海角大神

Chicago

January temperatures here are never kind. But in David 鈥淗oneyboy鈥� Edwards鈥檚 bedroom, where he likes to entertain guests 鈥� closet crammed with guitar cases, chipped chair and dresser squared against a bed with crimson sheets 鈥� the heat is positively Mediterranean.
鈥淚 like to do it like this,鈥� says Mr. Edwards stretched across the bed, hands cupped behind his head, and dreamily scanning the ceiling like it鈥檚 a night sky in Mississippi, his childhood home. 鈥淚 like it warm.鈥�

While the radiator hisses near his head and a space heater boils at his feet, Edwards smiles and goes quiet a moment. He鈥檚 93 and remembering another story 鈥� and this Grammy-winning bluesman has got many.

They are vivid accounts of a world that no longer exists, on the Mississippi Delta in the early 20th century before household electricity and civil rights. His stories have drawn academics, documentary film crews, and wide-eyed music enthusiasts from around the world to his door. Having lived the sharecropper life, Edwards 鈥� considered the last living link to country blues, which is the deepest root of all American popular music 鈥� recounts the people he knew and the musical culture he helped nurture, with photographic exactitude.

Some stories are personal, like how he got cut with a blade wooing his wife away from her first husband, or how he remembers the legendary guitarist Robert Johnson the night he died from being poisoned by his jealous girlfriend. Others paint a portrait of an era 鈥� the sound the water made when the levees broke in 1927, flooding the Mississippi lowlands. Or portraits of a culture 鈥� the exact uses of each part of a hog to make it last an entire winter. And portraits of a style of music 鈥� the exact chords and lyrics of songs never transcribed.

Edwards will bring that history to Washington, D.C., on an already historic occasion: The inauguration of the nation鈥檚 first African-American president. The Big Shoulders Ball, on inaugural eve at the Black Cat Club, will feature an entire slate of Chicago鈥檚 most significant bands and musicians, honoring Barack Obama, Edwards鈥檚 neighbor.

Like many African-Americans of his generation, Edwards is pleased with Obama鈥檚 win for history鈥檚 sake. 鈥淢atter of time,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 all it was.鈥� But Edwards lived his entire life on the margins that politicians so often ignore 鈥� and history has made him cautious.

鈥淚 seen many presidents pass through. I was here in [President Herbert] Hoover鈥檚 time back in the 鈥�30s and the Depression. I was 16 years old. People were starving to death. Here in Chicago, soup lines,鈥� he says.

Although Obama 鈥渕ay be better, may be worse,鈥� says Edwards, having the first African-American president in a time so similar to Hoover鈥檚 is important if only to try a different course. 鈥淭he same people, the same thing in the same seat all the time 鈥� I don鈥檛 think it makes sense.鈥�
Obama鈥檚 election win didn鈥檛 surprise Edwards, who attributes it to Obama being highly educated 鈥� an opportunity Edwards鈥檚 generation largely missed out on.

鈥淲hen I was a boy, if you went to a restaurant, by the front door [a sign] say, 鈥榳hite only鈥�. You got to go all around the back. Little ol鈥� pen there to eat in. You have three little benches back there. So it changed. So much of that I saw that a lot of people hadn鈥檛 seen. I didn鈥檛 get no education of school that much. But I got a helluva lot of street sense,鈥� he says.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

鈥淗e is living history,鈥� says Brett Bonner, editor of Living Blues magazine. He remembers asking Edwards five years ago about an obscure Delta musician named Johnny Temple, who enjoyed a minor hit in 1936 but ended up a custodian at the University of Mississippi. 鈥淭he guy had been dead since the 鈥�60s and here鈥檚 Honeyboy going, 鈥極h yeah, I remember Johnny!鈥� Before then there weren鈥檛 any stories about Johnny Temple.... When he鈥檚 gone, there won鈥檛 be anyone else who can make those connections.鈥�

Edwards grew up in a world now known mostly in books. His grandmother was a slave. Having just escaped the high waters of the 1927 Mississippi River flood, his mother died after giving birth to a daughter who died two months later. The family lived all winter on a hog they fattened through the fall and slaughtered before the cold set in.

