David "Honeyboy" Edwards
David "Honeyboy" Edwards | |
|---|---|
 Edwards performing in July 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | David Edwards |
| Also known as | Mr. Honey |
| Born | June 28, 1915 Shaw, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | August 29, 2011 (aged 96) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Delta blues |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Years active | 1930s–2011 |
| Labels | |
| Website | davidhoneyboyedwards |
David "Honeyboy" Edwards (June 28, 1915 – August 29, 2011) was an American delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi.[1]
Biography
Edwards was born in
Tommy Johnson, and Johnny Shines
.
He described the itinerant bluesman's life:
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.[5]
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The
ethnomusicologist Peter B. Lowry. Kansas City Red played for Edwards for a brief period, and Earwig recorded them in 1981, along with Sunnyland Slim and Floyd Jones, for the album Old Friends Together for the First Time.[8]
His autobiography, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, published in 1997 by the
independent labels from the 1980s on. He also recorded at a church turned recording studio in Salina, Kansas
, and released albums on the APO label. Edwards continued the rambling life he described in his autobiography, touring well into his 90s.
Between 1996 and 2000, he was nominated for eight
Grammy Award in 2008.[11] He also won the W. C. Handy Blues Award in 2005 and the Blues Music Award in 2007 for Acoustic Blues Artist.[10] In 2010, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[11]
On July 17, 2011, Frank announced that Edwards would retire because of ill health.[12]
Edwards died of
congestive heart failure at his home on August 29, 2011, at about 3 a.m.[1][13] According to events listings on the Metromix Chicago website, he had been scheduled to perform at noon that day, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park.[14]
Discography
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- "Build a Cave"/"Who May Be Your Regular Be" (ARC, 1951)
- "Drop Down Mama" (Chess, 1953)
- I've Been Around (Trix Records, 1978, 1995)
- Mississippi Delta Bluesman (Folkways Records, 1979)
- Old Friends (Earwig, 1979)
- White Windows (Blue Suit, 1988)
- Delta Bluesman (Earwig/Indigo, 1992)
- Crawling Kingsnake (Testament, 1997)
- World Don't Owe Me Nothing, recorded live (Earwig, 1997)
- Don't Mistreat a Fool (Genes, 1999)
- Shake 'Em On Down (APO, 2000)
- Mississippi Delta Bluesman (reissue of 1979 album: Smithsonian Folkways Records, 2001)
- Back to the Roots (Wolf, 2001)
- Roamin' and Ramblin (Earwig, 2008)
Film
In the 1991 documentary The Search for Robert Johnson, Edwards recounts stories about Johnson, including his murder.[citation needed]
Edwards is the subject of the 2010 award-winning film Honeyboy and the History of the Blues, from
sharecropper to traveling the world performing his music. Artists who appear in the film include Keith Richards, Robert Cray, Joe Perry, Lucinda Williams, B. B. King, Big Joe Williams, and Ace Atkins.[citation needed
]
Edwards appeared in the 2007 film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.[15]
Awards and honors
- 1996: Induction into the Blues Hall of Fame[2]
- 1998: Keeping the Blues Alive Award in literature, for The World Don't Owe Me Nothing[10]
- 1999: Blues Hall of Fame inductee, Classics of Blues Literature, for The World Don't Owe Me Nothing[10]
- 2002: National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts[16]
- 2005: Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year, 26th W. C. Handy Blues Awards[10]
- 2007: Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year, 28th Blues Music Award[10]
- 2008: Grammy Award, Best Traditional Blues Album, for Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas[11]
- 2010: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award[11]
- 2010: Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts
- 2010: Lifetime Achievement Award, National Guitar Museum
See also
- Crossroads Guitar Festival
- Dockery Plantation
- List of blues musicians
- List of Delta blues musicians
- Mississippi Blues Trail
- Notodden Blues Festival
References
- ^ a b Friskics-Warren, Bill (August 29, 2011). "David Honeyboy Edwards, Delta Bluesman, Dies at 96". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d e Edwards biographical page Archived May 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Allaboutjazz.com. Accessed February 2008.
- ^ "David 'Honeyboy' Edwards: Blues guitarist/singer". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Guralnick, Peter (1989). Searching for Robert Johnson.
- ^ Palmer, Robert (1981). Deep Blues.
- ^ ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- OCLC 26434901. 3319.
- ^ "Old Friends". Discogs.com. November 15, 1981. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- OL 657465M.
- ^ a b c d e f "Award Winners and Nominees [search]". blues.org. The Blues Foundation. 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Artist: David 'Honeyboy' Edwards". www.grammy.com. Recording Academy. n.d. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Marshal, Matt (2011). "David 'Honeyboy' Edwards Retires" Archived September 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. American Blues Scene. 17 July 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
- ^ "David Honeyboy Edwards". Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ "Events for August 29, 2011". Chicago.metromix.com. Retrieved August 29, 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Full Cast of Walk Hard". IMDb.com. January 9, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
- ^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2002". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to David "Honeyboy" Edwards.
- Official website
- Honeyboy Edwards at IMDb
