David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, believed to have been the oldest surviving member of the first generation of Delta blues singers, died last Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96.
His career spanned nearly the entire recorded history of the blues, from its early years in the Mississippi Delta to its migration to the nightclubs of Chicago and its emergence as an international phenomenon.
3 comment(s):
Sad News.
Sad news indeed. I saw Edwards play a few years ago, a great musician. The perplexing thing about that gig was the number of punters who were upset to see him playing an electric guitar. These white, middle class types expected him to be playing some beat up old acoustic just to make them feel as if they were somehow more authentic blues fans as a result. Fools. Part of the wonder of Edwards career was that he did move with the times and didn't rest on his laurels. As the last link between the original blues music and modern blues he will be sadly missed.
Edwards was awesome; I saw him perform in 1996 at Puistoblues (a blues festival in Finland). He was just one performer among many, but certainly a memorable one. Blues lives on.
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