Background
Jones was born in Earle, Arkansas, on April 8, 1908.
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Moody Jones
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Career
When he was proficient enough, he started playing for country dances, and by 1939 had arrived in Chicago. By the late 1940s he was capable of playing any kind of music requested and had learned to play piano, banjo and bass (including a homemade bass fashioned from of a washtub, a broom handle and a clothesline), in addition to guitar. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the best guitar player on the Chicago scene, and was warned by noted slide guitar player Muddy Waters not to "fool with that slide" when Jones sat in with Waters"s band one night.
The track "Snooky and Moody"s Boogie" is said to have been the inspiration for Little Walter"s 1952 hit "Juke".
Jones made further recordings for JOB Records in the early 1950s, backing musicians such as Snooky Pryor and Johnny Shines. He sang three numbers on a 1952 session, but these were not released at the time, according to Jones because label owner Joe Brown thought his voice was "too rough".
One of the songs, "Rough Treatment", was recorded and released by the singer and guitarist Little Hudson (Hudson Shower) for the same label the following year. After 1953 Jones stopped playing blues and joined a gospel group, and by 1955 he had become pastor of a Sanctified church.
Jones died in Chicago, on March 23, 1988.
