Ed Bell's modest but substantial recorded legacy places him in league with more famous individuals such as Blind Boy Fuller, Tommy Johnson, Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. Ed Bell was born in 1905 on the Davis Plantation near Fort Deposit, Alabama and moved with his family to Greenville, where Black string bands were active. Ed moved to Muscle Shoals in 1919 and learned to play the blues. Throughout the '20s, Bell was on the road a lot, gigging in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Toledo, Youngstown, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Bell's first four recordings, including his best-known, "Mamlish Blues," were cut in Chicago in September 1927 and released on the Paramount label. Bell eventually wearied of the blues musician's life and crossed over from the sacred to the secular, becoming a Baptist preacher.