David Honeyboy Edwards

[Admin]

Honeyboy Edwards - Last of the Delta Bluesmen



In the early 21st century, living links to the immortal Robert Johnson were few. After the passing of Robert Jr. Lockwood in 2006, David "Honeyboy" Edwards was generally regarded as the last of the Delta bluesmen who had actually played and traveled with Johnson himself, and with Edwards' death in Chicago in August 2011 at age 96, that last link passed into history. For much of his life, Edwards was something of an underappreciated figure, but not in his latter years -- his slashing, Delta-drenched guitar and gruff vocals were as authentic as Delta blues ever got.

Edwards had it tough growing up in Mississippi, but his blues prowess (his childhood pals included Tommy McClennan and Robert Petway) impressed Big Joe Williams enough to take him under his wing. Rambling around the South, Honeyboy experienced the great Charley Patton and played often with Johnson. Musicologist Alan Lomax came to Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1942 and captured Edwards for Library of Congress-sponsored posterity. Commercial prospects for the guitarist were scant, however -- a 1951 78 for Artist Record Co., "Build a Cave" (as Mr. Honey), and four 1953 sides for Chess that laid unissued until "Drop Down Mama" turned up 17 years later on an anthology constituted the bulk of his early recorded legacy, although Edwards was in Chicago from the mid-'50s on.

Delta Bluesman

The guitarist met young harpist/blues aficionado Michael Frank in 1972. Four years later, they formed the Honeyboy Edwards Blues Band to break into Chicago's then-fledgling North Side club scene; they also worked as a duo (and continued to do so on occasion for many years thereafter). When Frank inaugurated his Earwig label, he enlisted Honeyboy and his longtime pals Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter Horton, Floyd Jones, and Kansas City Red to cut a rather informal album, Old Friends, as his second release in 1979. In 1992, Earwig assembled Delta Bluesman, a stunning combination of unexpurgated Library of Congress masters and then-recent performances that showed Edwards had lost none of his blues fire. He remained active up through the first decade of the 21st century, collaborating with Henry Townsend (who died in 2006), Pinetop Perkins (another legendary bluesman from Edwards' generation who died in 2011), and Lockwood on Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas, which won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. David "Honeyboy" Edwards also received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 2010.

Attachments:

Honeyboy Edwards.pdf (222.81 KB)

[dadfad]

I'd known Honey for over twenty-five years. He was definitely the very last of the old-time first generation bluesmen. A long time ago, mid-eighties, I found out I was going to have a chance to meet Honeyboy Edwards in person, truly one of the greats in old country-blues. He had been Robert Johnson's room-mate at the time of his death. They were stylistically similar. Honey was every bit as good as Johnson, but Johnson had been lucky enough to cut a few sides for Paramount. Honey had been recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in the early '40s. I'd been told by several people that Honeyboy was a real racist, and he hated whites and was very rude toward them. I had a pretty hard time believing music couldn't transcend race and class and there was more to it than that. I made a point before my chance to meet him to find his music, to really listen to it and get into it. When I met him, we shook hands and I said it was an honor to meet him, and then I said "I have a question I'd like to ask you if you don't mind..." (and I could see his eyes get steely, like "Okay, here comes another question about Robert...") "...Mr. Edwards, when you recorded for Lomax, on your tune "Levee Camp Blues" did you use... (etc, etc)..." and I could see the look in his eyes change. He began talking about the tune, and was very friendly. I'd figured out I'd heard he was a racist because every time some white guy met him, the first thing he'd say to him was probably something like "What was Robert Johnson like?" or "Do you know any Robert Johnson tunes?" Honey had lived in the shadow of the "Robert Johnson myth" for fifty years, when he was every bit the musician Johnson was, but wasn't "lucky enough" to have been murdered young and linked with selling his soul and all of the other Robert Johnson mythology. We became good friends ever since. He's been a guest in my home, and me in his. Honey even said once many years later "You know, Mog-Man (a name he always called me for some reason. Probably related to "Morgan."). I took a likin' to ya cause you didn't ask me nothin' 'bout Robert when ya met me." (Although he had talked about Robert many times since then.)

Since then (and the "re-discovery of pre-war acoustic blues, and with it a lot of bookings for him worldwide), Honey frequently played some Johnson-tunes at gigs. He realized what his audiences expected and went with it, mixing his tunes with Robert's and others. In the last ten years or so his skill had diminished quite a bit. The attraction for his audiences was more to see a "living legend" than a master-guitarist.

Another friend of mine (a young, as in late-fortyish, white guy) Rick Sherry ("Cookin' Sherry") was a teacher at a private school in Chicago. He was into harp (and other percussion things like washboard, etc). He knew Honey too. When Honey started getting "rediscovered" and had lots of gigs lined up, he asked Rick if he wanted to be his harp-washboard man. Rick said to me, "You know, John, I love old-time blues harp like you love old-time blues guitar. This is my chance to play and be the sideman with the last of the old original Delta-Bluesmen. For somebody like me, it's kind of the ultimate fulfillment of all the years I've put into loving and learning this stuff. I'm gonna give them notice at my teaching position and tour with Honey." Which he did for several years.

