Clarence Edwards (blues Musician)
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Clarence Edwards (March 25, 1933 – May 20, 1993) was an American
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
musician from
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, best known for his
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of "Lonesome Bedroom Blues" and "I Want Somebody". It was not until the late 1980s that Edwards was able to establish his reputation as a blues performer, assisted by his producer and manager Stephen Coleridge.


Biography

Edwards was born in Lindsay,
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, one of fourteen children, and relocated with his family at the age of twelve to
Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...
. He joined the Boogie Beats, a local blues band, along with one of his brothers, Cornelius, in the mid-1950s, and later played in the Bluebird Kings. Edwards was
shot Shot may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Shot'' (album), by The Jesus Lizard *''Shot, Illusion, New God'', an EP by Gruntruck *''Shot Rev 2.0'', a video album by The Sisters of Mercy * "Shot" (song), by The Rasmus * ''Shot'' (2017 fi ...
in the leg in a fracas outside a club in Alsen. Initially, Edwards found full-time employment on a farm, but he later worked for thirty years at Thomas Scrap. Dr. Harry Oster recorded Edwards between 1959 and 1961, with Cornelius and the violin player Butch Cage. By 1970, when he next recorded, for the producer Mike Vernon, Edwards had moved from an older styling to a more contemporary approach. He was not widely known until the late 1980s, when he performed on the national blues
festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...
circuit. ''Swampin (1991) and ''Louisiana Swamp Blues, Vol. 4'' (1993) showcased the range of Edwards's style, which gained appreciation among blues aficionados. Edwards died in May 1993, in Louisiana, at the age of 60. His earlier work was posthumously remastered and issued on the CD ''Swamps the Word''. The
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
''I Looked Down That Railroad'' was released in 2003.


Discography

*''Swampin, 1991 (New Rose Records) *''Louisiana Swamp Blues, Vol. 4'', 1993 (Wolf Records) *''Swamps the Word'', 1998 (Blues Factory) *''I Looked Down That Railroad'', 2003 (Last Call) *''Baton Rouge Downhome Blues'', 2023 (Wolf Records)


See also

*
List of swamp blues musicians Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime-vaudeville, Delta and country blues, and urban styles from Chicag ...
*
List of Louisiana blues musicians Louisiana blues is a genre of blues music that developed in the period after World War II in the state of Louisiana. It is generally divided into two major subgenres, with the jazz-influenced New Orleans blues based on the musical traditions of tha ...


References


External links


Discography details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Clarence 1933 births 1993 deaths Swamp blues musicians American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Songwriters from Louisiana Blues musicians from Louisiana Louisiana blues musicians Electric blues musicians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Singers from Louisiana Guitarists from Louisiana 20th-century American male singers American male songwriters