Eddie Jones, known to the world as Guitar Slim, was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1926, lost his mother at five, and was raised by his grandmother while working the cotton fields of the Delta. At night he found sanctuary in rural juke joints, not as a guitarist but as a singer and dancer so kinetic that locals nicknamed him "Limber Leg." After military service in World War II he relocated to New Orleans, where bandleader Willie D. Warren introduced him to the guitar and he absorbed the showmanship of T-Bone Walker and the swinging aggression of Clarence Gatemouth Brown. By around 1950 the Guitar Slim persona was born: blindingly bright monochromatic suits in solid red, blue, or green, with his hair dyed to match.

This episode explains how up to 350 feet of amplifier cable and an assistant managing the slack let him ride through crowds  ...