He lived on various plantations where his family picked cotton for a living 鈥� until he learned to play guitar and struck out on his own at 16, hopping freight cars and crisscrossing 13 states, playing for anyone who鈥檇 pay on the street, at parties and dances, and eventually settling in Chicago in 1956.

The stereotype of the down-and-out musician was never exactly accurate, says Adam Gussow, an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. On the contrary, he says, their talent for remembering songs, playing the guitar, and lifting spirits was a valuable commodity.

鈥淏lues men had money,鈥� explains Mr. Gussow. 鈥淭hey were charismatic figures and they created this alternative entertainment world within which you could have larger-than-life identities. [Honeyboy] was a kind of a heroic exemplar for certain people who didn鈥檛 have a whole lot. You could be poor but you could still possess yourself. He offered Delta people an image of what it would be like to be free.鈥�
Indeed, says Edwards, 鈥淚 made enough money on [Friday, Saturday and Sunday], I didn鈥檛 have to go into the fields to work. People working and I鈥檓 laying up in the house.鈥�

Today, when Edwards isn鈥檛 performing, locally or overseas, he relaxes in his two-bedroom apartment. A live-in friend cooks and cleans while neighbors who enjoy his fame hang out in the living room watching daytime TV. Edwards may stay in his bedroom, playing guitar or reading, but when he feels the itch, he gets behind the wheel of his Volkswagen Golf and cruises the city.

Edwards still has a certain swagger. Rick Sherry, a harmonica player half Honeyboy鈥檚 age who frequently accompanies Edwards, observes that Edwards鈥檚 stage demeanor 鈥� with his spontaneous but slow, fingerpicked style of traditional acoustic blues 鈥� is more languid cool than a sign of any frailty.

鈥淚鈥檝e never taken a solo from Honeyboy but don鈥檛 want to. With Honeyboy, you鈥檙e backing him up all the time. Even if I wanted to [solo], he鈥檇 change chords within the riff,鈥� says Mr. Sherry. 鈥淚t puts you in a little Zen thing. It鈥檚 given me the ability to play with anyone because your ears are totally tuned in.鈥�

The restlessness in Edwards鈥檚 guitar style was learned from the earliest blues figures he knew 鈥� Charlie Patton, Tommy McClennan, Robert Petway, Big Joe Williams, and, most famously, Robert Johnson. That Edwards would never become as famous as Johnson despite playing alongside him and even being at his side the night he died in 1938, is due largely to circumstance. In the late 50s, when academics and blues collectors searched for bluesmen they knew only through recordings made 30 years earlier, Edwards was not on the map, while Johnson, whose 40 or so recordings created a blueprint for rock 鈥榥 roll, would become a posthumous star.

鈥淭hat speaks to the mystery and power of Robert Johnson鈥檚 music, but, at the same time until he made those 78s, he was just another guy running around the Delta like Honeyboy. It could have been reversed,鈥� says Michael Franks, who manages Edwards. 鈥淗oneyboy remembered the talent scouts, he knew them all. But he was only interested in making money day-to-day. He wasn鈥檛 thinking about his career as we do nowadays.鈥�

If not fame, Edwards was blessed with a solid longevity. In the past two years he has toured Europe four times, bringing in enough to pay the rent until the next time he packs his bags. The lifestyle, while slow, connects him to the day he left home almost 80 years ago for the endless road and earned a kind of freedom that existed years before marches and legislation made it official.

In his own way Edwards, and his generation of bluesmen, set the precedent for individual worth, a quality that, this year, brought the first African-American to occupy the Oval Office.

鈥淚 never did thought when I run around playing I鈥檇 be doing it still. I was doing it because I liked to play music,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 loved what I was doing.鈥