Biography

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Mr. Edwards was born in Shaw, MS June 28, 1915, and died in Chicago August 29, 2011

David “Honeyboy” Edwards was one of the last of the original Delta Bluesmen who traveled the South as hobos in the 1930s and who shaped early folk music into what later generations turned into rock ‘n’ roll.

Honeyboy Edwards was born in the Mississippi Delta in 1915, the son of a sharecropper. After meeting Delta blues guitarist Big Joe Williams, he left home at age 17, and traveled the South by hopping freight trains, Honeyboy worked with Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and countless others while honing hismusical skills on the streets and in juke joints across 13 states.

Not long after recording with Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1942, Honeyboy met teenage blues harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs, and took Walter to Chicago, where they frequented the city's famous Maxwell Street Market. After a short stint there, Honeyboy recorded for the Artist Recording Company in Texas, and for Sun Records in Memphis. Returning to Chicago, he recorded for Chess Records. After deciding to make Chicago his home, he quickly became known as one of the city's finest slide guitarists.

In the 1960s he recordd for Milestone, Adelphi and Blue Horizon labels. In the late 60s, the original Fleetwood Mac asked Honeyboy to play on their Blues Jam in Chicago sessions. Over the years that followed, he recorded albums for the Trix, Earwig, Roots, Folkways, Blue Suit and Acoustic Dounds labels.

His last studio release, Roamin and Ramblin, on the Earwig Music label, features Honeyboy's old school guitar and vocals - fresh takes on old gems and first time release of historic recordings. New 2007 sessions with harmonica greats Bobby Rush, Billy Branch, and Johnny "Yard Dog" Jones, previously unreleased in 1975 studio recordings of Honeyboy and Big Walter Horton, and circa 1976 concert tracks - solo and with Sugar Blue. Michael Frank, Paul Kaye, Rick Sherry and Kenny Smith also play on the album on various tracks. Honeyboy and Bobby Rush also tell some short blues tales.

His many awards and honors include the Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Award, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement,and the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship award. He also received a Grammy for best traditional blues album for his work on "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen," which also featured Pinetop Perkins, Henry Townsend & Robert Lockwood Jr. Honeyboy's oral history, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing, was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame as a Classic In Blues Literature, and the Blues Foundation bestowed on Honeyboy the Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Literature.

Discography
http://davidhoneyboyedwards.com/Discography.asp

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

All the tunes, including five band tracks, evoke the glory days before World War II, when Honeyboy developed his repertoire from his encounters with Big Joe Williams, Curtis Jones, Peetie Wheatstraw, Tommy McClennan and others. Especially noteworthy is Honeyboy's performance of "Big Katie Allen," a tune he learned from previously unknown Andrew Moore, a Mississippian whose guitar making and finger-picking he admired. Equally delightful are Honeyboy's short tales about his life as a bluesman during the 1930s.

© P 1992 Earwig Music Company, Inc.
David Edwards music publishing administered by BMG
Musicians:
David "Honeyboy" Edwards - guitar, vocals, rack harmonica
Carey Bell - harmonica
Sunnyland Slim - piano
Aron Burton - bass
Robert Plunkett - drums
Produced by: Michael Frank and Mike Vernon, an Earwig/Indigo Co-Production
Tracks 1,2 and 4-14 were produced and recorded for The Library of Congress on 20th and 22nd July 1942 by Alan Lomax in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Track 27 was recorded on 8th June 1979 by Michael Rasfeld, engineer, at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois with Arthur Lee Stevenson aka Kansas City Red - drums/comments and Floyd Jones - acoustic second guitar.
Remaining tracks were recorded in 1991 at IdealSound Recorders, London by David Kenny, engineer; and in 1991 at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois by Paul Smith - lead engineer, with Dan White and Pat LeVintre - second engineers.

Bass, Drums, Harmonica, Keyboards, Lead Guitar, Lead vocals

1. Alan Lomax introduces David Edwards 0:27
2. Roamin' And Ramblin' Blues 2:58
3. I'm from the Library of Congress 4:26
4. You Got To Roll (accapella) 0:56
5. You Got To Roll (Levee Camp Song) 2:29
6. Water Coast Blues 5:51
7. Stagolee 1:03
8. Just A Spoonful 1:44
9. Spread My Raincoast Down 2:28
10. Hellatakin' Blues 0:47
11. Wind Howlin' Blues 3:12
12. Worried Life Blues 2:53
13. Tear It Down Rag 2:53
14. The Army Blues 3:47
15. They called it Big Kate 2:24
16. Big Katie Allen 4:05
17. Black Cat 3:33
18. I met Peetie Wheatstraw in '39 0:58
19. Number 12 At The Station 3:50
20. When I came to Memphis 0:37
21. Rocks In My Pillow 4:16
22. We used to sing that when I was a kid 1:11
23. Decoration Day 4:35
24. Who May Your Regular Be 3:28
25. I studied up that song myself 1:15
26. Eyes Full Of Tears 3:17
27. Bad Whiskey And Cocaine 4:26