East Coast Piedmont Blues - Archie Edwards

Archie Edwards was born on a farm near Union Hall in rural Virginia in 1918. He worked hard on the farm and was surrounded by music. His dad played guitar, banjo, and harmonica and played with many musicians that passed through. Edwards knew that he always wanted to be a guitarist. He would play along to some of his favorite records by Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. When he was twelve, his older brother would go to house parties and brag to the musicians and other people at the party about how good Archie was. He would then go home and wake up Archie, who would then go play at the party and be just as good if not better than the older musicians playing there. He later wrote a song called "Saturday Night Hop" about those nights.

In the 1930s, he and his brother got a job at a near by sawmill. Archie played guitar in his spare time and went home on weekends to play for parties. Tired of the work that he was doing, he left for New Jersey in 1937 to be a cook for a family. A couple years later he moved back to Virginia and ended up working at a hotel if Columbus, Ohio. He and a friend decided to join the army and serve their year before the U.S. got pulled into the war. But near the end of his time, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. He served his time during the war as a military police officer.

After the war, he went to Richmond, Virginia, to become a barber. He set up a barbershop in Washington D.C. His barbershop became a musical hangout spot for many local musicians. Through the barbershop, Edwards met Mississippi John Hurt. The two started playing together and joined up with Skip James and played around the city for the new white audience. When Hurt died a few years later in 1966, Archie quit playing for a couple of years in grief. Once he finally started playing again, he joined the Traveling Blues Workshop and toured all through Europe. He died in 1998.

Books

Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

Kimball, Gregg D. Old Dominion Songsters: Traditional Blues in Virginia. Lynchburg, VA: James River Blues Society, 2002. (Brochure available from the James Rivers Blues Society)

Pearson, Barry Lee. Virginia Piedmont Blues: the Lives and Art of two Virginia Bluesmen. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.

Articles

Pareles, Jon. "Mississippi Delta Blues and East Coast Piedmont Blues." The New York Times (8 February 1985): 16.

Tensch, Gary von. "Archie Edwards Blues n' Bones." Sing Out! 47 (Spring 2003): 160-162.

Videos

Black Musical Traditions in Virginia Blues. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Blues Houseparty: Music, Dance and Stories by Masters of the Piedmont Blues. Takoma Park, MD: Houseparty Productions, 1989.

Key Recordings on CD

Edwards, Archie. Blues 'n Bones. Mapleshade

Edwards, Archie. The Toronto Sessions. Northern Blues

Various Artists. Living Country Blues, Vol. 6: The Road is Rough and Rocky.

Web Sites

The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. Accessed 12 Nov. 2003 <http://www.acousticblues.com>

T-Bone's Piedmont Blues Page: Archie Edwards. Accessed 11 Nov. 2003 <http://www.io.com/~tbone1/blues/bios/arched.html>

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Last updated 18 December 2003.