I'm sad to write that the last direct link to Robert Johnson, David 'Honeyboy" Edwards has died this week. A classic Delta Blues guitarist, he played alongside Johnson and even claimed to have been present at his poisoning.
Blues was Edwards life - he left home at 14 to play the Blues with Big Joe Williams and his life on the road meant he crossed paths with all the greats from the 30s onwards. His output was prolific until the early 40s and then he seemed content to live with his back catalogue and the blues standards that they all did in the bars and clubs from New Orleans to Chicago and beyond. The 1970s saw a renaissance and a public eager for new work forced him back into the recording studio. The resulting album "I've Been Around" is a classic by a bluesman with nothing to prove. He recorded regularly thereafter although maintaining the itinerant life that he had followed since a young lad. He eventually wrote his autobiography in 1997 and the book and accompanying CD is a must-have for any blues historians.
He was always touring and never retired playing in his last gig at the Cathead Festival as recently as April. His catchphrase was "The World Don't Owe Me Nothing". A typically self-deprecating comment that deserves the response that it owes him a huge debt of thanks. Whilst researching about him for this entry I stumbled across this documentary about his life. If you have half an hour to spare you could do worse than see Edwards tell his story in his own inimitable style.
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