Simplify the following text for a Grade 9 native English-speaking person.
Original: He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in his native Mississippi in the early 1920s , and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song , `` Illinois Blues '' , about his experiences as a laborer .
Simplified: He worked on road construction in the early 1920s , and wrote what his earliest song , `` Illinois Blues '' , about his experience as a worker .