The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards - Hardcover

Edwards, David Honeyboy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556522754 ISBN 13: 9781556522758

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 1997

Synopsis

This vivid oral snapshot of an America that planted the blues is full of rhythmic grace. From the son of a sharecropper to an itinerant bluesman, Honeyboy’s stories of good friends Charlie Patton, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, and Robert Johnson are a godsend to blues fans. History buffs will marvel at his unique perspective and firsthand accounts of the 1927 Mississippi River flood, vagrancy laws, makeshift courts in the back of seed stores, plantation life, and the Depression.

About this title

About the Author

David Honeyboy Edwards has been traveling and performing for over 67 years. Already in the Blues Hall of Fame, he was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Reviews

YAAThis biography is a blend of music, history, and masterful storytelling. Edwards does not have any regrets about his 65 plus years as a traveling country-blues musician. Now 82, he lovingly describes community life and family events during this childhood. Arranged chronologically, the book transports readers back to the days of the Depression and the harsh realities of segregation. As a young musician, "Honeyboy" walked, hitchhiked, or hoboed to various destinations under the threat of vagrancy laws. He was arrested by white sheriffs or farmers and sent to the county farm or jail. He doesn't cover up the brutality that he experienced due to class and color. He spins tales of gambling, romance, and classic blues artists, both male and female. Finally he reflects on his God-given talent. He writes vividly of another time and place. Appendixes include brief biographical sketches on blues performers and their songs and Honeyboy's recordings. Black-and-white pictures depict the places and people he mentions. Honeyboy's passion for the blues and his strong recollections will absorb readers.AConnie Freeman, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Honeyboy Edwards is one of the last of the original practitioners of the acoustic Delta blues style. Born in 1915 to a sharecropping family in Mississippi, he received a secondhand Sears, Roebuck guitar at 14 and was on the road with Big Joe Williams within three years. His journey had him playing with every blues legend from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters. Although his temper and his inability to stay in one place for long limited his recorded output, the tales he tells here confirm him as the archetypal bluesman making his way through life via women, music, and gambling. In addition to being a who's who of blues performers and an encyclopedia of blues styles, this book offers a seldom-seen look at the social mores of poor, rural, Southern African Americans from the Depression through World War II. Compiled over five years from interviews by Martinson and Frank, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the blues or African American life.?Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Robert Was Crazy About Women And Crazy About His Whiskey. I met Robert Johnson in Greenwood in 1937, in the fall. He was traveling around through the country all the time by himself, playing country dances all through them little Delta towns like Indianola, Leland, on over to Greenwood. He was hustling. He had made a few little records, and more probably the quarters and nickels and dimes was easier for him to make because he had a little something on wax. His songs was on the jukeboxes and everyone was listening to them for a nickel a crack. When I first met him he was on Johnson Street near Main in Greenwood, playing right back on the alley. He was right outside of Emma Collinssshe kept a good-timing house and used to sell whiskey, too. He was standing on a block and had a crowd of people back in the alley ganging around him. But they didnt know who he was! I didnt know at first either, and when I first walked up I thought he was sounding a little like Kokomo Arnold. I walked up with my little old guitar, put mine on back and started listening. He was playing the blues so good. One woman, she was full of that old corn whiskey, she said, Mister, you play me Terraplane Blues! She didnt know she was talking to the man who made it! She said, If you play me Terraplane Blues Ill give you a dime! He said, Miss, thats my number. Well, you play it then. He started playing and they knew who he was then. He was playing and trembling and hollering. It was a little after noon and the people was coming out of the country, coming to town. He had the street blocked with people listening to him play. He was dressed nice, wearing a brown hat. He wore a hat most of the time, broke down over that bad eye. I got acquainted with him when he finished playing. We started talking and I found out he was from around Robinsonville, had just been through Tunica. I asked him did he know my cousin there, Willie Mae Powell, and he said Thats my girlfriend! And I said Thats my first cousin! So we started to laughing, chatting it up a little bit and we kind of hooked up and started drinking and hanging around together. Thats how I got attached with him. I met him and found out he was going with my cousin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556522754
• ISBN 13: 9781556522758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304