10 p.m. to Midnight Host: Steve Winters
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I offered classic songs of labor for this Labor Day weekend as well as two sets in remembrance of bluegrass singer-songwriter Liz Meyer who lost her quarter century battle with cancer on Aug. 26 and bluesman David “Honeyboy” Edwards, the last surviving link to the initial generation of Delta blues singers, who died Aug. 29 at age 95.
Liz Meyer was born in Washington, D.C. in 1952 but lived in the Netherlands since 1985, where she became a leading beacon on the European bluegrass scene and a prime mover behind the annual European World of Bluegrass festival and recordings. She excelled as a record producer and songwriter whose songs have been recorded by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Del McCoury, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Kate MacKenzie and Red Wine. As the New York Times aptly put it, “Honeyboy” Edwards’ career “spanned nearly the entire recorded history of the blues, from its early years in the Mississippi Delta to its migration to the nightclubs of Chicago and its emergence as an international phenomenon.” For eight decades, Edwards performed with or knew virtually every major blues figure from the iconic Robert Johnson to contemporaries such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. He was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002, was honored last year with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2008 won a Grammy for best traditional blues album. He was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996.
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