One of the few original Mississippi Delta Blues musicians still living today, David Honeyboy Edwards is a man who not only sings of hard times, he lived them. First hand accounts of sharecropping, jumping freight trains and playing juke joints by Edwards and his generation are soon to be lost, leaving such stories to history books and archival films. Originally intended to preserve this rare view of Americana, the film Honeyboy does that and much more.

Serendipitously, the film's completion in June 2002, coincided with the National Endowment of the Art's announcement of the 2002 National Heritage Fellowship Recipients, among them David Honeyboy Edwards. The National Heritage Fellowship is the United States' Highest Honor in the Folk and Traditional Arts. Edwards is among 15 Heritage Fellowship Recipients this year. This honor recognizes Edwards as a monumental figure... and living link with the birth of the blues. Honeyboy, the feature documentary, presents a unique perspective on the history of the blues through Edwards' captivating performances and storytelling.

Born in 1915, Edwards lived on the road from an early age, playing music and hustling in the streets of Memphis and the rural South to escape the labors of sharecropping. Through his travels, he played with the greatest Delta Blues musicians (some of whom remained his friends and strongest musical influences), among them Big Joe Williams, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Little Walter Jacobs and many others. Through Honeyboy, Edwards revisits their times together and recounts the course of his career, beginning in Shaw and the rural towns of Mississippi to New Orleans and Memphis, recording in Houston, and finally moving to Chicago. Interwoven among his colorful storytelling and raw guitar and vocal performances are appearances by B.B. King, Willie Foster and Waymon Meeks, who lend personal insights on the Deep South and the significance of the Blues. Additional historical perspectives are provided by Blues author Ace Atkins, Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer and others.

Much more than a biography of David Honeyboy Edwards, Honeyboy delivers surprising gems deeply personal accounts of African American life in the Deep South before the civil rights movement; stories of Edwards' missed opportunities that left him without the level of fame and fortune attained by his colleagues; poignant memories of the passing of his wife and close friends; and lively, entertaining performances by Edwards, Meeks and Foster. The film concludes in Chicago, where Edwards, now 87, resides and continues to perform.