Die-hard rock & roll fans are well aware of the link between the blues and rock music. So it's with more than a little sadness to learn that the last of the first generation of bluesmen,
David "Honeyboy" Edwards, died of congestive heart failure at his home in Chicago last Monday.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2011/08/david_honeyboy_edwards_dead_at.htmlBorn in 1915, Edwards left home at the age of fourteen alongside another bluesman,
Big Joe Williams. By the age of seventeen, he was already a professional musician. With Williams, he would go on to meet and play with several blues legends such as
Charlie Patton,
Sonny Boy Williamson,
Howlin' Wolf,
Lightnin' Hopkins,
Big Walter,
Little Walter, and
Muddy Waters.
"On Saturday, somebody like me or Robert Johnson would go into one of these little towns, play for nickels and dimes. And sometimes, you know, you could be playin' and have such a big crowd that it would block the whole street. Then the police would come around, and then I'd go to another town and where I could play at. But most of the time, they would let you play. Then sometimes the man who owned a country store would give us something like a couple of dollars to play on a Saturday afternoon. We could hitchhike, transfer from truck to truck, or if we couldn't catch one of them, we'd go to the train yard, 'cause the railroad was all through that part of the country then...we might hop a freight, go to St. Louis or Chicago. Or we might hear about where a job was paying off - a highway crew, a railroad job, a levee camp there along the river, or some place in the country where a lot of people were workin' on a farm. You could go there and play and everybody would hand you some money. I didn't have a special place then. Anywhere was home. Where I do good, I stay. When it gets bad and dull, I'm gone."
- From the book,
Deep Blues (
Robert Palmer,
1981), David "Honeyboy" Edwards talks about the life of the traveling bluesman.
Regarding his particular musical style, Edwards' manager Michael Frank (
who also played harmonica in his friend and client's trio) said:
""Honeyboy was the quintessential Delta bluesman.
"He was a very emotional and physical player and singer. He used his body in his stage performance for effect.
"He had an eccentric style, with unusual timing. He would make changes unpredictably. That was the Honeyboy test. Musicians who sat in found out very quickly you can't just count. He would do some funny turnaround, or funny lick, then look over and just laugh, knowing he was messing with us."Over the span of his career, Honeyboy played venues big and small around the world (
he liked calling touring as "rambling"), steadily earning legendary status for himself and recording fourteen albums in the process. He was inducted into the
Blues Hall Of Fame in 1996. Among the awards he received were two
Grammys - one in 2008 for
Best Traditional Blues Album (
Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas) and the
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Edwards was also given another Lifetime Achievement Award by the
National Guitar Museum in 2010.
Early this year, however, his health proved no match for the touring schedule that he hoped to sustain. He was forced to cancel several shows in May because of his heart condition.
http://www.spinner.com/2011/08/30/david-honeyboy-edwards-dead/On August 29, the man revered by many as the last link to an era of mythical proportions, passed away at the age of 96.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/30/in-praise-of-delta-bluesmenOn a more personal note, from a music fan, allow me to say a heartfelt
"Thanks for the music, Mr. Edwards." (Messrs. Moderators, if this news article was posted in the wrong thread, please move it to the appropriate location. Thank you very much!)
