According to blues historian Gayle Jean Wardlow, Covington was originally from the town of Arcadia in northern Louisiana. Covington, born Benjamin Curry, was possibly the same Curry who was drafted during the First World War; his birth date is listed as April 19, 1890 in Yalobusha County, Mississippi. Whatever the case, Covington moved to Birmingham, Alabama in the mid-1920s, but traveled frequently to Mississippi and Chicago to perform on street corners. Big Joe Williams remembered Covington: he described him as "bogus blind", hence Covington's nickname, for pretending to be blind to earn more money while playing on the streets. The two musicians were still playing together as late as 1933 at the Century of Progress Expo in Chicago.