Career
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, Oden sang and taught himself to play the piano in childhood. In his teens, he left home to go to Saint Louis, Missouri where piano-based blues was prominent. He was able to develop his vocal talents and began performing with the pianist, Roosevelt Sykes.
After more than ten years playing in and around Saint Louis, in 1933 he and Sykes decided to move on to Chicago.
In Chicago he was dubbed "Saint Louis Jimmy" and there he enjoyed a solid performing and recording career for the next four decades. While Chicago became his home base, Oden traveled with a group of blues players to various places throughout the United States.
"Florida Hurricane" was released in 1948 on Aristocrat Records. The song featured Muddy Waters on guitar and Sunnyland Slim on piano.
In 1949, Oden partnered with Joe Brown to form the small recording company J.O.B. Records.
Oden appears to have ended his involvement within a year, but with other partners the company remained in business until 1974. He spent less time performing after being in a car crash in 1957. Songs written later in his career included "What a Woman!".
He put out an album in 1960.
He performed as a vocalist on three songs recorded for an Otis Spann session in 1960. These tracks were released on the album Walking the Blues, re-released as a Candid Civil Defense (charge-coupled device 79025) in 1989.
Oden died of bronchopneumonia, at the age of 74, in 1977 and was interred in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, near Chicago.
