The Blue Shoe Project
“A national treasure,” is how Michael Dyson of the Blue Shoe Project describes Honeyboy. His nonprofit organization brings musicians like Honeyboy to schools around the country to share the rich blues heritage and history with young people. “Kids often don’t realize that the music they listen to, whether it’s rock-n-roll or hip hop or rap, has roots in the blues,” says Dyson.
Students sway to the music as Honeyboy takes them on a blues-style musical tour. Says Honeyboy, “They didn’t make just one way to play the blues. There’s slow, lonesome, lowdown dirty, thinking-about-your-woman blues. You can take the same blues and make them up-tempo and they’ll be boogie-woogie blues. Shuffle blues are like rock and roll blues. You can do it the way you want to do it and make it sound the way you want it to sound.”
Keep on moving
Between musical numbers, Honeyboy entertains the students with tales of his colorful youth – hopping freight trains, gambling and just plain getting into trouble. He says he learned to drive when he was 14 and adds “I still drive my car every day. I don’t sit around the house. I go all the time.” Whether it’s driving or playing the guitar, Honeyboy’s approach is the same. “You don’t just give up life. You give up life and there ain’t no life. You’re through. If you’re body feels alright and you can move, keep on moving!”
For Honeyboy, it’s all about the music and making the most of each day regardless of age. “A lot of people get old before they get old,” he says. “I just feel the way I always felt. When you feel good you can do the things you’ve always done and if you can’t do somethings, you can do other things. Just live your life the best you can and you can make it.”
Though more then 70 years separate them, Honeyboy clearly connects with his young audience. “I’m in awe of what he’s able to do and how it inspires him,” says senior David Farah.
Aaron Bond, a senior and student in the blues literature class Georgetown Prep offers called Honeyboy’s performance “empowering”. Another senior in the class, Kyle Bancroft says. “I’m really impressed that the blues is obviously such an important thing that it has a 92-year-old guy still touring the country doing 100 shows a year. It’s got to be something great.” Asked if he has such passion for anything in his life, Bancroft reflects a moment before saying, “I wish I did, because then I’d know where I want to go to college and stuff like that. Right now, I don’t think I have anything on that scale.”
One of the last original acoustic Delta blues players Honeyboy says he’s glad to see a lot of young people playing the blues. He smiles as he adds, “some of them are playing pretty good and some of them are struggling with it.” His biggest criticism of modern blues players is they play too fast. “Blues is not made to be played fast,” says Honeyboy. “The notes don’t set long enough to cook. They’ve got to cook a little bit.”
The notes were defiantly “cookin’” during David “Honeyboy” Edwards performance at Georgetown Prep. Musicians got a lesson in authentic Delta blues. The blues literature students heard almost century old tales of southern life and everyone got a close up view why having a passion in life is like finding the fountain of youth.