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Blues guitarist and bandleader Theodis Ealey is a Mississippi native who first learned to play the instrument when he was four years old, thanks to instruction from big brother Y.Z. Ealey, who is about a decade older. Almost ten years later, the brothers were playing together in a band called Y.Z. Ealey & the Merrymakers, with the younger Ealey on bass. The group also included a third brother, Melwin Ealey, and appeared for the first time on stage at a Natchez, MS, nightspot dubbed the Horseshoe Circus. About 12 months later, Ealey traded in the bass for a guitar and joined Eugene Butler & the Rocking Royals, another group that played in the Natchez region. About four decades later, the three Ealey siblings played together once again during a reunion held in Georgia on the stage of the Great Atlanta Blues Revue with a fourth brother, Bubba Ealey, aka David. Until that July evening in 2001, the blues guitarist had not played with brothers Melwin or Y.Z. since 1963. Ealey was one of 11...