Saturday June 10

Blues Fest Afterset: Honey boy Edwards 91st Birthday
Jazz, Blues and Improvised Music
9:00pm $20 in Advance $25 day of show Non-smoking show (21 & Over)

9:30 pm Rob Stone & the C-Notes harmonica driven classic electric Chicago blues quartet 10:30 pm Honeyboy Edwards with special guests Louisiana Red & others Delta blues guitar and vocals by its greatest legendary practitioners 11:30 am Liz Mandville Greeson & Rodney Brown blues and soul with an original sassy, saxy approach 12:30 am Dennis Binder with the C-Notes, Rodney Brown on sax, and guest guitarists blues, 1950's r&b, and inspirational music by 76 year old piano and organ master Dennis Binder, who recorded for United, Modern and Sun Records in the mid 1950's.


Honeyboy Edwards

Honeyboy Edwards is one of the few remaining delta bluesmen who traveled the country during the 30?s and 40?s and provides us with a direct link to the origins of Delta blues. Born in Shaw, Mississippi on June 28, 1915, he played with most of the legendary blues performers of that time including close friend Robert Johnson, Son House, Big Joe Williams and Charlie Patton among others. He was also present at the time of Robert Johnson?s death and is not afraid to tell the "real" story behind that event. Honeyboy was just 27 when Alan Lomax caught up with him for some recordings in 1942 for the Library of Congress. These recordings were preserved and re-issued with new material on the 1992 Earwig album "Delta Bluesman."
Honeyboy moved to Chicago in the 1940?s but his music still maintains that raw Delta flavor. Honeyboy has an impish quality about him, a wry sense of humor and a story for just about every blues performer he ever met. During a typical performance, however, Honeyboy lets his guitar do most of the talking. His playing is still full-bodied, aggressive and intense with all the rough edges still in place. His wild, slicing slide-guitar playing, on numbers like "Sweet Home Chicago," is like taking a ride on a southern freight train going around the bend at 90 miles an hour holding on for dear life! He plays in a variety of styles from ragtime to wrenching hard edged delta blues. Dave "Honeyboy" Edwards is a national blues treasure and seeing him play his pure Delta blues is like watching living history unfold before your eyes as its being told by one of the originators of the music. Honeyboy continues up and down the Blues Highway, traveling from juke joint to nightclub to festival, playing real Delta blues to adoring fans everywhere.
Quote
"Mr. Edwards," says the New York Times, "is among the last authentic performers in the blues... everything he does is infused with the rocking drive and hypnotic modal flavor of depression-era blues at its most intense."
"Despite his advanced age," says the Chicago Reader's David Whiteis, "Edwards can still attain an almost frightening intensity, delivering lyrics in a dark, throaty shout and ripping single-note phrases from his fretboard as if he were tearing them out of the Delta soil itself."