsive slide guitar, and verses that repeatedly address betrayal by women.
Memphis record dealer H.C. Spier located Reynolds in the late 1920s and steered him to Paramount, just as he had earlier done with Charley Patton. Under the name Blind Joe Reynolds the singer cut two discs in November 1929: “Outside Woman Blues” paired with “Nehi Blues” (Paramount 12927) and “Cold Woman Blues” coupled with “99 Blues” (Paramount 12983). Paramount never summoned him for further sessions. When the Victor field unit reached Memphis the following year, however, Reynolds—now billed as Blind Willie Reynolds—recorded “Married Man Blues” and “Third Street Woman Blues” on 26 November 1930 (Victor 23258). Two additional titles from that date, “Short Dress Blues” and “Goose Hill Woman Blues,” remained unissued, and no test pressings have surfaced.
Reynolds then vanished from the historical record, although Gayle Dean Wardlow’s 1998 book Chasin’ That Devil Music preserves numerous stories attached to his name. In 1967 Cream included “Outside Woman Blues” on Disraeli Gears; the British musicians would likely have been astonished to learn that its composer was still living and still busking in the American South. Reynolds died less than a year later, just before blues-revival promoters or festival bookers could locate him. A missing Paramount pressing turned up in a Tennessee flea market in 2001, purchased by an Ohio music teacher; “Cold Woman Blues” from that copy appeared on Revenant’s 2001 set Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues, a Charley Patton anthology. The notes place Reynolds within Patton’s circle, even though he worked from Tennessee rather than the Mississippi Delta and no evidence confirms the two men ever met. Superficial similarities in their styles nevertheless invite speculation about a possible link.
Memphis record dealer H.C. Spier located Reynolds in the late 1920s and steered him to Paramount, just as he had earlier done with Charley Patton. Under the name Blind Joe Reynolds the singer cut two discs in November 1929: “Outside Woman Blues” paired with “Nehi Blues” (Paramount 12927) and “Cold Woman Blues” coupled with “99 Blues” (Paramount 12983). Paramount never summoned him for further sessions. When the Victor field unit reached Memphis the following year, however, Reynolds—now billed as Blind Willie Reynolds—recorded “Married Man Blues” and “Third Street Woman Blues” on 26 November 1930 (Victor 23258). Two additional titles from that date, “Short Dress Blues” and “Goose Hill Woman Blues,” remained unissued, and no test pressings have surfaced.
Reynolds then vanished from the historical record, although Gayle Dean Wardlow’s 1998 book Chasin’ That Devil Music preserves numerous stories attached to his name. In 1967 Cream included “Outside Woman Blues” on Disraeli Gears; the British musicians would likely have been astonished to learn that its composer was still living and still busking in the American South. Reynolds died less than a year later, just before blues-revival promoters or festival bookers could locate him. A missing Paramount pressing turned up in a Tennessee flea market in 2001, purchased by an Ohio music teacher; “Cold Woman Blues” from that copy appeared on Revenant’s 2001 set Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues, a Charley Patton anthology. The notes place Reynolds within Patton’s circle, even though he worked from Tennessee rather than the Mississippi Delta and no evidence confirms the two men ever met. Superficial similarities in their styles nevertheless invite speculation about a possible link.