David Honeyboy Edwards
Encyclopedia
David "Honeyboy" Edwards (June 28, 1915 – August 29, 2011) was a Delta blues
guitarist
and singer from the American South
. Edwards was the last Delta bluesman before his 2011 death.
, Mississippi
. Edwards was 14 years old when he left home to travel with bluesman Big Joe Williams, beginning the life as an itinerant musician which he led throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He performed with and was a friend of blues musician Robert Johnson. Honeyboy was present on the night Johnson drank poisoned whiskey which killed him, and his story has become the definitive version of Johnson's demise. Edwards knew and played with many of the leading bluesmen in the Mississippi Delta: Charley Patton
, Tommy Johnson, and Johnny Shines
.
He described the itinerant bluesman's life:
Folklorist Alan Lomax
recorded
Edwards in Clarksdale, Mississippi
in 1942 for the Library of Congress
. Edwards recorded 15 album sides of music. The songs included "Wind Howlin' Blues" and "The Army Blues". He did not record again commercially until 1951, when he recorded "Who May Be Your Regular Be" for Arc Records under the name of Mr Honey. Edwards claims to have written several well-known blues songs including "Long Tall Woman Blues" and "Just Like Jesse James
". His discography for the 1950s and 1960s amounts to nine songs from seven sessions. From 1974 to 1977, he recorded material for a full length LP, I've Been Around, released in 1978 on the independent Trix Records
label by producer/ethnomusicologist Peter B. Lowry
.
Edwards authored the book, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin, published in 1997 by Chicago Review Press. The book recounts his life from childhood, his journeys through the South
and his arrival in Chicago in the early 1950s. A companion CD
by the same title was released by Earwig Music
shortly afterwards. His long association with Earwig Music and Michael Frank spawned many late career albums on a variety of independent labels from the 1980s on. He has also recorded at a church-turned-studio
in Salina
, Kansas
and released albums on the APO record label
. Edwards continued the rambling life he describes in his autobiography as he still toured the world well into his 90s.
On July 17, 2011, his manager Michael Frank announced that Edwards would be retiring due to ongoing health issues.
On August 29, 2011, Edwards died at his home, of congestive heart failure, at around 3 a.m. According to events listings on the Metromix Chicago website, Edwards had been scheduled to perform at noon that day, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion
in Chicago's Millennium Park.
, Edwards recounts stories about Johnson, including his murder.
The story of Edwards' life is told in the 2010 award winning film "Honeyboy and the History of the Blues" from Free Range Pictures, directed by Scott Taradash. The film features stories of Honeyboy's life from picking cotton as a sharecropper to traveling the world sharing his music. Artists who appear in the film include Keith Richards, Robert Cray, Joe Perry, Lucinda Williams, BB King, Big Joe Williams and Ace Atkins.
Edwards appeared in the 2007 film
, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
.
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2002: National Endowment for the Arts
, National Heritage Fellowship Award
2005: Acoustic Blues-Artist of the Year (26th W.C. Handy Blues Awards)
2007: Acoustic Artist of the Year (The Blues Music Awards)
2008: Grammy Award
; Best Traditional Blues Album for Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas
2010: Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy
; Mississippi Governor's Awards For Excellence in the Arts
2010: Lifetime Achievement Award, National Guitar Museum
His albums White Windows, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin, Mississippi Delta Blues Man, and a recent album in which he appears with Robert Lockwood, Jr., Henry Townsend and Pinetop Perkins, Last Of The Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas
, were all nominated for the W. C. Handy Award. The latter album also won a Grammy Award
in 2008.
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and singer from the American South
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Edwards was the last Delta bluesman before his 2011 death.
Life and career
Edwards was born in ShawShaw, Mississippi
Shaw is a city in Bolivar and Sunflower Counties in the U.S. state of Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. The named derived from an old Indian tribe northeast of this region. The population was 2,312 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. Edwards was 14 years old when he left home to travel with bluesman Big Joe Williams, beginning the life as an itinerant musician which he led throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He performed with and was a friend of blues musician Robert Johnson. Honeyboy was present on the night Johnson drank poisoned whiskey which killed him, and his story has become the definitive version of Johnson's demise. Edwards knew and played with many of the leading bluesmen in the Mississippi Delta: Charley Patton
Charlie Patton
Charlie Patton , better known as Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man...
, Tommy Johnson, and Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth...
.
He described the itinerant bluesman's life:
Folklorist Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
Edwards in Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
in 1942 for the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. Edwards recorded 15 album sides of music. The songs included "Wind Howlin' Blues" and "The Army Blues". He did not record again commercially until 1951, when he recorded "Who May Be Your Regular Be" for Arc Records under the name of Mr Honey. Edwards claims to have written several well-known blues songs including "Long Tall Woman Blues" and "Just Like Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...
". His discography for the 1950s and 1960s amounts to nine songs from seven sessions. From 1974 to 1977, he recorded material for a full length LP, I've Been Around, released in 1978 on the independent Trix Records
Trix Records
Trix Records was a record label set up in 1972 by folklorist Peter B. Lowry.It lasted just under a decade as an active label dealing mainly with Piedmont blues artists from the Southeastern states , together with the anthology Detroit After Hours, a collection of Detroit piano players...
label by producer/ethnomusicologist Peter B. Lowry
Peter B. Lowry
Peter B. Lowry , is a folklorist, writer, record producer, ethnomusicologist, historian, photographer, and teacher on popular music in his seventies specializing in blues, and jazz with a primary focus on the Piedmont blues of the south-eastern United States.-Ethnomusicological Field Research:Mr...
