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"Honeyboy Edwards is among the last authentic performers in the blues idiom that developed in central Mississippi during the second and third decades of [the 20th] centuryThrough him, an entire body of great American music lives on." - Robert Palmer, author of Deep Blues and former pop music critic of The New York Times
"Delta blues veteran David Honeyboy Edwards has remained utterly true to his roots through a career that began in Mississippi in the 1930s. A Honeyboy Edwards show is a rare, unselfconscious performance of living blues history." - David Whiteis, Chicago Reader
Everywhere Edwards leads us is a worthwhile place to go." - Acoustic Guitar Magazine
David Honeyboy Edwards was born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in 1915. He left his hometown of Shaw and the sharecropper's life as a teenager, when he met Delta bluesman Big Joe Williams. Following Big Joe, he hopped the freight trains of blues lore -- the Pea Vine, the Southern, the Yellow Dog. He learned to play on dusty street corners in small southern towns and the good-timing houses of New Orleans.
Honeyboy went off on his own, wandering throughout the South as an itinerant musician and gambler. During the mid-1930s he worked both as a solo player with Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, and Tommy McClellan. With members of the Memphis Jug Band, he played in Handy Park on Memphis's Beale Street. He befriended Big Walter Horton and traveled with him to small towns in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.
Throughout this time Honeyboy honed his unique style of traditional Delta blues. In 1942 Library of Congress archivist and folklorist Alan Lomax caught up with the fast-moving, itinerant Honeyboy in Clarksdale, Mississippi and recorded 15 of his stories and songs for the Library of Congress collection. These recordings "virtually summarized what Delta musicianship of that decade had to offer" (Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow, King of the Delta Blues).
In the late forties, Honeyboy brought a teenaged Little Walter to Chicago and together they played at that city's famous Maxwell Street Market. Eventually the blues led Honeyboy to Texas, to Deep Ellum in Dallas, and to Houston, where he took on a band and a new sound, and recorded as "Mr. Honey" for the Artist Recording Company, accompanied by pianist Thunder Smith. He recorded again for Sam Phillips in Memphis, and came to Chicago when Chess Records called. This pioneer label of the electric blues recorded Honeyboy in 1953. His song, "Drop Down Mama," became a minor classic of that period.
In the fifties, Honeyboy married and began to raise a family. He decided to make Chicago his home. He played in south side taverns and built a reputation as one of the city's finest slide guitarists. During the sixties, his recording career accelerated as independent labels Milestone, Adelphi, and Blue Horizon put his songs on vinyl. He appeared as a guest artist on two albums by the original Fleetwood Mac.
For the last decades, Honeyboy has continued to record and perform. He has carried his unique style of the blues to audiences throughout the world. Honeyboy has entertained audiences at major concert halls, numerous major folk festivals, and on public and network radio and television.
Frequently sought out by film-makers, historians, and writers for his recollections of earlier days and important musicians, Honeyboy has been a featured musician and narrator in half a dozen films and is mentioned in most of the major books about blues. In 1997, his own book, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, was published. This account is a deeply personal story of his early life as a sharecropper's son and his years as an itinerant musician. It also offers a "vivid oral snapshot of an America that planted the blues." The World Don't Owe Me Nothing has received high critical acclaim. It was declared a "Best Blues Book" by Living Blues Magazine and was honored with the Handy Award for Literature.
"The World Don't Owe Me Nothing is the most central contribution to blues history." - Boston Globe
"This is essential reading for anyone interested in the blues or African American life." - Library Journal
"Makes a bygone era come alive as no book has done before." - Living Blues
Honeyboy Edwards was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996. While many of his earlier recordings have been re-released, Honeyboy has also recently recorded several CDs on various record labels. In his 80s, he continues to travel and perform. His guitar and vocal performances are moving and intense. Listening to his live performances, one readily understands how Honeyboy Edwards has been captivating audiences around the world for decades.
Honeyboy Edwards has toured Argentina, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. He has performed on British, Canadian, and German television and radio.
He has played at major U.S. festivals including: ChicagoFest, Chicago Blues Festival, Bayfront Blues Festival, Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk Blues Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Poconos Blues Festival, Long Beach Blues Festival, San Francisco Blues Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Farish Street Festival, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, Riverfront Blues & Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz & Blues Festival, the Festival of American Folklife, and many more.
Foreign festivals in which Honeyboy has performed include: the Edinburgh Arts Festival, Burnley Blues Festival, Dresden Blues Festival, Montreal Jazz & Blues Festival, Harborfront Festival, and the Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg Folk Festivals.
Honeyboy has been featured in books including Robert Palmer's Deep Blues and Peter Guralnick's Searching for Robert Johnson, as well as countless magazines and journals. He can be seen in documentaries including: Blues--Pain Created To Heal Pain (Brazil), Can't You Hear the Wind Howl (Fox-Lorber Home Video), The Promised Land (Sony Home Video), The Search for Robert Johnson (Sony Music Video), and Smaart (the Netherlands). He is featured on Starlicks Blues Guitar instruction video (Hal Leonard Publishing). Free Range Pictures will release Honeyboy's video autobiography in spring , 2004.
Discography: African Portraits, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Teldec 6019), Crawling Kingsnake (Testament 6002), Delta Bluesman (Earwig 4922), Drop Down Mama (Chess LP 411), From West Helena to Chicago/Chicago Blues Sessions Volume 8 (Wolf 120.854), Honeyboy Edwards: Mississippi Delta Bluesman (Smithsonian Folkways 40132), I've Been Around (Trix LPS 3319), Juke Joint Blues (Blues Classics 23), Old Friends (Earwig 4902), Shake 'Em On Down (APO 2010), Walking Blues (Flyright LPS 541, England), White Windows (Evidence 26039-2), The World Don't Owe Me Nothin' (Earwig 4940).
