Special Program Honoring Honeyboy Edwards

Tune into WNCU on Saturday, Sept.3 at 9 p.m. for a re-broadcast from WXPN’s Blues and Beyond featuring Honeyboy Edwards – A Long Life in the Blues.

At 92, David “Honeyboy” Edwards was still touring and playing the blues, though he no longer hopped freight trains to get around. His new album “Roamin’ And Ramblin'” covered an amazing period of sixty-five years, from his 1942 Library of Congress sessions with Alan Lomax to sessions he did last year with Bobby Rush, Billy Branch, and others. The album also offered some previously unavailable recordings from the 1970s, featuring Edwards with the late and great Big Walter Horton on harmonica, and also Sugar Blue. We’ll feature “Roamin’ And Ramblin'” on this program.

We’ll also hear from Robert Johnson — Honeyboy was with Johnson when he died — from a new, sound-quality-improved reissue of his work, and we’ll hear pianist Jimmy Blythe, both from piano roll and 78 rpm record. The show also includes music from Larry Willis and Catherine Russell, and African sounds from Leni Stern and Lionel Loueke.