Archie Edwards

The Toronto Sessions

NorthernBlues Music NBM 0006

I Had a Little Girl/ One Thin Dime Blues/ Sitting on Top of the World/ That Won’t Do/ Greyhound Bus Blues/ I Called My Baby Long Distance/ Take Me Back Baby/ Easy Rider/ How Long Blues/ Pittsburgh Blues/ Poor Me/ Meet Me in the Bottom. 49:10.

Edwards, g, vcl. Toronto, Ontario. June 1986.

The late Archie Edwards was a vibrant part of the D.C. Blues community that still includes Cephas and Wiggins and John Jackson. Edwards’ impact is still felt through the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation that was established after his debt. The Foundation to preserve his legacy in a variety of ways including running Saturday afternoon jams at the barber shop Archie owned and operated on Bunker Hill Road in Washington and by providing opportunity for new musicians to get guidance, just like he gave many during his life. Edwards was a Piedmont blues stylist whose playing centered on the genial fingerstyle approach associated with many blues performers of the Eastern United States including Blind Boy Fuller, Buddy Moss and Rev. Gary Davis. He did not have a very large body of recordings when he passed away. There were two albums under his name and he had songs on several anthologies as well. 

The release of The Toronto Sessions, which contains previously unissued recordings by Edwards, is a cause for celebration. The recordings were made in 1986 while Archie was performing in Toronto. One thing that is immediately evident was that Archie was in good spirits and voice. He sounds quite vigorous here while performing on a nice mixture of material. There are very nice renditions of blues standards including “Sittin’ on Top of The World,” “One Thin Dime Blues” and “How Long Blues,” with Archie providing his own lyrics on occasion. On “How Long Blues” and a couple other selections, one can hear a bit of Lightnin’ Hopkins in some of the phrasing he includes in his accompaniment. Another influence was Mississippi John Hurt, who Edwards spent much time with in the early sixties when Hurt resided in Washington. Archie even plays slide guitar on “I Called My Baby Long Distance,” where he employs the “Dust My Broom” riff. Archie’s own songs, there is a new version of “Pittsburgh Blues” which first appeared on his album as part of the Living Country Blues USA series and “Greyhound Bus Blues.” 

The packaging of this album is on a level to match the music. The booklet contains many photos, along with detailed notes on Archie, his music and the songs by Barry Lee Pearson. NorthernBlues Music has at least enough unissued material for a second album. Acoustic blues like this album generally is not a big seller, but hopefully this wonderful release will do well enough to get volume 2 issued.

I previously posted in 2008 a slightly different version of this review. I wrote the review here for Cadence magazine and with minor changes in punctuation have not changed it. The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation was offering this for sale, but it is out of print. It might be available used. Here is Archie Edwards performing.