ARCHIE EDWARDS
Washington D.C. barber Archie Edwards (1918-1998) was a bluesman, teacher and storyteller.
Early Life
Sally Edwards, Willie Edwards, Pearl Spencer Edwards (Archie's mom), Mary Smith Edwards, and Thelma Edwards
Archie Edwards was born on September 4, 1918, on a farm near Union Hall, Virginia, the third son of Roy and Pearl Edwards.
Given Union Hall's rural location, much of the entertainment revolved around tobacco harvest, corn shucking where local musicians would provide the entertainment. Roy, who played banjo, harmonica, and slide guitar, primarily on pre-blues ballads, including 'Stagg-O-Lee', 'John Henry', and 'Cumberland Gap', was locally well-respected for his talents.
His interest was piqued by local musicians (all unrecorded, unfortunately) who would stop by the house to play with his father, young Archie began playing guitar in the early 1930s. First learning songs from their father, their neighbors, and ​itinerant musicians, Archie and his brother Robert also learned songs by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Mississippi John Hurt from records. When he and his brothers got their own guitar a few years later, it was Archie who played it the most.
With their skills eclipsing their father's, the boys' reputation around Franklin County grew. While at house parties, Archie's older brother Willie would brag about twelve-year-old Archie's abilities to the local or itinerant musicians who were playing, then drive back, pick up the Archie, and bring him to the party. Once Archie began playing with these adult musicians, he gathered not only valuable experience but the musicians’ respect and - more importantly - cash tips.
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Because rural educational opportunities in the 1930s weren't what they are today, Archie's education ended with the eighth grade, despite his being a good student. He and his brother James began working in a nearby sawmill. In his spare time, Archie played guitar with other musicians in the lumber camp, increasing his skills and expanding his repertoire. On weekends, the two would work half-days on Saturdays, walk home then play Saturday night house parties. Sunday mornings were devoted to the church, then it was back to the mill.
Eventually tiring of this, in 1937 Archie headed out into the world to make his own way. Through his sister, he found a job as a cook and chauffeur for a family in New Jersey, doing this for about two years before moving on. Edwards returned briefly to Virginia before moving to Columbus, Ohio where he worked in a hotel.
Adult and War Years
Prior to the United States' involvement in World War II, Archie and a friend decided to enlist in the military. However, just before his term was completed, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He was sent to the Pacific theater where he served as a military police officer while the US prepared for the invasion of Japan. He was in Okinawa in 1945 when President Truman instead gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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After leaving the military, Archie settled in Washington DC. Thanks to the GI Bill, he learned masonry but decided it wasn't for him. He moved to Richmond, VA and became a barber before returning to DC. He went to work as a truck driver, then as a security guard for the federal government, retiring in 1981.
While still working security, in 1959, he opened his barbershop - the Alpha Tonsorial Palace - on Bunker Hill Road in Northeast DC, which soon became a regular hangout for local musicians.​
Archie & Mississippi John Hurt
After young blues and folk enthusiasts Dick Spottswood and Tom Hoskins 're-discovered' Mississippi John Hurt on his farm near Avalon, Mississippi in 1963, Hurt became a celebrated artist on the burgeoning folk scene, regularly playing the cafes in New York City as well as the Newport Folk Festival. When John moved to Washington DC he began playing regularly at Ontario Place in the District.
Archie, who grew up studiously listening to and learning from John's 1920's recordings, soon introduced himself to him. The two became close friends and would often play at each other's house or in Archie's barbershop for his customers. John's granddaughter even stayed with Edwards and his wife Frances when she attended college in DC.
Archie began performing around town with John and Bentonia Mississippi's likewise re-discovered Skip James, gaining exposure before a new audience of white fans. However, after John passed away in 1966, Archie put down his guitar for two years. Though John had asked Archie to carry on his work, Archie feared people would think that he was trying to steal his glory.
To prove he knew John, and possibly to prove something to himself, Archie wrote “The Road Is Rough and Rocky” and was ready to face the blues audience again.
Performing and Recording
Eleanor Ellis, Flora Molton,
and Archie Edwards
Once back in action, Archie hooked up with The Traveling Blues Workshop, a loose amalgam of Washington, DC and surrounding area area blues artists that included, at various times, John Jackson (Woodville, Virginia), John Cephas (Bowling Green, NC) and DC's Flora Molton, Phil Wiggins, and Mother Scott, among others. He also played solo gigs at local clubs and at a few festivals around the country, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, meeting many other bluesmen along the way.
In 1978, Edwards got a much-deserved break when, acting on a tip from Flora Molton, German photographer and blues enthusiast Axel Küstner 'discovered' him, swinging up to DC after a festival in New Orleans. He met Archie in his barbershop, along with Leroy and Willie Gaines, two local musicians. Küstner made arrangements for Edwards to tour Europe with The American Folk Blues Festival. This led to his first album, 'The Road Is Rough and Rocky: Living Country Blues Volume 6', for the L+R label.
After returning from Germany, Edwards decided to seek out musical partners, teaming up with Eleanor Ellis and Flora Molton (or 'Miss Flora', as Archie called her). The trio played all over the US, Canada, and Europe, where they toured with Charlie Musselwhite in 1987.
In 1989, Edwards recorded 'Blues and Bones' for the Mapleshade label, getting help from DC's Mark Wenner on harmonica and Richard 'Mr. Bones' Thomas on the bones. The collaboration worked so well that Thomas and Edwards began touring together on a regular basis.