A while back, maybe fifteen or so years ago, Honey was doing a gig not far from me. He called me and asked me if I wanted come and hang out at the club before it opened for his set-up, sound-check, etc and have a few drinks and shoot-the-shit. (Honey himself had given up hard-liquor by then.) I was sitting at a table in the back with Rick, and Honey was up on stage fiddling around with his equipment. All of a sudden the most god-awful distortion/reverb/chorus/flanger sounds started coming off the stage. It was Honey. I looked at Rick like "W/t/f...?" and he said "A couple of weeks ago me and Honey were in a guitar shop buying strings and a couple of harmonicas. Some young kid was sitting there playing way too loud using all of these cheesey effects. Honey was fascinated by them, and bought about a dozen pedals and has been fukking around with them since. I said "Is he gonna use this crap for his show tonight???" and Rick said "Yeah, I'm afraid so..." (If you've ever heard the old Muddy Waters' 60s psychedelic-era album "Electric Mud," think of that sound on steroids. Luckily Honey's "nu-age period" only lasted a month or so!

That night after I got the phone-call of his passing, in my music room I poured a glass of whiskey, picked up an old acoustic Gibson LG that for some reason Honey always had liked. Not a particularly great guitar, but he said it felt good to him. (I said he could have it if he wanted it, but he wouldn't take it.) And I played "Levee Camp Blues" on it, probably the only Honey-tune I knew really well. Then, as kind of an after-thought, I ended it with the opening and closing licks of Honey's old buddy's tune "When You've Got A Good Friend."

I've rambled on more than enough. I miss that crazy cantankerous old coot.

[AlanB]

He certainly enjoyed a lengthy, and varied, recording career.

www.wirz.de/music/edwhfrm.htm

[Admin]

Great story John.

[earleg]

A friend interviewed Honey Boy for the Nashville Blues Society newsletter ('80s) when HB was living
(part time?) in North Nashville. Friend told me Honey Boy showed him guitars he was building or had built
and was a real character.

[Admin]

May 28, 2013 20:09:50 GMT -5 earleg said:

A friend interviewed Honey Boy for the Nashville Blues Society newsletter ('80s) when HB was living
(part time?) in North Nashville. Friend told me Honey Boy showed him guitars he was building or had built
and was a real character.

Love to see it.

[steve]

I enjoyed reading this.

[Deleted]

WOW JOHN ya knew the man??? great insight and thread thanks all.

I just wanted to say I did see HONEYBOY In NYC at a Blues club in Brooklyn ( at least 13+ years ago) as it was prior to my being disabled and though our conversation lasted seconds, he was kind and had ZERO EGO....and  was a sincere guy who could captivate an audience with his stories or music.

I would like to bring to anyone who likes HONEYBOY:S style n music attention........I bought his AUOBIOGRAPHY on DVD from ALLIGATOR RECORDS at WWW.ALLIGATOR.com

It is titled "BORN IN THE HONEY"...."The Life of DAVID HONEYBOY EDWARDS"


Being a purist and loving to read and watch these factual DVD"s on such OL' BLUESMEN like HONEYBOY.... this was one great film.
JOHN YOUR STORY IS A GREAT READ MAYBE YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK ON YOUR COMINGS N GOINGS WITH THE ROYALTY OF THE BLUES.


Even though I had watched it a few times every time I go to the hospital for an overnight stay it is one of the movies I bring.
The other is THE LIFE OF PINETOP PERKINS.......now here is a guy that would try to get you into doing shots n tell stories, my only problem there was I DID NOT DRINK never really did so after shot 4 I was DRUNK and in need of the room to STOP SPINNING...which PINETOP found quite funny.


BTW I have the dvd ELECTRIC MUD.... my GOD PART OF WHY I HATE PEDALS most novices to pedals will use the wrong pedal for certain effect and it will just sound like shit.... He was playing clean when I saw him and it was beautiful how he manipulated the strings on that ax of his.


St. James



I suggest any of you PURISTS like me and those who just wanna know the real deal about the forefathers of the genre we love and still try to figure out WHAT TUNING IS HE USING? lol


GREAT THREAD GUYS !!!!


ST JAMES

[dadfad]

Thanks, James.

"...BTW I have the dvd ELECTRIC MUD.... my GOD PART OF WHY I HATE PEDALS..."

James, years ago a buddy of mine sent me a copy of Electric Mudd he'd copied to a cassette. I'd never heaard of it before then. When I played, it I thought it was my buddy over-dubbing guitar on some original Muddy-tunes as a joke! smiley-laughing024

[AlanB]

Discovered this in a file, front and back pages only inner a variety of photos. Originally sent to me by Mary Katherine Aldin

Attachments:

HBedward.pdf (998.29 KB)