Honeyboy Edwards

Blues singer/guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards wasn't just influenced or inspired by icons Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams, he actually played with them. Born in 1915 into a hardscrabble existence in Shaw, Mississippi, Edwards was literally baptized in the crucible of the blues. Oddly enough, though, despite continuous activity, he didn't record much until the late '70s in his adopted hometown of Chicago. (The Honeyboy did, however, hook up in the studio in 1969 with the original, triple-guitar blues-band incarnation of Fleetwood Mac . . . yep, you read right.) Edwards made up for lost time with a vengeance, recording a series of discs for small labels that show his fires still radiating heat and light, his gruff, world-weary vocals and serrated guitar style intact. With the recent passing of Robert Lockwood Jr., Edwards is one of the last links to the original era of acoustic Mississippi Delta blues, but he's living history, not a museum relic.