.
Edwards authored the book, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin, published in 1997 by Chicago Review Press. The book recounts his life from childhood, his journeys through the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
and his arrival in Chicago in the early 1950s. A companion CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by the same title was released by Earwig Music
Earwig Music Company
Earwig Music Company is an independent American blues and jazz record label, founded October 1978 in Chicago by Michael Frank.Before setting up his label Michael Frank from 1975 until 1977 had been - like Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records and Jim O'Neal of Living Blues magazine - employed in Bob...
shortly afterwards. His long association with Earwig Music and Michael Frank spawned many late career albums on a variety of independent labels from the 1980s on. He has also recorded at a church-turned-studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
in Salina
Salina, Kansas
Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 47,707. Located in one of the world's largest wheat-producing areas, Salina is a regional trade center for north-central Kansas...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
and released albums on the APO record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. Edwards continued the rambling life he describes in his autobiography as he still toured the world well into his 90s.
On July 17, 2011, his manager Michael Frank announced that Edwards would be retiring due to ongoing health issues.
On August 29, 2011, Edwards died at his home, of congestive heart failure, at around 3 a.m. According to events listings on the Metromix Chicago website, Edwards had been scheduled to perform at noon that day, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan...
in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Discography
- Who May Be Your Regular Be (Arc, 1951)
- Build A Cave (Artist, 1951)
- Drop Down Mama (Chess, 1953)
- Old Friends (Earwig, 1979)
- White Windows (Blue Suit, 1988)
- Delta Bluesman (Earwig/Indigo, 1992)
- I've Been Around (Savoy Jazz, 1995)
- Crawling Kingsnake (Testament, 1997)
- World Don't Owe Me Nothing [live] (Earwig, 1997)
- Don't Mistreat a Fool (Genes, 1999)
- Shake 'Em on Down (APO, 2000)
- Mississippi Delta Bluesman (Smithsonian Folkways, 2001)
- Back to the Roots (Wolf, 2001)
- Roamin' and Ramblin (Earwig, 2008)
Film
In the 1991 documentary The Search for Robert JohnsonThe Search for Robert Johnson
The Search for Robert Johnson is a 1991 UK television documentary film about the legendary Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, hosted by John Hammond, and produced and directed by Chris Hunt...
, Edwards recounts stories about Johnson, including his murder.
The story of Edwards' life is told in the 2010 award winning film "Honeyboy and the History of the Blues" from Free Range Pictures, directed by Scott Taradash. The film features stories of Honeyboy's life from picking cotton as a sharecropper to traveling the world sharing his music. Artists who appear in the film include Keith Richards, Robert Cray, Joe Perry, Lucinda Williams, BB King, Big Joe Williams and Ace Atkins.
Edwards appeared in the 2007 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 music comedy film written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly...
.
Awards
- 1996: Inducted into the Blues Hall of FameBlues Hall of FameThe Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
- 1998: Keeping the Blues Alive Award in literature for
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, National Heritage Fellowship Award
50th Grammy Awards
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2008. Kanye West received the most nominations, with eight. Amy Winehouse was the big winner, winning a total of five awards. Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters won Album of the Year,...
; Best Traditional Blues Album for
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
; Mississippi Governor's Awards For Excellence in the Arts
His albums White Windows, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin, Mississippi Delta Blues Man, and a recent album in which he appears with Robert Lockwood, Jr., Henry Townsend and Pinetop Perkins, Last Of The Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas
Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas
Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas is a live recording with Henry James Townsend, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, Robert Lockwood, Jr. and David Honeyboy Edwards, playing in Dallas, Texas, October 2004...
, were all nominated for the W. C. Handy Award. The latter album also won a Grammy Award
50th Grammy Awards
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2008. Kanye West received the most nominations, with eight. Amy Winehouse was the big winner, winning a total of five awards. Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters won Album of the Year,...
in 2008.
See also
- List of Delta blues musicians
- List of blues musicians
- Mississippi Blues TrailMississippi Blues TrailThe Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...
- Dockery PlantationDockery PlantationDockery Plantation was a cotton plantation and sawmill on the Sunflower River between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi. It is widely regarded as the place where Delta blues music was born. Blues musicians residents at Dockery included Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf...
- Chicago bluesChicago bluesThe Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
- Delta bluesDelta bluesThe Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
- Notodden Blues FestivalNotodden Blues FestivalNotodden Blues Festival is one of the largest blues music festivals in Europe and the largest in Scandinavia. The festival is held in Notodden, Norway, usually in early August.-History:...
- Crossroads Guitar FestivalCrossroads Guitar FestivalThe Crossroads Guitar Festival is a music festival and benefit concert first held in 2004 and again in 2007 and 2010. The festivals benefit the Crossroads Centre founded by Eric Clapton, a drug treatment center located in Antigua. The concerts are also intended to be a showcase for a variety of...
External links
- Official website for Honeyboy Edwards
- Illustrated David "Honeyboy" Edwards' discography
- David 'Honeyboy' Edwards and The Blue Shoe Project
- Internet Radio Interview w/ David Honeyboy Edwards
- 2006 interview with David "Honeyboy" Edwards
- CD Review of Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesman - Live in Dallas
- 2001 Documentary film featuring David Honeyboy Edwards
- 2008 documentary film "Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street"
- Photographs of David Honeyboy Edwards performing at various venues