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Little is really known about this obscure, though nonetheless important, Delta blues artist.
What little is known of his vagabond life is the result of extensive research
by Gayle Dean Wardlow, in his book "Chasin' the Devil Music".
Blind Joe Reynolds (a/k/a Blind Willie Reynolds) was probably born Joe Sheppard (although his nephew, Henry Millage, claims his true birth name was actually Joe Leonard). His death certificate gives his birthplace as Arkansas in 1900 (although Henry Millage contradicts this by claiming he was born in 1904 in the small cotton town of Tallulah, Louisiana). He adopted many aliases over time, using the two aforementioned ones for his only recorded output of his career and used them primarily to stay hidden from the authorities and to cover up a rambling, checkered past which included two prison terms. His blindness was the result of a shotgun blast of bird shot to the face that blew away his eyes during a drunken argument with a friend Brudell Scott sometime between 1925 and 1927 in Talullah, Louisiana. Miraculously surviving this assault (apparently he did not hold any grudge against Brudell Scott), he quickly left town ("to escape his enemies") and refined his unique bottleneck slide guitar-playing skills. He was eventually discovered playing in a barrel house 3 miles from Lake Providence by the legendary talent broker H.C. Speir near Lake Providence, Louisiana. Joe Sheppard was known as a flamboyant rogue who flagrantly taunted societal norms for good behaviour. His blindness did not prevent him from fending for himself, as he became known as a crack-shot with a pistol from hearing his target. He continued to travel and play on street corners across the United States, eventually settling near Monroe, Louisiana in his senior years. He was still playing during those years, successfully making the transition from pre-war acoustic guitar to modern electric guitar. He died in a Monroe hospital on March 10, 1968 of pneumonia. Blind Joe (Willie) Reynolds was known to have recorded 8 songs at his two recording sessions. Four songs (as Blind Joe Reynolds) were recorded for Paramount Records in 1930, and all were issued on two 78rpm records (Paramount 12927 & 12983). A further 4 songs (as Blind Willie Reynolds) were recorded for Victor in a makeshift studio in Memphis sometime in 1931 although only 2 songs were actually issued (as Victor 23258). The whereabouts of the master for the other two songs has never been discovered. Blind Joe was catapulted to fame (albeit unknown to him at the time) when the British super group Cream (fronted by a young Eric Clapton) recorded a cover of one of Blind Joe's songs Outside Woman Blues which appeared on their best-selling LP "Disraeli Gears" For a long while, however, only 2 of these 3 discs were known to exist: Paramount 12927 and Victor 23258. The third 78rpm record - Paramount 12983 - was thought lost. That was until 2000 when a well-worn copy of this legendary and elusive 78rpm record was discovered in a flea market and, like all good tales, was purchased for just $1 (later to be sold for a sum believed to be around $15,000). Click on "The Lost Record" link (left) for the full story behind the discovery of this lost treasure.
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