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.

"A valuable record of a way of life that has all but disappeared." —Washington Post

"Magnificent! I’ve been waiting for this book since I was a kid." —Taj Mahal

"Honeyboy's passion for the blues and his strong recollections will absorb readers." —School Library Journal

"Essential reading for anyone interested in the blues or African American life." —Library Journal

"The most central contribution to blues history." —Boston Globe

"A deeply moving memoir...one of the last true country blues musicians...[a]story of a troubadour and of survival." —Studs Terkel

David Honeyboy Edwards has been traveling and performing for over 67 years. Already in the Blues Hall of Fame, he was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.