[1] Like Gabriel Brown, Ralph Willis and Brownie McGhee, he relocated from the South to New York, in his case in 1924.
[4][5] Seward befriended Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and retained his Piedmont blues styling despite changes in musical trends.
He and the blues musician Louis Hayes (who later became a minister in northern New Jersey) performed together, variously billed as the Blues Servant Boys, Guitar Slim and Jelly Belly, and the Back Porch Boys.
During the 1940s and 1950s Seward played and recorded with Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, McGhee and Terry.
[1] Under his own name, Seward issued Creepin' Blues (1965, Bluesville), with harmonica accompaniment by Larry Johnson.