Just days shy of his 94th birthday, Grammy-award winner David “Honeyboy” Edwards will join with six generations of blues musicians in the second annual Blues on the North Shore concert series, held June 11 to 13 in Evanston and Northbrook.

The event celebrates the 30th anniversary of Chicago’s Earwig Music, a record label and management company specializing in blues, jazz and roots music.  The company’s founder Michael Frank has recorded and managed six generations of blues musicians from Mississippi and Chicago, including Honeyboy, whom Frank has managed for 27 years.

“The musicians on this show represent the passing of the blues tradition from one generation to the next,” Frank said.  “Listening to these musicians on one show, the audience gets to hear how each generation’s music has distinct stylistic changes from its forebears, while maintaining some historical, instrumental and vocal continuity.”

The event begins June 11 with “How to Put a Blues Trio Together,” a free class and performance hosted by Fat Tone Guitars in Northbrook and featuring Bob Corritore, Earwig Music recording artist and former Wilmette resident. 

The next day’s events start with a 1 p.m. bus trip to the Chicago Blues Festival with a complimentary barbecue lunch provided by Hecky’s BBQ.  Tickets for the bus trip are $89 per person and can be purchased by visiting www.evanstonspace.com.

At 6:30 p.m., the bus will return to S.P.A.C.E. for the headlining concert, featuring Honeyboy, considered to be one of the last original delta-blues musicians still performing. 

Friday’s concert also features John Primer, the last lead guitar player for Muddy Waters, Dennis Binder, a 50-year veteran blues keyboardist and 40-year blues veteran Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers.  Opening the show will be The Blue Four, made up of Chicago musicians Kenny Smith, Chris James, Patrick Rynn and Corritore.

Tickets to the June 12 show are $50 for reserved table seating and $30 for general admission and can be purchased by visiting www.evanstonspace.com.  The show will be hosted by Bill Wax, program director and host of “BB King’s Bluesville” on Sirius/XM satellite radio, which will broadcast the show in late June.  The show will also be broadcast in January on Chicago’s WYCC.

The blues festivities conclude June 13 with two performances at Bill’s Blues Bar, 1029 Davis St. in Evanston.  The show starts at 8 p.m. with a performance by a group of Columbia College blues musicians known as The Love Jones Band.  The group, named for their professor Fernando Jones, will play a show dedicated to recently deceased blues legend Koko Taylor.  The band’s bass player, Paige Fernandez, recently performed with Taylor at the singer’s house.

“[Taylor] provided more than her voice, she gave me advice and love,” Fernandez said.  “She made me proud to be a girl blues musician.”

At 10 p.m., Chicago-natives Jeff Dale and the South Woodlawners perform in support of their newest album “Blues from the South Side of My Soul.”  

There is a $10 cover for the June 13 show.

Sharing the story of blues
For event founder and executive producer Lynn Orman, the love for blues music runs deep.

“When you fall in love with the blues, you really fall in love with the blues,” Orman said. “Blues, more than anything, is the music that binds us.”

She said the stories of blues musicians like Honeyboy, Big Jack Johnson, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, and their migration from Mississippi to Chicago, are the quintessential stories of American history and culture.

“These [blues musicians] are our American treasures,” Orman said, “and we need to honor them.”

For more information about the Blues on the North Shore concert series, visit www.bluesonthenorthshore.com.

–Jonathan Bullington/Triblocal.com reporter