The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards [Paperback]

David Honeyboy Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556523688
• ISBN-13: 978-1556523687
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great American life, April 21, 2000

By 

Tyler Smith (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards (Paperback)

This autobiography succeeds memorably on several levels. Told in spare, moving words, it provides a vivid picture of life in the Mississippi Delta long before the civil rights movements of the '50s. In addition, it's a kind of African-American "On the Road," told from the perspective of one who crisscrossed the Southern United States, scuffling to make a living playing the blues. And finally, it's a terrific history of the blues, told by a man who made a significant musical contribution himself and who played with nearly all the essential artists of the '30s and on.

Edwards, born in the Delta around 1915, worked the fields as a kid before he learned to play the guitar and began hoboing around the South. He rode the rails, played in innumerable small towns, and polished his craft. Along the way, he hung out and played with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, Robert Junior Lockwood, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and yes, Robert Johnson. The book describes how these architects of the modern blues passed songs, licks, and stories back and forth, keeping a form that relies so heavily on tradition dynamic and vital.

A major strength of the book is Edwards' distinctive voice, transcribed by his collaborators to retain its distinctive rhythms and dialect. The book's title sums up his attitude. His memories include violent death, physical and emotional loss, and great material want. Still, you sense strongly that he wouldn't have had his life any other way. His narrative is devoid of self-pity, but it never glosses over the difficulty of the times he endured, which included stints in prison.

The book concludes with useful appendices that define key terms and offer capsule biographies and discographies of musicians Edwards encountered. A good bibliography is also included. Highly recommended for those interested in the blues and in American social history. Great read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The memoir of a great Bluesman., March 7, 1999

By 

William A. Houston "blues guitarist" (Hilliard, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards (Hardcover)

What a life! 82 years old Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards is one last Bluesmen alive that knew Robert Johnson but that is not the basis of the book. Edwards has lived a life that makes anyone really understand what the Blues is all about and other bluesmen back in the 1930's and 40's who shaped blues music.

Honeyboy's tales gives the reader his firsthand accounts of plantation life, the 1927 Mississippi River flood, vagrancy laws, makeshift courts, the racial problem and economics of southern blacks and the Depression.

This book came about because of the stories that Honeyboy told his manager of 25 years, Michael Robert Frank, who is also the founder of Earwig Records and Janis Martinson, a freelance writer. Martinson did the transcribing and left Honeyboy's speech patterns intact. My friend, Travis Brown is from Tennessee and after reading this book remarked that reading the words of Honeyboy took him back "home". Martinson also did the research and wrote the three appendices that appear in the back of the book. Want to find out what the "killin' floor" is (was) than buy this book.

Earwig has also issued a CD with the same title, I had that CD and Robert Johnson's in my changer while I read the book, they provided the perfect soundtrack to the theater of the mind.

Tony Houston, 1999

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Genuine Article, August 3, 2000

By 

Birdman (Minnetonka, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards (Paperback)

Honey and his astute collaborators have given us the genuine article: a poignant, detailed, uproarous chronicle of what Robert Palmer called the"Deep Blues," the Delta tradition from which all other blues styles emanate. If you've heard Honey sing either in person or on his fine recordings, you will hear the voice you read. He offers dozens of unforgettable moments, from the first sounds he ushers from a broken-necked guitar to his mother's death to the death of Robert Johnson, that are alive and chilling. My only criticism is that the photographs featured in the book are spartan, contemporary views of critical sites in this artist's life. More historical photography would have enhanced the text. The publisher of this well-designed softcover has made the text relaxingly readable. After my first 50 pages, I wanted to purchase all of Honey's recordings and read more about him. He is an articulate, funny, precise chronicler of his own life. If only I could do the same with my own life! First rate.