Honeyboy Edwards: Missisippi Delta Bluesman

Album Review

Edwards presented a mixture of originals and covers of songs by the likes of Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton, and Memphis Minnie on this solo country blues session, originally issued by Folkways in 1979. There's nothing extraordinary about this album, true, but it's solid Delta blues that feels lived in. Edwards does much to add interest and variety to the material by varying between chording and single-string playing and high and low notes, and changing the rhythms unpredictably, sometimes with a stop-start feel. His husky voice is warm and communicative, if not as distinctive as some of the legends he hung out with, which included Patton, Robert Johnson, and others.