Brown's date and place of birth are uncertain; many sources state that he was born in 1910 in
Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that he was born in 1903 or 1904, in
Jackson, Tennessee, on the basis of
Social Security information. He moved to Chicago in 1932, performing regularly with Broonzy and other musicians, including
Memphis Slim and
Tampa Red, in many recording sessions for
Lester Melrose of
Bluebird Records. becoming one of the most popular Chicago blues performers of the late 1930s and 1940s, selling numerous records and playing to packed audiences. He recorded over 160 tracks in those decades. He recorded a session in 1953 with Broonzy and Memphis Slim.
Samuel Charters included Brown's "I've Been Treated Wrong" on the compilation album
The Country Blues for
Folkways Records in 1959. Brown made a modest and short-lived comeback as a live performer in the early 1960s. He died of heart disease in Chicago, in November 1966, and was buried in an unmarked grave at the Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery, in
Homewood, Illinois. ==Memorial==