Archie's Style
Archie Edwards' music, whether his own composition or someone else's, is very much within the Piedmont Blues tradition. His initial musical inspirations were his father and brother, followed by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, Furry Lewis, but especially Mississippi John Hurt; he learned “Monday Morning Blues” from Hurt. He also had a fondness for Barbecue Bob, Frank Hutchinson, Sleepy John Estes, and Buddy Moss (or "all those old-timey dudes," as he used to put it). He would learn their songs by playing along with records, over and over again.
He did nice covers of Leroy Carr's “How Long How Long Blues” and The Mississippi Sheiks' “Sitting on Top of the World.” Though these two songs are commonly covered, Archie put his own stamp on them, as he did on any cover, breathing new life into them. And, besides playing wonderful versions of “John Henry,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Stag O'Lee,” and others, he also interpreted songs of blues artists outside the Piedmont tradition, bringing other styles into the fold. When he played at parties, he was able to play the latest hits, which not every local musician could do.
Archie was also a gifted songwriter. Though he may not have written as many songs as some lifelong performers, those he did pen are well-crafted, uniquely his own. Like many blues, most of his songs are based on real-life experiences and incidents. “Saturday Night Hop,” for example, comes from those nights long ago when his brother would pick him up and Archie would have to hop out of bed to play guitar at a house party. “Duffel Bag Blues” is based on his army experience, and while on the road, he wrote “I Called My Baby Long Distance,” a great bottle-neck number, after he called his wife from a hotel room.
A unique attribute is that, especially for a bluesman, Archie's music was pretty colorblind, something in which he took pride. He covered Jimmy Rodgers and played songs by Riley Puckett and Uncle Dave Macon, among others. He didn't know that Frank Hutchinson - one of his influences - was white until he saw a picture on an album cover. If the song was good, Edwards would keep it, regardless of whose it was. To him, it was the individual, not the individual's pigment, that mattered. Not surprisingly, this was an attitude shared by his close friend John Hurt. Before he passed away, Hurt told Archie, “Brother Arch, whatever you do, teach my music to other people. Don't make no difference what color they are, teach it to them. Because I don't want to die and you don't want to die. Teach them my music and teach them your music.''
Archie Edwards did just that, playing, singing, and spreading the message of the Piedmont blues tradition in his barbershop, on recordings, and on tours all over the world up until his death at the age of 79 in June of 1998.
Recommended Listening
Blues musicians have in general been traditionally under-recorded - and Piedmont blues players all the more so. Thus, having just three albums released, Archie Edwards was likewise ignored.
Archie's first album is 1982's long out-of-print, 'The Road Is Rough and Rocky: Living Country Blues Volume 6' on L+R Records (LR 42.036). While rare on vinyl and yet unavailable on CD, it is available to stream on Spotify and Amazon. It's a great album, featuring Archie's originals (the title cut, “My Old Schoolmates,” “Pittsburgh Blues,” etc.) as well as his versions of older songs (“John Henry, “Stagg-O-Lee”). Archie is in fine form, and it's surprising no one recorded him before this.
His next release was 1989's 'Blues and Bones' (Mapleshade 56282). Here, Edwards is teamed with Richard "Mr. Bone" Thomas on bones and DC harmonica player extraordinaire Mark Wenner. While some of the songs reprise those on 'Rough and Rocky', 'Blues and Bones' would be a fine addition to any blues collection, if for nothing else the version of “T for Texas” on which Archie plays the ukulele. ​
A review of 'Blues and Bones' by critic Ron Wynn states, "Guitarist Archie Edwards, one of the rare blues ukulele players and surviving Piedmont stylists, didn't have an abundance of recordings in print when he stepped to the microphone in 1989 for this session. But the few dates he made had long ago outlined his boisterous style, exuberant manner, and defiant attitude. These qualities help make Blues 'n Bones something more than just a respectful date; it's got a vitality and freshness that are even more apparent when harmonica player Mark Wenner steps forward and provides some youthful energy and enthusiasm, along with the resourceful drumming of Vernell Fournier. The prickly, dry, rhythmically terse sounds Richard Thomas gets from his "bones" are alone worth the price of the platter."
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Available on Spotify and Amazon.
A posthumous release was 2001's 'The Toronto Sessions, Volume 1' (NorthernBlues Music - NBM 0006), a CD release of tracks recorded at Sound Design Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in June of 1986 when Archie was 68 years old.
In the words of critic Al Campbell, "Its release 15 years later was cause for blues fans' joy and sorrow. Thought it was great to finally have available, it's unfortunate that Edwards wasn't recorded more often; his natural approach to the blues is timeless. While too many blues releases at the beginning of the 21st century prefer to mask the guts and soul of the performance with glossy over-production, the spirit of Edwards' heroes, Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Lemon Jefferson, come shining through. Highlights include Edwards' reworking of "Sitting on Top of the World," "How Long Blues," "Meet Me in the Bottom," and "Poor Me." According to the informative liner notes by Barry Lee Pearson, enough material was recorded in Toronto to warrant a second disc."
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Available on Spotify and Amazon.
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Bibliography
The following resources were used in creating this biography:
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Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition of the Southeast. The University of Illinois Press, 1986 (ISBN 0-252-06521-2).
Harris, Sheldon. Blues Who's Who. DaCapo Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-306-80155-8 .)
Herzhaft, Gerard. Encyclopedia of the Blues. The University of Arkansas Press, 1992 (ISBN 1-55728-253-6).
Pearson, Barry Lee. Liner notes. Blues and Bones. Mapleshade 56292.
Pearson, Barry Lee. Virginia Piedmont Blues: The Lives and Art of Two Virginia Bluesmen. The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990 (ISBN 0-8122-1300-9).
Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues. Penguin, 1993 (ISBN 0 14 01.5939 8).
Zolten, Jerry. "Archie Edwards: Roots, Rights, and Rhythm," Living Blues. March/April 1996.