Like many bluesmen of his time, he traveled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River, sometimes in a duo with Big Joe Williams, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material.

[4] In 1925 Sykes met Leothus "Lee" Green, a piano player in a West Helena theater playing a mix of blues, ragtime, waltz, and jazz to accompany silent movies.

"[6] The more experienced Green taught him the style, characterized by separate bass and treble rhythms, that would become the basis for "44 Blues".

After a few years Sykes found work at Katy Red's, a barrelhouse across the river in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Sykes picked up his nickname "the Honey Dripper" while playing on a session for singer Edith Johnson later in 1929, during which she recorded "Honeydripper Blues".

Sykes invested his earnings from recording in an illegal speakeasy that sold fried fish and alcohol, a business he continued at various locations for years.

[1] When he recorded in the 1960s, it was for labels such as Delmark, Bluesville, Storyville and Folkways, which were documenting the quickly passing blues history.

Sykes said in his later years he decided to become a bluesman when he heard St. Louis piano player Red-Eye Jesse Bell.

[6] He named St. Louis musicians including Bell, Joe Crump, Baby Sneed, and his mentor "Pork Chop" Lee Green as his early influences.

[9] Leothus Lee "Pork Chop" Green, is thought to have schooled Sykes in mastering separate but complementary bass and treble rhythms.

[13] In his voice that could be piercing yet had a mellow side, he sang with beautiful vibrato and at times intricate embellishment.

[7] Though he was highly skilled on breakneck boogie-woogie numbers, Sykes shone on slow and moderately paced blues.

[14] As his career progressed Sykes showed greater sophistication in the lyrics he wrote, including pop music influences, than in his playing or singing.

[7] Author Paul Oliver stated, "His habit of anticipating a phrase on the piano gave a rhythmic impetus to his sung lines.